Hearty Bison Bacon Chili

Have you ever had Bison? Bison tastes just like beef. Most would not know the difference. Bison is a very tender, juicy, meat. Bison is a leaner animal, it has a lighter leaner taste. A 3-ounce serving of roasted bison meat contains 122 calories, 24.2 grams of protein and 2.1 grams of fat. Pay close attention when cooking it because of the low-fat content it cooks quickly. This chili is hearty, sweet and spicy. The great thing about chili is that you can adjust the spices as desired. If you are not a fan of extra spicy omit the jalapeno pepper or the cayenne pepper. It is up to you! This is my families dinner tonight. If you make it I hope you love it like we do.

Ingredients:

-2 lb of ground grass-fed bison
-4 medium sweet potatoes cubed
-6 slices of apple smoked bacon diced/cubed
-1 tsp minced garlic
-1 diced yellow onion
-1 diced red pepper
-1 diced green pepper
-1 diced orange pepper
-1 diced yellow pepper
-1 small jalapeno pepper minced
-2 tablespoon garlic powder
-1 teaspoon onion powder
-2 tablespoon chili powder
-2.5 tablespoon smoked paprika
-2 teaspoons cumin
-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 (14 ounce) cans of organic stewed tomatoes
-2 (14 ounce) cans of organic diced tomatoes (any kind with peppers or fire roasted tom..your choice)
- 1 large jar of organic tomato sauce
-salt and pepper to taste

*I buy grass-fed Bison at Roche Brothers. Most grocery stores carry it. If you can't find it click on the link above in the highlighted word Bison or you can use grass-fed Beef.

Steps:

1) Add 1 tbsp olive oil to frying pan, saute' minced garlic, onion, and all peppers on medium heat for 3-4 minutes. remove from pan.

2) Add another tablespoon of olive oil to pan, saute' meat until brown. remove from pan.

3) Dice up bacon then cook on frying pan until crispy but not burnt. remove from pan. set on paper towels to absorb grease.

4) Cube the sweet potatoes, stir fry them in 2 tbsp. bacon grease, turning them over every 2 minutes until partially cooked.

5) In large pot OR crock pot/slow cooker add the stewed tom, diced tom, sauce, meat, all spices, sweet potatoes and bacon. Cook on low heat for 1 hour if it is on the stove in a covered pot or 3-4 hours on low in the crock pot.

6) garnish with diced avocados and/or fresh parmesan cheese(cheese if you are not strict paleo(:


Products I use for this recipe:

If your time is limited use frozen veggies or veggies already diced up for you. I found diced sweet potatoes in a bag at Roche Bros. I was thrilled!

cubed sweet potatoes. The work is done for you!

Uncured Apple Smoked Bacon

Fire Roasted Peppers and Onions

2016 Client Baseline WOD

Siobhan...95# front squat for 5 reps. She did 105# for 5 reps on her last set. Nice job Siobhan!

I am so excited for this week. This is going to be my clients 2016 fitness test week. All my clients will perform The CrossFit Open WOD 13.2 to the best of their ability. In 3 months we will repeat it to see how much your fitness has improved. It is similar to running a road race. For example, you run a 5K in June and your time is 24:00 minutes exactly. All summer long you work on your fitness, you are eating clean, in the gym lifting weights, getting your body strong, running outside and in September you try another 5K. Your time is 22:30. Beating your first time by 1 minute and 30 seconds is huge. You are certainly fitter!  Adding 2-3 CrossFit workouts into your fitness plan each week will get you the fittest, fastest and strongest you could ever be. The CrossFit prescription is constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement, moving large loads over long distances, and doing it quickly (with safety of course). CrossFit increases work capacity across broad time and modal domains. Broad time refers to all length of duration of effort. If you need a further explanation read this article. It explains it well.

For all of my wonderful clients, this is what to expect this week:

-I will be checking your body-fat, body mass index, weight and measurements (chest, waist, hips).
- You will be performing Open WOD 13.2
-we will be discussing your fitness and health goals for 2016
-bring a notebook! YOU are going to record the weights you use when we do strength as well as your conditioning workouts. This is not an option. Please be prepared(:

Open WOD 13.2
Amrap 10
5 shoulder to overhead
10 deadlift
15 box jumps

RX: 115/75, 24"/20"
LV3: 95/65, 20"/20"
LV2: 75/45, 20"/16"
LV1: 55/35, 16"/12"
Beginner: 45/35, 12"/12"

*115/75= weight of bar, men's weight on the left, woman's weight on the right. 
*24"/20"=height of box, men's on the left, woman's on the right.

Check out how well everyone did so far...

Caitlin: 8 rounds plus 18 reps RX

Siobhan: 6 rounds plus 20 reps RX

Pete: 5 rounds plus 28 reps LV2

Jillian: 5 rounds plus 13 reps LV3 (1 round 20" box stepping up, 4 rounds 12" box jumps)

Jen: 6 rounds + 5 reps RX

Ellen: 6 rounds RX

Lisa: 5 rounds + 28 reps LV3

Trish: 5 + 25 reps LV3

Carolyn:

Carolyn working on her front squat. Carolyn has just started training with me and is new to CrossFit. Wow, is she getting strong at 60 yrs young! Nice work Carolyn!

Erin: 6 rounds + 19 reps RX (: (:

Felicia: 5 rounds + 27 reps LV 1

Laura:

How many are you going to get?? Set a goal for yourself and achieve it!

Thank You for always giving 100%. I am so lucky to love my job. I truly care about each and everyone of you!

3-2-1 GO!

 

 

Workouts This Week and What I ate Today

It is January 5th. Have you set your goals? are you getting your workouts in? Are you planning your food? You really have no choice when it comes to planning food...it is a must! We have one chance to take care of our bodies and keep them healthy. Perfection is NOT the answer. Who wants to be perfect? NOT me. Try this little test...eat clean, nothing processed just grass- fed meats, vegetables, fruits, water, no sugar and absolutely nothing in a box for 3 days. Record how you feel each day and then comment below. You will feel like a new person..guaranteed! Your body will love you. You will be nicer to your kids, husband, wife or significant other. Trust me.

Sunday, January 3rd's WOD (workout of the day) was a bit crazy. I ran a slow 6 miles then Mark and I went to CrossFit TakeOff to do strength.  Some of my friends were getting ready to do a conditioning WOD, they asked me to do it with them so I did. I love working out with other people. It makes me work harder. I love the push. CrossFit people have a different mentality. They work as hard as they can for that particular day, never complain about it, are super focused about form and when the workout is all over everyone high fives each other. It is so awesome. Anyway, In this workout whatever time you have left over you rest. For example in 0-6 minutes, if it takes you 5 minutes to complete 2 rounds of 30 wall balls and 15 pull-ups you rest 1 full minute until 6-12 minutes starts. Get it? I welcome the rest!

Sunday's WOD...

0-6 minutes
2 rounds of:
30 wall balls
15 pull-ups

6-12 minutes
2 rounds of:
24 wall balls
12 pull-ups

12-18 minutes
2 rounds of:
18 wall balls
9 pull-ups

RX: 20#/14# Ball/10'/9' target

I did RX and a 10' wall ball target. It was hard. I had 1minute-90 seconds left over to rest before starting the next segment. After that I did my 5 min DUS practice and 50 GHD sit ups.

Monday:

I ran 3 miles on the dreadmill. I NEVER run on the treadmill unless I absolutely have to. It is so boring to me. I was already at the Workout Club and didn't have all my warm clothes for running outside so I just sucked it up and ran on the treadmill.

The CrossFit WOD was really good.

Strength:

Front Squats 5-3-1

This picture was taken during a competition. Damn, my form is good! Thanks to all my Coaches over the years.

I got 115# for 5, 135# for 3 and 150# for 1

Conditioning:
I did "Elizabeth" for the first time RX. Click on the highlighted word "Elizabeth" if you want to see the workout. It took me 2x as long as these woman but I don't care I did it RX!

Elizabeth  
21-15-9
squat clean
ring dips
135/95 RX
I did it in 14:58 RX. The ring dips are getting easier! Woo hoo. Finally. All my strength work is paying off.

Tuesday:

1 hour spin class.

I treated myself to a hot power yoga class later in the morning. Fantastic stretch! I should do yoga more. I feel so good after. The problem is that during the class I can't wait for it to be over and I am thinking about what i am going to eat for lunch. ha..ha.

 

DAILY FOOD LOG 

Here is my food for Monday 1/4/16. This is a typical day for me. On the weekends I allow myself 1 cheat meal each day (Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday...never more than 2 days in a row). What is my cheat meal? Last weekend it was buffalo chicken nachos with 2 blue moons. Conor and I LOVE nachos. Mark, Chloe and I have to eat them fast b/c Conor is such a food hoarder they will be gone in seconds if we don't hurry up. When is he going to stop growing so he's not famished? 18 years old and 6'1..hopefully soon. At times I feel my life is based on feeding him. if I don't he will eat junk. We definitely don't want that or he is a bear to live with.

Breakfast: 
over easy organic eggs, 1/2 of a sweet potato, 2 cups of coffee with light cream in it and stevia.

 

 

Mid-Morning Snack: 1 large Banana

Lunch: around 11:00am

Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. Approximately 5 ounces of chicken. Regular dressing and fresh parmesan cheese! Yum. Lots of water and plain polar seltzer.

 

2:00 pm
Lg coffee from Dunkin Donuts. It had 2 pumps of pumpkin spice, cream and 2 stevia

Mid-Afternoon Snack: 3:00 pm

1/2 cup Buffalo Chicken Casserole from paleomg.com with fresh tomatoes. It is not the best picture but it tastes delicious! I really wanted to eat it with pita chips but I resisted. Lol

Dinner: 6pm. Ham slices from a recipe I found on paleomg.com. I cooked an entire ham on Sunday. It is called Holiday Spiced Orange Glazed Ham. I have never cooked a Ham before but my kids love Ham and this recipe inspired me for some reason so I tried it. HUGE hit with the kiddos and Mark. I ate a salad with the ham slices (5-6 ounces). The salad had olive oil and balsamic Vinegar mixed in.

7:00 pm..still hungry! Ugh.

After dinner snack:

Strawberries with a small square of paleo chocolate banana fudge from livinghealthywithchocolate.com. I added the pecans on top with a few enjoy life chocolate chips. Bed at 8:00 pm. LOVE my sleep.

Caitlin ChisholmComment