it’s already Friday?

Usually the weeks just draaaaag for me, but for some reason this one flew by!  Maybe because it was the first week back?  Who knows, but that’s alright with me.

Oh boy I am sore from kick-my-butt box on Wednesday!  Every little back muscle along my rib cage is sore and of course my bum and abs.  I couldn’t manage to make it to 6am spin this morning, but that’s okay because I want to be ready for our Great Harvest Red Rock bike ride on Saturday!  I’m looking forward to riding the Red Rock loop for the first time.  It’s about 41 miles and Great Harvest is providing breakfast for us before the ride, yay! 

Yesterday morning I put all the prepped ingredients in the crock-pot for a stew to be ready for us when we got home.  I’m in love with this new crock-pot and it’s so much bigger than my old one!  I would highly recommend this one because it has several different cooking settings and a probe insert. 

The only thing I had to cook up when I got home was some quinoa.  Easy!

Lamb Daube Provencal

(adapted from CookingLight)

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 12 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1.5-lb lamb meat, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes (you could also use chuck roast)
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup red wine (I used a malbec, wine gives it a rich depth of flavor)
• 2 cups chopped carrot
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion (I also added parsnips & zucchini)
• 1-2 cups less-sodium beef broth (use more for soup-like and less for sauce-like stew)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste  
• 1 tsp herbes de provence, 1.5 tsp thyme
• Dash of ground cloves, dash of cinnamon
• 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkling
• pasta, taters, rice or quinoa to serve over

Directions

Heat oil and add garlic; cook 5 minutes or until garlic is fragrant, stirring occasionally. Remove garlic with a slotted spoon, and add to slow-cooker.

Increase heat to medium-high. Add lamb to pan; sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove lamb from pan and add to slow-cooker.

Add wine to pan; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits and reduce down for 5 minutes.

Add wine, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, carrot, and next ingredients (through bay leaf) to the slow-cooker, stirring to combine.

Turn slow-cooker on high for 1 hour, then reduce to low for 6-7 hours more. Or you can just cook on low for 8 hours.  It just needs to get nice and reduced.  Serve over pasta, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, rice or quinoa. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. The possibilities are endless!

Leftovers Idea: This would also be great for the base of a shephard's pie if you use less broth to make it sauce-like. Yum!

We had quinoa with it and I also added some spinach to get wilty :)

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This morning we had one of our usual breakfast staples . . . we call it peanut-butter naan.  But all you do is take a 1/2 piece of TJ’s whole wheat naan, slather it with toasty pb and jam, then top it with cottage cheese or yogurt, cereal, nuts and/or fruit.  I also like to micro about 1/4 cup of egg whites on the side.

I love how the peanut butter ooooozes off the sides and the naan is nice and doughy mmm

Not too much going on this weekend.  We are going to go on the Red Rock ride Saturday and I’m going to try to savor the last days of freedom before the semester starts up again with some research . . .

The new template is coming along . . . slowly.  I spent about 4 hours on it last night just trying to figure the CSS out, doh!  I’m such a computer ra-tard, seriously.  I have such respect for you fellow bloggers that are computer savvy, bless you!

That’s about it from here, hope you have a nice weekend!  I’m hoping to do some more sports nutrition related posts soon including overtraining syndrome and safe weight loss for athletes . . . stay tuned!

Are there any sports nutrition topics/supplements you are interested in learning more about?