Not Just a Man's World

Paleo recipes: chicken tikka kebabs

Ammi — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:00:47 +0000

I was at a friend’s house for dinner between an orchestra rehearsal and concert a little while ago and she served up some amazing chicken tikka kebabs. Catharine is a super cook and is so accommodating to my dietary requirements with plenty of meat and vegetables on offer. She did a super trick with the broccoli served up with this too which I may have to try sometime too.

Catharine very kindly passed the recipe on to me as I was convinced it was something Chris would enjoy. Quite rightly it was a great hit with him so thank you Catharine!

This recipe originally included 6 tablespoons of yoghurt in the marinade (stirred in after the rest of the marinade ingredients have been blitzed) and in an effort to fully paleo-ise this I cut out the yoghurt and replaced it with an extra tablespoon of lemon juice (since it is the acid in lemon juice and yoghurt that means these two ingredients are used interchangeably in poultry marinades). If you use dairy and want to try the original then reduce the lemon juice by 1 tablespoon and mix 6 tablespoons of yoghurt into the marinade just before coating the meat with it.

I also doubled the recipe so that this should theoretically make 8 main course skewers. However, Chris and I eat a lot of meat and not much else at dinner time so we had double portions. I have some extra-long skewers so I put enough meat for two skewers onto each individual skewer. When I was at Catharine’s I only had 1 skewer and it was plenty when accompanied with plenty of varied vegetable dishes and a bit of potato.

Paleo chicken tikka kebabs

Ingredients (makes 8 main course skewers, serves 4-8):
850g chicken breast, cut into a small chunks for kebab skewers
4 tsp ground coriander
4 tsp ground cumin
4 tsp paprika
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
20g fresh ginger root, chopped (about 1½ inches)
5 tbsp lemon juice (approx juice of 2 lemons)
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves

Directions:

Put the chicken pieces into a bowl that won’t be affected by the spices (ceramic or glass is good – plastic ends up stained for life).
Mix all other ingredients together and blend using a hand blender until they make a smooth paste.
Stir the thick marinade paste in with the chicken, ensuring the chicken bits are coated all over.
Cover the bowl of chicken and leave to marinade for 12-24 hours (I recommend 24 hours if possible as it makes the chicken fantastically tender) in a fridge or other cool place.
When ready to cook, turn on the grill to high heat and thread the chicken pieces onto kebab skewers while it heats up.
Grill the kebabs for 5 minutes on first side and then turn them and grill for a further 3-5 minutes on the second side. Check they are done by cutting into one of the largest pieces and checking it is white all the way through – put back under the grill for a few minutes more if necessary.

You could also cook these on a barbecue for an extra smoky flavour but cooking will most likely take longer. Just make sure they are cooked through before you serve them up!

Powerlifting progress 2013: week twenty

Ammi — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:00:41 +0000

As expected I only got one workout done and it happened right at the end of the week, the day after getting in from four days of walking.

Glorious gorges near Scafell

Intimidating rock faces among the Scafell massif

Tough ridge walking with unreliable weather

The summit of Pillar – one of our high spots

It was a tough walk so I was surprised that I managed as much as I did on my return. However, a week of eating larger meals and, importantly, loads of carbs (because that’s what is most easily accessible in the pubs) which will have created lots of water retention, meant that I was weighing 53.5kg on Saturday morning rather than the 51.5kg I had weighed on the morning of my previous workout a week and a half earlier. That alone could well have a lot to do with how well I performed.

Results for last week

Workout 1: (Saturday)

Back squat: 86kg – 1×4 – I had slightly crooked right-favouring form getting out of the bottom of the squat, but other than that I was pleased and surprised with my strength given how physically and mentally tired I felt after the walk I’d done Tuesday-Friday. Of course, being loaded up with carbs and water, weighing nearly 2kg more than when I set out on my trip always helps.
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×11 – these are starting to get easier to maintain good form. My biggest issue now is keeping hold of the bar for the full set against the pull of the resistance bands. I could use straps but I think it’s probably doing me some good to improve my grip again since it has started to weaken a little.
Hip thrusts: 122kg – 8×3-4 – I did 8×4 and was, on the whole, pleased with the reps. Sometimes they were a little weak or low, but it was most often due to laziness rather than an inability to lift the bar. However, I did feel complete exhaustion in the muscles by the end of the final set.
Band resisted split squats: Green and two blue bands – 1×15-20 (each leg) – By the end of my hip thrusts I was pretty worn out. In particular I had been pleased that my lower back had stayed as strong as it had and I didn’t want to push my luck, so I decided to stop there and not do the split squats.

Plan for this week

Workout 1:

Back squat: 88kg – 1×3 (or match 87kg)
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×12
Hip thrusts: 124kg – 8×2-3
Band resisted split squats: Green and two blue bands – 1×15-20 (each leg)

Workout 2:

Back squat: 83kg – 1×6 (or match 82kg)
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands tripled, 90kg – 3×6
Hip thrusts: 124kg – 8×3-4 (one more than last workout)
Band resisted split squats: Green and two blue bands – 1×15-20 (each leg) (at least one more than last time)

Paleo recipes: coconut chicken and ham casserole (slow cooker)

Ammi — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:00:14 +0000

I was planning on cooking the chicken and ham pie filler a few weeks ago however I decided to make a few changes as I went along and, in the end, I found myself with something that tasted slightly different. Despite having no lemon in it, the casserole tastes strangely lemony – most likely due to the coriander and thyme, although it also gets a pleasant sweetness from the yellow bell pepper. The green pepper then works with the herbs to add some much-needed colour (although sadly my camera makes everything look a bit orangey-yellow when I do photos late in the evening).

The casserole also has a creamy feel on the tongue despite not looking like it is creamy. It all added up to a surprisingly tasty dish.

Paleo coconut chicken and ham casserole

Ingredients (serves 6):

1kg skinless chicken breasts, chopped into large chunks
2x fat gammon steaks, rind and fat discarded and chopped into medium-sized chunks
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
4 tbsp (ca. 20g) fresh coriander, chopped
1 large yellow bell pepper, chopped into large chunks
½ green bell pepper, chopped
1x 400ml tin coconut milk

Directions:

Put all the ingredients into a slow cooker pot and mix together thoroughly.
Cover and cook for 6-8 hours on low.
A few hours into cooking, stir the contents thoroughly to break up any congealed cooked meat-blood on the surface and prevent the meat from sticking together.

Powerlifting progress 2013: week nineteen

Ammi — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:00:20 +0000

I unexpectedly squeezed in three workouts this week. The nice thing about this summer-period workout is that I felt I had it in me to do the extra workout, rather than needing several days to recover. In this way I feel better about missing workouts next week when I’m off walking again.

Results for last week

Workout 1: (Monday)

Back squat: 87kg – 1×3 – this was much better than the poor form I had when I last did 87kg for 3 reps. As with last week’s workout, it may have been assisted by weighing in at half a kilo heavier than last time I tried lifting this weight, but I think I have settled a little better too.
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×8 – this was much better with the reduced resistance. I even felt my hamstrings working properly, so I’m going to build this up some more and then start to build up the resistance a bit more gradually.
Hip thrusts: 120kg – 8×2 or 3 – I did 8×3 with this and was really pleased with my form. So pleased that I thought I’d go for 8×4 at my second workout.
Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and skinny band – 1×20 (each leg) – this really burned in all the right places!

Workout 2: (Wednesday)

Back squat: 82kg – 1×6 (or match 81kg) – this was strong, although a couple of middle reps were a bit lopsided as I briefly got a bit lazy about making myself push through both sides evenly.
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×9 – I was having a little trouble keeping my lower back under control and not flexing at the lower back. However I did find on my final set that if I kept a faster tempo then I could keep better control over my lower back so I will experiment with this a bit more.
Hip thrusts: 120kg – 8×3 or 4 (one more than last workout) – I had to really concentrate to squeeze my glutes hard enough but pushed out 8×4 and was, overall, pleased with my form on this.
Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and pink band – 1×15-20 (each leg) – ouch! I’m not sure what hurt more – the burning in my legs or the pain on my shoulder where the band pulls back down. Either way I managed 15 reps, finding the left-leg-forward set particularly hard work.

Workout 3: (Friday)

Back squat: 84kg – 1×5 – this was pretty brutal, perhaps something to do with weighing in a kilo lighter that morning and also having a huge dinner that was still sat in my stomach. I am not convinced I quite got to depth on the final rep which was grindingly slow.
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×10 – I tried the faster tempo on this for the final workout of the week and certainly found this worked better. My lower back was still a bit achy by the end of the final set but until then had felt much more protected.
Hip thrusts: 122kg – 8×2 or 3 – I did 8×3 in the end but I gave serious consideration to stopping after the first 5 sets because I was so hot and tired. Fortunately I managed to dig deep and extract just a little more willpower…
Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and pink band – 1×20 (each leg) – I could definitely feel this burning in my legs again but with some judicious padding form a jumper I didn’t suffer from any pain on my shoulder this time.

Plan for this week – this is likely to be a single workout week

Workout 1:

Back squat: 86kg – 1×4
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×11
Hip thrusts: 122kg – 8×3-4
Band resisted split squats: Green and two blue bands – 1×15-20 (each leg)

Paleo recipes: minced beef and sweet potato stew (slow cooker)

Ammi — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:00:26 +0000

To continue my theme of trying to introduce some different mince meals in my life I found a stew with sweet potato included. It’s fairly basic but at the same time the flavours are fantastic. The sweetness of the sweet potato comes out beautifully but don’t make the error I made the first time of forgetting the parsley. It really does make a difference to the flavour.

Paleo minced beef and sweet potato stew

Ingredients (serves 4-6):
800g beef mince
4 onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery sticks sliced
1 large sweet potato, chopped in large chunks
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf, crushed
1x400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
Large handful fresh parsley, roughly chopped

Directions:

Put all the ingredients, except the parsley, into the slow cooker pot and stir thoroughly.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
A few minutes before serving, stir the parsley through the stew so that it wilts and releases some flavour into the stew.

Powerlifting progress 2013: week eighteen

Ammi — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:00:08 +0000

This week was the test for the new programme. Could I go away for a 4 day walk and get back and straight into the gym. Would I have retained strength based on the lighter programme I did the week before?

As it turned out, the workout went well and I even got an extra rep on my squat. Perhaps it was because I was full of an extra kilo of weight from all the carbohydrates I’d eaten while on the walking trip.

Results for last week

Workout 1: (Tuesday)

Back squat: 85kg – 1×4 – This felt really strong so I did 5 reps.
Band resisted rack pull: No bands/Skinny bands, 85kg – 3×8 – I did a repeat of 3×8 with the skinny bands folded over in three. However, I was still feeling the strain at the top of the movement which was affecting my form on the descent. My weakness in deadlifting, RDLs and rack pulls is in my back, especially my upper back, not my legs. Moving straight to the amount of resistance created by the skinny band three-times over was too much. At the end of the workout I remembered that I had thought of reducing the resistance by doing the bands in double rather than triple fold. I’m therefore going to put the weight up a bit but decrease the resistance slightly so that I can build up strength where the weakness is.
Hip thrusts: 115kg – 8×4 – Much better form this time. I’ll never know if it was because of the extra body weight or the fact I got distracted by Chris between exercises and ended up taking a 15 minute break before I started this.
Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and skinny band – 1×15-20 (each leg) – I did 15 reps, simply because I’d forgotten that I intended to do as many as possible up to 20 reps. They felt easy so 20 reps next time then on to the next resistance level I think.

Plan for this week – a 2 workout week this week

Workout 1:

Back squat: 87kg – 1×3
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×8
Hip thrusts: 120kg – 8×2 or 3
Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and skinny band – 1×20 (each leg)

Workout 2:

Back squat: 82kg – 1×6 (or match 81kg)
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands doubled, 90kg – 3×9
Hip thrusts: 120kg – 8×3 or 4 (one more than last workout)
Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and pink band – 1×15-20 (each leg)

Paleo recipes: keema (slow cooker)

Ammi — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:00:43 +0000

I recently realised that I was always cooking our slow cooker chilli recipe and it was time to do something new with mince. I enjoy the curries that we do, but somehow they had never worked quite as well with mince. Then it struck me that even in India they do curry with minced meat – keema.

Commonly keema is served with potato (aloo keema) and/or peas (keema matar) in it. These are optional and if you want to include them then I would recommend 1 large potato, chopped into bits and, for peas, 150g. However, to keep this completely paleo I have omitted both, making a plain keema.

Every recipe was different but I took the main ingredients that seemed to feature most commonly across all the recipes I found and then tweaked it slightly to ensure the recipe worked.

Paleo keema curry

Ingredients (serves 4-6):
800g beef mince
2 onions, chopped
1 bell peppers, roughly chopped
10 cloves garlic (approx 1 bulb), peeled and minced
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp mild chilli powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric
100ml water
1x400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 inch resh root ginger, chopped
3 green chillis, chopped

Directions:

Put all the ingredients into the slow cooker pot and stir thoroughly.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Powerlifting progress 2013: week seventeen

Ammi — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:00:32 +0000

Having put up a plan last Monday for this week everything changed. I realised that this was my final week before I start my full schedule of summer walking for the walking company, so I needed to spend this week perfecting and finalising my summer maintenance plan. I’m aiming for a single, effective workout that could be done twice in a week when I am home but will give me sufficient results when I only have the time or ability to fit in a single workout for the week.

The result of some plotting and scheming with Chris is something that looks very much like my previous deadlift workout but switching the deadlift to a band resisted rack pull and, to keep the single leg work from the reverse lunges removing my high rep back squats and instead putting in a high rep set of band resisted split squats.

Both the band exercises are higher repetition exercises since they are both more bodybuilding-style exercises. The bands create extra resistance throughout the movement so that you are working to your limit all the time without the moment of rest that you get at the top of a deadlift or squat movement. In addition, by replacing the deadlift with the band rack pull I will be pulling less weight. My body should get less beaten up making it possible to do this twice a week when I’m home.

Results for last week

Workout 1: (Tuesday)

Back squat: 80kg – 1×6
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands, 80kg – 3×8 – I should be able to put the weight up on this quite quickly as I wasn’t struggling to get it off the rack but at the top of the movement when the bands were at full stretch I felt like the bar was being ripped out of my hands. An excellent workout for my grip ready for when I go back to heavier deadlifts.
Hip thrusts: 110kg – 8×4 – since I have been really unhappy with my form on these recently I decided mid-warm up to stop increasing the weight and do 8×4 with the weight I had got to because the bar was at a weight that was starting to bruise my hip joint but the form was excellent with a good hyperextension of the hip joint. I’m going to rebuild the weight in large increments to 120kg and then in smaller increments and hope that this time I can hit 130kg with better form.
Band resisted split squats: Green and blue band – 1×15 (each leg) – I could definitely do more reps and a tougher resistance on this, although I need to be really careful that my lower back doesn’t do the work. I will work up to 20 reps and then add some more band resistance (cycle through adding a third band using the skinny, then pink then blue band and so on).

Workout 2: (Friday)

Back squat: 83kg – 1×5 – for the second time this week I found my squats really hard on the final couple of reps. I’m definitely hitting the top of my ability for this rep range given the weight loss phase I am unintentionally also having at the moment.
Band resisted rack pull: Skinny bands, 85kg – 3×8 – I really struggled to prevent my lower back from curving as I put the bar down again from this. I am therefore going to (i) ask Chris to watch me do a few reps next time and (ii) try some reps with no bands/even less band resistance to get the form built up first. I think the problem lies with the tension at the top of the movement and subsequent impact it has on me coming back down afterwards.
Hip thrusts: 115kg – 8×4 – these were surprisingly tough to fully extend on towards the end of the workout so I think I’m keeping this weight the same for next week’s workout.
Band resisted split squats: Green and blue band – 1×20 (each leg) – These were easy but I was feeling fire in my glutes and hamstrings by the end of the set!

Plan for this week – I will definitely only get 1 workout in this week, if that.

Workout 1:

Back squat: 85kg – 1×4
Band resisted rack pull: No bands/Skinny bands, 85kg – 3×8
Hip thrusts: 115kg – 8×4
Band resisted split squats: Green, blue and skinny band – 1×15-20 (each leg)

Paleo recipes: MDA crispy carnitas

Ammi — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:00:47 +0000

This was a recipe that I obtained from Mark Sisson’s website, Mark’s Daily Apple. It was really tasty and went down a treat with both of us. I served it up plain with some spicy tomato salsa (recipe to follow next week) and green vegetables, but it would work well with guacamole, soured cream or, really, anything you might choose to go alongside it.

I could actually only get pork loins steaks when I made this. It works fine but it is necessary to add additional fat into the cooking process. I’ve included a note at the end to explain how to do this.

Paleo crispy carnitas

Ingredients (serves 4):
1kg pork shoulder, skin removed and cut into 3 chunks (pork shoulder steaks will also work)
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chilli powder
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1 bay leaf
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 onion, chopped or thinly sliced

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 175C.
Mix together the salt, cumin, chilli powder and cinnamon and rub this all over the pork meat.
Place the meat into a large heavy-based pan that can hold the meat in a single layer, or as close to it as possible.
Add the bay leaf, garlic and onion to the pot. Pour water around the meat to almost cover the meat. Put the pot, uncovered, into the oven for 3-3.5 hours, periodically stirring to prevent the top surface from drying out.
The meat will be ready when it is slightly browned and most of the liquid has evaporated.
Remove the bay leaf from the pot and shred the meat in the pot. If not serving immediately, cover the pot at this stage and leave it until soon before you want to serve.
Return the pot, still uncovered, to the oven. Turn the heat up to 190C and roast, mixing from time to time, until the meat has gone crispy – literally fried in its own fat. This can take about 20 minutes. If you want to serve up sooner, transfer the meat with all the juices and fat to a large frying pan and crisp up on the hob over a high heat in 5-10 minutes.

Using pork loin

If you can only get pork loin steaks but still want to try this you just need to add extra fat. This can be done by drizzling 3-4 tbsp olive oil over the meat when you first put it in the oven to braise in the water. When returning the meat to the oven to crisp up at the end first stir the meat about. If the fat is not very obvious in the pot then drizzle a further 1-2 tbsp of oil over the meat and stir it in to help it get crispy.

I prefer using olive oil to lard because lard is traditionally beef fat and changes the flavour of the pork a little too much.

Powerlifting progress 2013: week sixteen

Ammi — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:00:26 +0000

Another week in training and another week where I slowly work my way back to pre-walking strength. Squats are still a little bit ropey on the heavier, lower-rep ones so I might repeat these weights for 4 and 3 reps in a fortnight, bringing 6 and 5 reps up to being in sequence 2kg behind them. Deadlifts are going to take time to come back and as for hip thrusts – well… who knows what I’ll do about those.

Despite all that, I can’t complain too badly. I’m only really aiming to stay in maintenance and hold my weights where they are over the summer while I do several hundred kilometres on my feet, working through walking season.

Results for last week

Workout 1: (Tuesday)

Back squat: 85kg – 1×4 – I only just managed to complete this. Reps 1 and 2 were fine. On rep 3 I thought I would try to keep a bit more upright but overshot, making it incredibly hard. As a result the final rep was virtually impossible, however I got down and back up, though perhaps not as sturdily to depth as usual.
Partial back squat: 118kg – 3×2 – While my penultimate warm up set of these went a little bit awry, the final wamr up set and the work sets went well. Although I felt like I was being buried under the weight on the final set.
Reverse lunges: 42kg – 3×8 – This went well with my left leg feeling much more stable than last week.
Assisted glute-ham raises: Pink band and half black sling, 3×6 – these were fairly easy this week. Thank goodness!

Workout 2: (Friday)

Back squat: 87kg – 1×3 – Well this went better than my first workout of the week. I’d been doing some dedicated upper body rolling and had some sports massage on my lower body in between, so perhaps they helped.
Back squat: 72kg – 1×9 (or as many reps as possible) – a good effort but there was no way I could manage any more than 9 reps.
Sumo deadlift: 94kg – 3×2 – these were far more solid than last week although I could not have done anything heavier.
Hip thrusts: 130kg – 8×3 – it was a pleasure (I think) to be able to do my hip thrusts this week, having terminated my workout after two sets of sumo deadlifts last week. That said, I wasn’t excessively happy with my form. I’m not convinced I reached full extension on very many reps, or at least I’m certain I failed to get to complete hyper-extension. I need to debate with Chris whether I am better to drop the weight and re-approach this or whether I should try an alternative set/rep scheme rather than this one that I switched to.

Plan for this week

Workout 1:

Back squat: 80kg – 1×6
Partial back squat: 200kg – 3×2
Reverse lunges: 42kg – 3×9
Assisted glute-ham raises: Pink band and half black sling, 3×7

Workout 2:

Back squat: 83kg – 1×5
Back squat: 72kg – 1×10 (or as many reps as possible)
Sumo deadlift: 96kg – 3×2
Hip thrusts: 132kg – 8×2??