Starting Strength: Day One

So, in an effort to improve general fitness, I'm picking up the Starting Strength program. 3 main workouts a week, 5 basic moves. The goal is to increase strength and is geared towards beginners, as the title so subtly alludes.

Step one to any good exercise program is nutrition. I'm not going to get into the details of that here, but I would like to share my meals. I enjoy cooking, as you've probably gathered, and trying to cook with particular macronutrient ratios in mind is something I've never really tried

before. I'll be doing that loosely while I'm on SS, but its not set in stone by any means.

Breakfast was huge. I had 8 oz chicken breaast, handful of roasted parsnips with honey, one egg-mushroom omelette that I tried and failed to wrap with a spring roll skin, half an avocado, and a big bowl of roasted kale and broccoli. It was a lot of food, but great fuel for my first day of squats, bench press, and deadlift.

My post-workout was another 8 oz of chicken breast (half wrapped in a spring roll wrap for quick carbs) ,the rest of the parsnips with some drizzled honey, and roasted kale.

I snacked on a small sweet potato, some cottage cheese, and a small salad for lunch. Dinner was a turkey meatza: a crust made of ground turkey with basil, garlic, and roasted red pepper flakes, topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and cheddar cheese, mushrooms, and kale. Freaking delicious end to a great first day of Starting Strength.

Georgia Recap

I ended up taking an accidental nap right around dinner time on Friday , so I missed out on the cooking festivities. But my loving fam saved me some bison burgers. I did a quick zap job, with a little swiss cheese, and they turned out great. Bison has a noticeably different taste from beef, but its close enough that I think most people will like it. If you haven't had it before, its fairly easy to find in stores. Give it a shot. I served with a side of broccoli.

Later that night I harnessed the antioxidant powers of blueberries and strawberries (and a little rum) to unwind from a long day of hiking.

I forgot to take photos of my best meal of the weekend, pan-seared chicken with balsamic cream, mushroom, and onion. It was a big hit nonetheless.

Another treat that I made for my family was bacon-wrapped sweet potato bites. They're as easy as they sound, and delicious as all hell with a little maple syrup.

Kermit Skewers

Before 8am, I already had my first idea for my "weird meal" down here in Georgia. I was chilling by my aunt's pool when what do I spy but two frogs. "Yum, frog legs," says my aunt jokingly.

"Yum, frog legs," Cameron says without a hint of sarcasm. So I caught, killed, skinned, and grilled those sumbitches.

I have no idea how safe, or legal, it is to just kill and eat whatever animals I see. But I did it, so sue me. I found a tutorial online on how to prepare the legs, which was actually pretty easy and less messy that some of my other hack jobs (lamb head and beef tongue, for example, are a lot harder to dismantle). Anyway, I dredged them in egg and some cajun spices, threw them on a skewer with some onion and cherry tomatoes, and grilled for a few minutes. They're very thin and don't hold up well to direct flame; I wish I would have tried some of the lower-heat garlic butter saute recipes I saw. Oh well.

There wasn't much meat on the bone, so I supplemented with a big ass salad of kale and swiss chard (pulled fresh from my uncle's garden), corned beef, carrots, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and a roasted red pepper.

Spring Break Georgia-Style: Breakfast #1

I should be ashamed of myself: one month without a blog post. I blame a combination of not being home to cook a real meal, plus being super busy with school. I'm sure ya'll will forgive me.

To make up for it, I'm going to unleash a relentless torrent of meal upon your hungry souls. Spring Break meals home-cooked meals every single day (that's how I do, son), and going out of town is no exception. This weekend, I'm in Georgia visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Their kitchen was not immune to my [insert cooking equivalent of "green-thumb"] and it wasn't even past noon before I brought in some nasty stuff to cook (as you'll see later).

For breakfast, I made a simple sweet potato hash with onion. I tried to make onion-ring-eggs, but I cut the onion wrong. I ended with what you see below. I don't know what they're called, but they were delicious. A little garlic salt and shredded cheese, and they ended up tasting, or at least looking, kind of like potato skins.