Paleo lettuce wraps

I made it to 5 CrossFit classes and one 2.5 hour game of volleyball this week, so I felt today should be a day of rest. I wanted to do some cooking for the week, but I was feeling lazy and uninspired, so I dragged out all my cookbooks and started browsing through pinterest to find something that would make me hungry.

I happened upon these lettuce wraps from Iowa Girl Eats. I stuck to her recipe pretty closely, with a few minor modifications to make them a bit more paleo-friendly, and they were DELICIOUS.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients

• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1lb extra lean ground chicken breast
• 1/2 medium onion, minced
• salt & pepper, a dash of each (I used Chinese white pepper, and it was yum. You can find it at any Asian grocery store. It is NOT like the white pepper you get in the regular spice aisle. I've made that mistake before.)
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 inch nob fresh ginger, peeled & minced
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 1/2 Tbsp gluten-free soy sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp almond butter
• 1/2 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp wine vinegar
• 2 tsp chili sauce
• dash of white pepper
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1/2-8oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained & chopped
• 10-12 large lettuce leaves

Directions

1. Heat coconut oil in a large skillet. Add chicken, onion, salt, and white pepper. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink. 
2. Add ginger and garlic. Cook 2-3 mins.
3. In a small bowl, mix together sesame oil, soy sauce, water, almond butter, honey, wine vinegar, chili sauce, and white pepper. Add to skillet and stir to combine. Cook and stir until the almond butter is all mixed in.
4. Add green onions and water chestnuts. Cook 3-4 minutes, until heated through. Serve with lettuce leaves.

Since it's starting to feel like fall, I also felt like it was necessary to make soup. (I don't really like eating soup, but I love cooking it.) It was fun to make but really bland, so I won't waste time writing it out here.
 
Happy Sunday!

Progress

"Annie" is one of CrossFit's benchmark workouts.

50-40-30-20-10
Double-unders
Sit-ups

 (so, 50 double-unders, 50 sit-ups, 40 double-unders, 40 sit-ups, etc.)

I did this workout for the first time on May 24th. In the 10 minute time limit, I didn't get through the round of 40 sit-ups. I was huffing and puffing and remember thinking that I didn't even WANT to get through the 40 sit-ups because I didn't want to have to do more double-unders.

Today, we did it again. I didn't finish the whole workout, but had finished the 20 sit-ups when the buzzer went. I was breathing hard, but I wasn't huffing and puffing. I could have done many more double-unders. I cursed myself for not running faster from the double-unders (outside) to the ab mats (inside) because I know I could have finished that last round if I'd pushed just a little harder.

Sometimes it's hard to see progress from day to day. My workout today didn't seem any easier than the workout I did on Saturday morning. But, I'm glad I got over my fear of filling out my journal, because I never would have been able to see what I've accomplished. In one of my early journal entries I wrote that a 65 lb power clean "might have been too heavy." Today, I know I could have done the prescribed weight for that workout, which was 95lbs.

There are so many things that are still really difficult - running, pull-ups, muscle-ups, ring dips, running, burpees, handstand push-ups, box jumps, running. But today I'm just going to revel in the small victory of 50 more double-unders and 50 more sit-ups than I could do 3.5 months ago.