paleo venison bolognese

Ciao!  CFCCBCCC Day 16 wuuuut?

Two gross anatomy exams down today and one more exam left this week!  Hooray.  It will take lots of willpower for me to keep up with the BCCC by avoiding kegstands Thursday afternoon.  I kid but I am bringing boxed wine to the 4:30p class and everyone is invited to partake in slapping the bag.  [genius halloween costume http://totalfratmove.com/685392]

Let’s just go out and rage right now.

For real though, I find myself wondering what I got myself into more frequently than not these days… hmm.  One of my only study breaks this weekend:

I have not been keeping up with the crazy amount of veggies piling up in my fridge (anyone want peppers??) so a Sunday night bolognese solved that problem.  This is a super eat local meal and I love it even more so for that reason. : )

Paleo Venison Bolognese

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons grass-fed butter
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced (csa)
• 6 cloves garlic, minced (csa)
• 1 lb ground venison (I am lucky to have access to venison year-round)
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• hefty dashes (to taste) dried basil, oregano, onion powder, sea salt, cracked black pepper
• 1 eggplant, cubed small (csa)
• 1 zucchini, cubed small (csa)
• 2 carrots, grated (csa)
• 1 28-oz can plum tomatoes with sauce (unsalted, Trader Joe’s with basil version)
• handful italian parsley, chopped fine
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 spaghetti squash (csa)

Directions:

• Heat a dutch oven on medium.  Add butter and saute onion and garlic for about 2 minutes.  Turn up heat slightly, add spices, tomato paste and venison.  Brown the meat until almost completely cooked through.
• Reduce heat to medium, add eggplant, zucchini and carrots and saute about 10 minutes, covered and stirring often, until the eggplant begins to soften (but not get mushy).
• Add tomatoes (I usually mash them up in the pot too), parsley and olive oil, cover pot, and reduce heat to low.
• Simmer about 1 hour, or until all off the glorious flavors have come together.
• For the spaghetti squash, I pierce it all over with a knife, then microwave 12 minute (6 per side).  Let cool, slice in half and de-seed, then shred it into fake pasta.

You can still cook delicious, paleo things whilst drowning in medical terminology.  Swear.

I decided I want to be better about recording exactly what I eat and workouts for the last 2 weeks-ish of the BCCC and beyooooond.  Today:

Breakfast – water, Trader Joe’s Super Acidophilus Complex, claritin allergy pill (more on this, sleep and hormones in another post), 2 eggs scrambled in 1/2 tbsp kerrygold, coffee with splash of heavy cream…barely drank any since I was engrossed in my gross test (har har har)

Lunch – Venison bolognese with spaghetti squash, iced decaf green tea with fresh mint (I have been brewing big batches and drinking this often for something other than water)

Dinner – Venison bolognese with spaghetti squash (boring, I know)

Snack….1/2 cup white basmati rice heated in microwave with spash of heavy cream, cinnamon and sea salt.

This was a pretty light day of eats for me because I was so busy.

Workout:

My shoulder is feeling much better since I rested the weekend but my goal for today was to not aggrivate it again like I did Friday.  I had success even though I only got 40 squats in.

SELF-MYOFASCIAL RELEASE: Foam Roll as needed, 3 minutes. Lax Ball Hip Flexors and Quads, 2 minutes each side.

MOVEMENT PREP: THE BIG HIP WARM-UP: Take 30ft. and complete as pass of the following: 2 High Knee Passes, 2 Butt Kick Passes, 1 90/90 to Chest Pulls, 1 Toy Soldier, 1 Over the Fence/Under the Fence, 1 Duck Walk Pass, 1 Inchworm Pass, 2 High Skip Passes

STRENGTH: Back Squat, 20 rep attempt.

• 95 lbs x 20.  Happy with this.  One of my BCCC goals is to improve my squatting weights so this workout was perfect.

METABOLIC CONDITIONING: From the floor, complete: 100 Back Squat Reps for time using 75% of your 20 rep attempt. At the start of every minute, complete 5 burpees.  There is a 10 minute cap on this workout.

• I used 65 lbs (rx would have been 71 and change) and did 40 squats and a buncha burpees.  I had to switch to not cleaning over my head.  Front squats were getting pretty ugly by the end haha.

For kicks, cute pup fall photo.  Isn’t my girl a beauty?

• bolognese
• italian
• venison