6/10 Foodie Friday

Meg walks on her hands. 
One of my favorite food blogs is Well Fed. I have both Well Fed cookbooks and love every recipe. There's not a single stinker in either book. One of the coolest things that Melissa Joulwan, Well Fed author, offers in a weekly email with 5 meals to cook for dinner. It arrives every Thursday which gives you plenty of time to go to the grocery store and prepare for a big Sunday cook-up. Go here to sign up for the weekly meal plan email. In the meantime, here's another winner from her blog.

"Sometimes, especially when I’m stressed or enduring monthly hormone poisoning, my desire for the good ol’ days of takeout is almost unbearable. In my romanticized memories, ordering Chinese takeout was a carefree experience: we just picked up the phone, ordered a pile of food, and 45 minutes later, we were inhaling spare ribs, cold sesame noodles, and fried rice. In reality, I did all kinds of mental gymnastics to make it OK with myself to overeat foods I knew weren’t doing me any favors, and when the gluttony was done, I made all kind of promises to myself about how I’d “start over tomorrow.” It was a painful, shameful way to consume food, and sometimes, I wish I could travel back in time and hug that girl.
But thanks to guidance from people like Melissa and Dallas at Whole9Life and Robb Wolf, brighter days are here. And the phone call+binge days are long gone… but dang it! if I don’t still want cold sesame noodles sometimes. And hell yeah! isn’t it great that julienne peelers exist in the world?!
I hope you like this version of cold sesame noodles made with cucumbers (instead of egg noodles), tahini, sugar-free sunbutter (instead of peanut butter), and no sugar. I guarantee you won’t miss the starch or the sugar."

This takes about 10 minutes to make and creates 2 generous servings as a main dish or 4 side servings for regular people. You can also turn just one cucumber into noodles, use half the sauce, and save the other half of the sauce for tomorrow. Trust me! You’ll want to eat it again soon. Make this into a complete meal by shredding cold, cooked chicken on top or serve alongside grilled chicken or shrimp.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 tablespoon organic sunbutter (sugar-free)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos or homemade substitute
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar (now Whole30-approved!)
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 1 scallion, dark green part only, thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS:
1 Heat a small sauté pan over medium heat, then toast the sesame seeds until light brown, about 2-3 minutes. Set aside to cool.

2 Peel the cucumbers, then turn them into noodles with a julienne peeler or spiralizer. Place in a large bowl.

3 In a small bowl, mix the tahini, sunbutter, oil, coconut aminos, vinegar, water, red pepper flakes, garlic, and ginger with a fork until smooth.

4 Pour the dressing over the cucumber noodles and toss gently with a rubber scraper until evenly coated. Mound on a plate and sprinkle with the sliced scallions and toasted sesame seeds. Enjoy the first creamy, nutty bite, then ask yourself in wonder and glee, “Noodles! Who needs ’em?!”

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Today's workout is developing our grip strength (good for climbing), leg endurance (good for backpacking), and handstand walking which is good for balance, coordination and focus. Three things all of us can work on. 
Today's Workout 
Skill Work: forward rolls and cartwheels
​then,

Level I
Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
100m farmer carry 35/20# dumbbells
50m walking lunge
25 meter bear crawl

​Level II
Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
200m farmer carry 45/30# dumbbells
100m walking lunge
1 minute of handstand walk attempts

As Prescribed
Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
200m Farmers Carry 1.5/1 pood kettlebells dumbbells 
100m Walking Lunge
50m Handstand Walk

WOD Notes and Scaling 
The load and distances have been reduced in Level I to allow the athlete to focus on mechanics. During the farmer carry shrug up and back slightly to set the shoulders. During the walking lunges keep the weight in the heel on the lead leg and let the trailing knee touch the floor on each rep. During the Level I bear crawls actively push into the floor with the hands and strive to keep the legs and arms straight. Keep the hips high and weight over the hands to more closely mimic the handstand walk. If the athlete can walk on their hands for 50 meters in three or less attempts they can do this workout as written. If not, for Level II, attempt to walk on the hands for one minute and note the distance traveled or “steps” taken each round.

Are you attending the Farewell Brunch for Chris and Allyson this Sunday from 10-1pm?  RSVP in the comments.