Strong Like Popeye

Chef Boy R Me

I've been on a cooking spree these past few days.  I've been going through a bit of a dry spell in the kitchen lately, so I'm glad to be back in the groove.  It started on Sunday when I gave a Pinterest recipe a test drive.  I've been hearing lots of buzz about cauliflower pizza crust lately, so I finally bought some cauliflower, googled how to 'rice' it and gave it a try.  These are the ingredients I ended up using for the crust: 

Ingredients

• ½ head cauliflower (about 2 cups riced)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano

The recipe is from a blog called Eating Bird Food.  I used about 4 cloves of garlic instead of one (I wasn't trying to scare away any vampires, I just like it that much).  I topped mine with tomato sauce and roasted zucchini, but the one in the blog I linked to got a little fancier.  Bottom line, the crust is AMAZING, so top it with whatever you'd like.  Even my anti-cruciferous-veggie-eating-best-friend liked it, so if you are a veggie hater, this recipe is for you.  

I also had a Costco portion of spinach that was hiding in my garage fridge.  I would've been heartbroken had I let it expire without fulfilling it's lifelong purpose of being eating.  So I cooked up the entire bunch and made some garlicky spinach.  I'm always amazed at how much it shrinks once it's cooked down.

I vaguely remember reading about a study that said a group of lab rats that were fed spinach had stronger muscles than those rats that were not fed spinach.  Maybe this guy was on to something:

What's up with Popeye's gigantic forearms?  Why does the spinach only make his biceps pop out?  That, I am not sure of, but check out this link to read more about why spinach is so awesome.

I also tried a few other recipes from some of my favorite blogs.  This morning it was Almond Butter Pancakes from pbfingers.com.  This evening I prepped one for tomorrow.  I made Frozen Greek Yogurt Bars, which were inspired by the recipe I've linked to on sparkpeople.com, but I actually revised it and made it my own, so if they are good, I will certainly share!

Back It Up

I've been working on a freelance piece (I've always wanted to say that).  I don't want to give away too much, but it has inspired me to add some additional training attention to my glutes.  I'll leave you with a good butt exercise that you can do at home, no equipment needed.  This is a glute wall lift.  It's paired well as a superset with straight leg deadlifts:

Start by lying on your back with one foot on the wall and the other toward the sky:

Raise your hips toward the sky and really contract your glutes at the top.  Lower your hips slowly and repeat that motion 15-20 reps.

Want to make it tougher?  Add some resistance by resting a plate (10-25 lbs) on your hips.  Try it and let me know what you think!  Do you have a favorite body part that you like to train?