The Paleo Challenge has begun & Roasted Garlic Chicken with Veggies Recipe

Let the Paleo challenge begin! Today is the first day of the Paleo challenge, and it has been an exciting start. This morning we started off with getting our body measurements done. I'm actually quite pleased with where I am at, I've managed to either maintain what I lost from the last Paleo challenge and in some areas, good gains like bicep growth! After measurements, we started warming up for our first round of strength testing

WOD at Crossfit Vortex

Mobility WOD
Player's Choice

Pre-WOD
Agility Drills

WOD
Paleo Strength Test
15 minutes to find 1 round max Thruster (must be able to clean the weight)

Work on your GOAT for the remaining time. (Goat basically refers to work on something that you aren't so great at.)

Well big day for me! I PR'd for the Clean and Thruster, 85lbs. Then I went on to work on my GOAT (which is currently pull-ups) and had big gains too. When I started working on my GOAT about 20 some days ago I started working on it using a green band. Then I moved to a combination of a purple and black band, then purple and red. Then this morning I noticed purple and red was too easy. So I tried purple, and still I could do that. Now I'm pulling up just using this little black band...I don't know how much weight it is supporting but I think I'm getting close to unassisted pull ups.

Today's Recipe, I call it:

Roasted Garlic Chicken with Vegetables

 

Recipe after the jump!

Roasted Garlic Chicken with Vegetables

One thing you need to know now. I love garlic. I put it on and in everything. Roasted garlic? I could just sit down and eat it right out of the peel. So I knew I wanted to add a garlicky twist to my chicken dish, so I roasted up some garlic! Also, I decided to add as many different types of veggies that I had on hand

What you will need:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2-3 cloves of garlic

2 zucchini, julienned 

2 carrots, sliced

3 stalks of celery, sliced thinly

1 onion, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 package of sliced white mushrooms

4 kale leaves, sliced

2 Tablespoons olive oil

28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes

Sriracha, to taste

Pepper, Italian Seasoning, to taste

1) Let's make your roasted garlic first. Preheat oven to 400F. Remove outer peel of bulb, but leave the skins of the individual garlic bulbs intact. Cut off roughly 1/4 from the top of the clove, this will expose the tops of the garlic. Take a very small amount of oil and drizzle it on the cloves, if you like you can add a little pepper to it too.  Cover entire clove with aluminum foil. I like to use a muffin pan to put the cloves in for baking purposes. Bake for 35-40 minutes, the cloves should feel soft when they are done.

2) Heat pan with 1 Tablespoon oil. Slice chicken breasts into small pieces. Add chicken breast to pan and cook thoroughly on both sides, about 3-4 minutes each side. Time will depend also on the size of slices. Remove from pan and set aside.

3) Add 1 Tablespoon of oil. Saute onions for 3-4 minutes, add in mushrooms, red pepper, celery and carrots. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until they begin to soften up. 

3) Add crushed tomatoes, seasoning, and chicken. As sauce begins to boil, turn down heat to simmer. 

4) Add in zucchini, kale and roasted garlic cloves. Don't forget to take the garlic cloves out of it's shell, it should just squeeze right on out. Cook until zucchini and kale are tender. 

5) Eat immediately! You can also freeze leftovers, but I doubt you'll have any. :)