Bananas!

Recipes are my favorite posts mostly because I'm obsessed with food. I love talking about it, I love eating it (who doesn't!) and it's awesome how many different things you can do with food.

The recipes in this post are all about, what else…. Bananas!

Let's start off with Banana Almond Pancakes. These were one of the first breakfast recipes I tried when I started Paleo, and it didn't go smoothly. Because there is so little flour and the main ingredient is, you guessed it, bananas, the texture is completely different from regular pancakes...something I wasn't used to. But the second and third times were much better as I got used to the texture and played around with the recipe a little bit. These are now my go-to breakfast (besides bacon & eggs) and very easy and quick to make.

Ingredients

• 2 bananas
• 2 egg
• 1 Tbs coconut flour
• 1-2 Tbs almond butter
• fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/4 cup nuts of choice (walnuts, macadamia, almonds are good), chopped
• 1 tsp. coconut oil
• Dash of sea salt (optional)

Instructions

1. Mash bananas in a bowl.
2. Add the eggs, coconut flour, almond butter, blueberries, and nuts and salt, and whisk until well blended.
3. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat along with a small pat of coconut oil.
4. Pour small discs of batter onto the hot pan (around 3-4" around). They'll be easier to flip if you keep them from the edges of the pan.
5. Flip when batter loses its "tackiness" around the edges.
6. Cook other side slowly over medium heat until fully cooked.
7. Reapply oil to the pan after each round of pancakes.

I recommend using 2 or more tbs of almond butter or else you much of that flavor. I don't use the ripest bananas because they are not as easy to mash up. I also don't have coconut oil so I used regular butter. What'd you say? Butter isn't paleo? Ohh....well....

This is the best looking batch i've made so far

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Ingredients

Ingredients

Raw Banana Ice Cream

I've never made Raw Banana Ice Cream. I've never tempted to make any kind of ice cream, but after looking at this recipe, I may give it a try. I came upon this recipe while on the Whole Foods Facebook page and thought I should share it with you all. If you don't "like" them on Facebook, I recommend you do - they always have interesting recipes and food tips.

I bet it tastes better than regular ice cream. Ok, maybe that's pushing it... If you do  try this recipe and you are on Paleo, don't forget to substitute the peanuts for another kind of nut...walnut would probably be the best option.

Ingredients: 

• 20 pitted dates, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons raw honey
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 cups sliced very ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup raw peanuts, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons cacao nibs

Method: 

Put dates into a medium bowl, cover with lukewarm water and set aside to let soak for 10 minutes. Drain dates and reserve soaking liquid. In a food processor, purée dates with 3 to 4 tablespoons of the soaking liquid, honey, oil, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth. (Discard remaining soaking liquid.) Add bananas and purée again until almost smooth. Transfer to a stainless steel bowl and stir in peanuts and cacao nibs. Cover and freeze, stirring occasionally, until almost solid, 4 to 6 hours. Let ice cream soften a bit at room temperature before serving.

-Julie

Beat The Streets Fundraiser

This post is to go a little more in depth about what Joyce posted on the Facebook page about the Beat The Streets fundraiser next month.

If you didn't see it, Beat The Streets is a fundraiser WOD taking place at CrossFit Renaissance on Saturday, October 5th at 10 a.m. The WOD is:

2 Person Teams, AMRAP 15 Min:

• 10 reps Shoulder to Overhead (115lbs/75lbs)
• 25 reps Deadlifts (115lbs/75lbs)
• 50 reps Box Jumps (24"/20")

Here's a post from Steve Liberati, the founder of CrossFit Tribe in Pennsauken, NJ and the founder of Steve's Club and Steve's PaleoGoods, wrote on his blog a few days ago about Beat The Streets, and a video from last year's event at Tribe with highlights from some of the kids he's helped over the past few years. Really good stuff in the video... The kids in the video belong to Steve's Club and are all from Camden and the surrounding area who do CrossFit at Tribe. This club is growing rapidly across the country and is helping so many kids who most likely would end up dealing drugs or getting involved in violence if they weren't a part of it. Another neat thing about Beat The Streets is that it's taking place all across the country at different CrossFit affiliates on the same day. (Lauren Gallagher -- maybe you can talk your sister into doing this at her box in Arizona?? Just a thought!)

The suggested donation is $25 and the proceeds go directly to Steve's Club. Bring a friend or two as long as you have a two-person team! Completing a hard ass WOD followed by a Renaissance BBQ which is always a great time, what could you possibly be doing on a Saturday that's more fun?

Let Bill and Joyce know you are going through the Facebook invite...the sooner the better.

PS -- Read my post here from a few months ago if you want to learn more about Steve's PaleoGoods. If you are on Paleo or not, these products are worth checking out. They are delicious!

-Julie

Discounts and Paleo Giveaways

I've come across some deals this week on CrossFit apparel and Paleo foods and thought I should share it with you fellow CrossFitters.

Most of you saw the Reebok discount I posted in the Facebook group last night. For those who didn't see, all you have to do is sign up for their email list and they send you an email with a code for 15% off your next purchase. You have two weeks to use the discount.

Ladies, who wouldn't want this shirt??

For those on paleo, check out Nikki's Coconut Butter. I have not tried it yet, but some of the flavors sound so "sweet" and most of the ingredients are not only paleo friendly, but organic as well. There are five flavors --> Chocolate Hazelnut Brownie, Vanilla Cake Batter, Honey Pecan Pie, Midnight Mocha and Macademia Nut Cookie. Because they reached a certain amount of followers on Facebook and Instagram, they are having a 18% discount off your entire order when you use the promo code 'nikki18' (I don't know the reason behind the number 18!). Shipping isn't included.

Steve's PaleoGoods, you may remember them from the post I wrote about way back when, is having a 'Jerky July' giveaway. You can enter here to win a Steve's Club Sampler and a cook book that just came out called Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry. If you are on paleo, I highly recommend entering this giveaway because the sampler is full of good stuff --> paleo cereal, grainless granola bars, grass-fed beef jerky. Quality food without any of the processed junk.

NOTE: The giveaway ends TONIGHT at midnight!

Even if you don't win, you can always purchase Steve's PaleoGoods through the website and they are sold at some of the Whole Foods in this area. 15% of each sale goes to Steve's Club, which provides CrossFit for at-risk youth, mostly in the Camden area. I'll talk more about that in a later post.

Happy saving!

-Julie

Recipe of the Day - Bacon Stir-Fry

Hello everyone! Blog is back in action, and if all goes well, it will be updated a few days a week and no more breaks.

I thought I would start off with a recipe since the majority of my posts a few months ago were of recipes and because I made this Sunday morning so it's fresh in my mind.

Bacon Stir-Fry is awesome because it's full of, BACON! Who doesn't love bacon? The rest of the ingredients and the recipe is below:

• 8 bacon slices, diced
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• 1 medium sweet potato, diced
• 1 medium zucchini, diced
• 7-8 green beans
• 1 avocado
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Cook chopped bacon in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Drain fat when done and set bacon aside.
2. Meanwhile, heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 Tbs of drippings from the bacon pan, onion, and sweet potato.
3. Stirring often, sauté  until onions begin to turn translucent and sweet potato softens slightly (about 10-15 minutes).
4. Add zucchini and green beans to the sweet potato mixture and cook just until they turn bright green.
5. Combine bacon and vegetables. Season with freshly ground black pepper, and top with avocado to serve.

NOTE: I add scrambled eggs to give the dish more protein and don't always add green beans. I also sometimes add a little more than 1 tbs of bacon fat to the pan before I throw in the sweet potatoes and onion. Avocado also isn't necessary if you don't have any on hand.

It does take a little while to make, but if you have 30 minutes, make this dish! It says it's two servings but I usually get three out of it and use the leftovers for breakfast the next few days. Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy of Paleo Plan

Groupon?

Dear CFR Family,

We here at CFR pride ourselves to be a family and community oriented gym. Our members love and give as hard as they WOD. It’s the dream we had when we opened our doors, to have a place that you come to kick back from a long day of work all while kicking ass in your WOD. 

Maybe you all have heard about Groupon, we have run it before and it came to my attention that it was great but I was also told by one person that he wasn’t happy about it. That one person is no longer with us but left me wondering if it was a mistake. He obviously never understood the purpose of the deal. This is what we envisioned when we chose to run the Groupon:

 A student, any person who is intimidated by CrossFit, the one who is on the fence about CrossFit, these are all people I had in mind, to give them a chance to try and decide for themselves if CrossFit is worth it. The one person’s concerns stuck with me and I thought maybe we shouldn’t run a Groupon again but I have been convinced otherwise and I hope you too will see how we all worked together to expand our community and how Groupon played a huge role.

Our members were very accommodating, understanding, patient and extremely generous.Thank you all for your support. Our Groupon visitors felt the support and love in our community. Those who couldn’t stay with us stopped by to tell us how friendly our people were. We couldn’t have done it without you. Each and every one of you contributed hugely in making our visitors feel at home and those visitors went on to stay with us and those who couldn’t still remembers us fondly.

-Joyce

Here are some voices of the former Grouponers. If you wish to tell us your story ( Grouponer or not) please feel free to email it us and I will post it on the site.

I was introduced to Crossfit Renaissance by a few of my basketball teammates. They had bought a Groupon for Crossfit classes at a really low price and wanted me to join them. I had some doubts about my ability to do it, since I heard Crossfit was really intense. After some thinking, I realized that I was always huffing and puffing during games I wanted to see how training really hard with Crossfit could help me in endurance and strength. Crossfit seems really intimidating, especially for females, but the trainers at Crossfit Renaissance work hard to accommodate all levels. They get to know everyone and provide individual support during the class with guidance on how to scale each workout and really just want to see you doing your personal best.

Now, 6 months later, I’m so much stronger than I have ever been in my entire life. I know that I can really push for an entire 35 minute game and still play in the next 3. I would recommend to everyone to give Crossfit Renaissance a try, especially with the great deal on Groupon. It’s definitely changed my life for the better. My outlook on physical fitness has changed so much- I am motivated to push myself to the limits, physically and mentally, each and every time I come to the gym. And who knew that pushing yourself to the limit could be so much fun? The workouts change daily, so it's always a new challenge and I can see it paying off every week. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you finish a workout you thought would not be possible, or lift more weight than you've ever lifted before. You just have to give it a try. It's a wonderful feeling.

Crystal

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I had only recently heard of CrossFit last summer, and after doing some research into other local CrossFit gyms I had decided that while I wanted to check out CrossFit at some point, it was too expensive for me at the moment. It seemed interesting, and I was bored with my current routine of going to the gym and lifting weights, but I couldn't see myself spending so much money for what I thought would be just another gym membership. Along came the Groupon for CFR, and I happily jumped at the chance, thinking that the 20 classes I bought would be a great way to sample CrossFit and whet my appetite until I could join a CrossFit gym for real later. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and when my 20 classes were up, I knew that I had to keep CrossFitting and I've been at CFR ever since. I hate to use this phrase ,and I don't use it lightly, but getting into CrossFit has truly been a life-changing experience for me. I didn't know it at the time, but buying that Groupon meant that I was joining an incredibly diverse and supportive community of people that made "going to the gym" fun for me again. That Groupon was literally one of the best purchases that I have ever made, and I'm thankful to be here because of it. 

danny

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Let me tell you about the Groupon that may very well have saved my life.

I've always loved food and relaxation and in my 25 short years on this Earth I had

managed to pack a lumpy 210 pounds onto my 5'7" frame. I was certainly not athletic and my girlfriend was worried about my health.

I had lost about 20-30lbs a few years ago but I had also succeeded in gaining it all back. I didn't really feel bad about how my body looked but I knew that inactivity would catch up to me eventually. My mother had recently survived a heart attack at 50 and I'd surely be at risk as well. Still, with all of this danger staring me in the face, I hesitated in coming to CrossFit Renaissance. I was worried I wouldn't be able to do it. Wasn't CrossFit incredibly difficult? I finally decided that being sore for a few days was not nearly as difficult as recovering from a heart-attack and I went to the Intro class.

It was tough. I didn't pace myself and I couldn't make it through the first workout. I felt disappointed but the coaches encouraged me and never let me give up on myself. The trainers always make you feel capable and confident that you are doing the workouts correctly. They are great athletes that somehow manage not to be intimidating in the slightest. Advice from the coaches never feels condescending because you know that they genuinely want to see you succeed.

From the Intro I learned my first life lesson at CrossFit Renaissance: Do your best. Find the right scale for yourself. This would not be the last lesson.

I learned that I'm capable of so much more than I ever imagined. I learned that eating real food is always better than processed and it's totally worth the prep time. I learned that soreness can can be experienced as a quiet, personal badge of honor. It's a sign you're becoming stronger!

Now, six months later, I'm a member. I'm also 30 pounds lighter and getting stronger every day. My girlfriend and I go few times a week and cheer each other on. I'm feeling like my body has become unshackled. Every time I try something that would have wiped me out before I find that it's a cake walk. I fell halfway through a mile run and still finished in 6:30. I got my name up on the leader board for a workout.

I am no longer someone on the path to heart attacks and diabetes. My girlfriend doesn't worry so much about my health anymore. I've taken control of my health. Thanks to the Groupon and CrossFit Renaissance the future is just a little less uncertain and that feels good.

Ed

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Recipe of the Day - Paleo Waffles

This recipe is brought to you by Sheena and Kevin who raved about these waffles. What are they made of you ask? Cashews! And other fun stuff...eggs, almond milk, honey, coconut oil, salt, baking soda and coconut flour. Sheena said she basically threw everything in a blender and it's as simple as that. I'm ready to make these for breakfast tomorrow. If only I had a waffle maker....

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup raw cashews
• 1/3 cup almond milk (or any non-dairy milk)
• 3 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 3 tablespoons coconut flour

1) Preheat waffle iron

2) Combine the eggs, cashews, milk, honey and melted oil in a blender

3) Add the salt, baking soda and coconut flour, then blend again for about a minute until the dry ingredients are incorporated into the wet

4) If you're oil requires oil, spread a little coconut oil on both sides. Pour the batter into the waffle iron so it just covers the bottom portion of the iron, being careful not to overfill it as these do rise quite a bit and will spill over

5) Cook the waffles for about a minute, more or less depending on the heat of the waffle iron. If they release easily with a fork when you open the lid, they are probably done

6) Repeat until the batter has been used up

One with the Rhythm

This blog post is about Nic Justice and his wife, Adrienne. Nic made a beautiful video about the art of jump rope and what it has meant to Adrienne over the years. The video is only a minute long, but it captures so much in that short minute. Enjoy!

From Nic:

This project is a brain child of my wife who also is the star of the show. If you haven't seen the video yet you will see that she is an expert at jumping rope. We originally wanted this to be a fresh instructional video but over time it morphed and changed into a more motivational project. We hope that this encourages you to go out and have fun, what ever that might mean. 

We wanted to show something simple that people draw pleasure from. For Adrienne it is jump rope, she was young and preforming on jum prope teams at Disneyland and the Jr. Olympics but the fun eventually faded under pressures of the situation. While she quickly stopped competing, she never stopped loving the act of jumping rope. 

When she will show someone a few tricks they don't know what hit them and demand to see it again. This is why we choose to do it in slow motion to allow the view at chance to see what is happening.

http://vimeo.com/62647855