Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Wednesday's Wild/Warrior Workout -- Insane 10 Minute HIIT Tabata

Today's workout comes from LiveExercise.

It is a 10 minute HIIT Tabata workout that has 3 high intensity exercises that are done for 20 seconds with 10 seconds rest.  This is repeated for 6 rounds before moving onto the next exercise.

As a bonus, during the "rest" time, the instructor adds a second exercise for more intensity if you'd like.

Make sure you are lifting enough weight to feel the bicep curls, but not so much that you can't control them.  A resistance band is definitely recommended here over dumbbells.

There is no warm up included.  Please do that on your own.


Please cool down and stretch on your own as well.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Tuesday's Trunk & Core + Missed Muscle Work -- 7 Ab Exercises + Upper Body Fat Burning

Today I'm posting two workouts because I missed yesterday.  I found a new channel on YouTube called  XHIT Daily.  Both workouts are from here.  No warm up or cool down are provided, please do those on your own.  You need a stability ball for a few of the exercises.


The first one is an abdominal workout consisting of 7 exercises, each done for 1 minute.


The second is a beginner upper body routine that consists of 13 exercises each done for 15 reps.  Because she does one exercise right after another with little rest, this has a bit of a fat burning/cardio element as well.  You need a ball, or bench/coffee table to lay on and a set of dumb bells.

One note, when she is doing chest flyes, the heading says she's doing upright rows.  She does those later and they are labeled correctly.



Sunday, January 26, 2014

Sunday's Recipe Share -- Gluten free, grain free Gnudi

What's Gnudi you ask?  I didn't know what it was until I read last week's Food section of the Daily Herald.

Gnudi are ricotta dumplings--it's basically the yummy filling of a ravioli without the pasta shell.  The recipe published had soft bread crumbs as one of it's ingredients--I subbed that out with almond flour and flax seed meal.  I suppose I could have used a gluten free piece of bread, but then they would not be grain free.

Here's what they look like (I forgot to take a picture of mine--this one's from Google).


Mine didn't have any spinach in them--the next ones I make will for sure.

Here's my adaptation of the recipe:

(I doubled the recipe when I made it)

Step one:  Mix together 1 cup of whole milk ricotta, 1/2 c. of grated Parmesan (could use Asiago, pecorino Romano or combo of them), 1 egg, 2-3 Tablespoons of Almond Flour and 2-3 Tablespoons of Flax Seed Meal, and 1/2-1 full Tablespoon of Coconut Flour.  If gluten is not a concern, then you would use 5-6 Tablespoons of soft bread crumbs instead.  Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to take--be creative with your spices--the ricotta is really a blank canvas. Let this mixture sit for 20-30 minutes so the flour can absorb any liquid and thicken the mixture.

Step Two:  Heat a large pot of well salted water to boil over high heat.  Roll the dough into 20-30 small balls with well floured hands (I used coconut flour).  Place them on a floured baking sheet--roll them in the flour to coat them--this will provide a protective layer. (mine were bigger--I got this many from the double recipe).

Step Three:  Carefully slip them into boiling water.  After they bob to the surface, cook for 2 minutes--since mine were bigger, I cooked them for more like 4 minutes.  Remove from pot with a slotted spoon. Serve with more Parmesan or with a sauce of your choice.

I served these with eggplant parmesan--YUM!

I've also seen them fried in butter--I want to try that too.