Beef & Blue Cheese Mushroom Buttons & Burpees

With the Big Game this Sunday, there is guaranteed to be some snacking going on ‘round these parts. The kids always insist on a big bucket of popcorn and a bag of M&Ms – oh, don’t act like you don’t know how awesome it is to mix the two together. My recipe for honey caramel almond popcorn also satisfies that craving for salty-sweet goodness in a healthier way.

paleo beef stuffed mushrooms

The grown-ups are going to want something a little more substantial to snack on, shall we say . . . . something beefy? A beef and blue cheese stuffed mushroom recipe from my peeps at Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner is the inspiration for one of our Super Bowl snacks – these little babies are delicious and bursting with umami flavor thanks to the lean ground beef and robust blue cheese. The only swap I have made is to replace the whole-wheat bread crumbs with almond meal thus transforming them into gluten-free, Paleo-friendly (for those who do some dairy) finger foods. If you’re worried about having more than one of these delicious little buttons; don’t fret — they are surprisingly low in calories and fat.  Click here for the nutrition guidelines (doesn’t take into account I swapped out the bread crumbs for almond meal).

beef and blue cheese stuffed mushroom ingredients

thefitfork beef bluecheese mushroom single

Beef & Blue Cheese Mushroom Buttons Recipe (Gluten-Free & Paleo-Friendly)

  • 1/2 pound Ground Beef, 93% lean or better
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 36 to 40 small button or cremini mushrooms (about 1-1/2 to 2-inch diameter)
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil (for brushing)
  • 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
  • 1/4 cup almond meal
  • 3 tablespoons minced chives
  • 1/2 teaspoon steak seasoning blend
  • Minced fresh chives (optional)

cooking beef stuffed mushroom recipe

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Remove and reserve stems from mushrooms. Brush mushroom caps with olive oil and season with salt; set aside. Mince stems to yield 1/2 cup; discard remaining stems.
  2. Combine Ground Beef, minced stems, blue cheese, bread crumbs, 3 tablespoons chives and steak seasoning. Spoon beef mixture evenly into mushrooms.
  3. Place stuffed mushrooms on rack in broiler pan. Bake in 375°F oven 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with additional chives, if desired.

 

Clapping Push-up Burpees

Clapping Push-up Burpees

Okay, now that I’ve lured you in with the food, it’s time to talk BURPEES.  Even if you hate burpees, you have to love what they do for you – this exercise works every muscle group you’ve got and gives you a cardio workout to boot. Sometimes, if I’m stuck in a hotel or the weather is too bad to even get to the gym and treadmill, I’ll just knock out some burpees instead of a run. I think I get more wiped out doing the burpees! Just when I think I’m getting bored of burpees, I find a new variation to liven things up — push-up burpee, lateral box jump burpee, high tuck jump burpee, burpee to pull-up, and on and on!

Fitfluential burpee challenge

Check out the 1000 Burpee Challenge through Fitfluential. You could be in the running to win a great prize from Under Armour if you show your progress on Instagram with the hashtag #FFBurpee.  I’m committing to 50 a day for 20 days. Today, I made it through 50 clapping push-up burpees, it was fun — am I weird?  Maybe, but my friend Valerie definitely is- this is what happens if you go on a trip with her — BURPEES ON THE AIRPLANE!

burpees in aisle of plane

Burpees on a plane! This really happened!

CrossFit + POSE: My Secret Weapon to Running 50 Miles on a Whim

SAMSUNGA few weeks ago, Valerie Hunt, my good running friend (who, conveniently, happens to be a coach for both POSE Method and CrossFit) dragged me across the country to pace her in the first half of an ultra-marathon. When she first told me of the plan to run the American River Endurance 50 Mile Run in Sacramento, CA, I put my hands up to my ears as in “la-la-la, I can’t hear you.” I thought either she was teasing, dehydrated and in a delusional state, or perhaps a little more masochistic than I realized.  But my initial displeasure didn’t faze her one bit; you see, it’s not the first time I’ve dug in my heels when called to go outside my comfort zone — that scary place on the other side of “what I THINK I know. “

For example, when she first instructed me in POSE Method to improve my running mechanics, I cringed, I bitched, I belly-ached.  All those “falling” and “pulling” and “fore-foot” landing drills felt foreign, awkward and, quite frankly, unnecessary. After all, I KNEW how to run, I had been running for 15 years at that point — and quite well, thank-you-very-much.  Oh yeah, except for those times when I was sidelined because of ongoing foot, ankle and hip injuries. Eventually, I let her coach me through the principles of POSE and we checked in on form at least two times a week; now the movements are as natural to me as “the old way” and I run injury-free with more efficiency and  less impact than ever before.

Valerie and Jennifer practicing POSE Method drills,

Valerie and Jennifer practicing POSE Method drills,

This entire example of KNOWING (make that NOT KNOWING) what is good for me in running mechanics was almost entirely replicated with my debut into CrossFit almost two years ago – only the running drills were replaced with functional WOD exercises and my objections were even more on the defense. I’d tell my friend, “I DO strength train, you know, I sit there in the gym and do bicep curls and leg-extensions – but nothing too hard-core, I don’t want to bulk up.”  After her eye-rolling, Valerie took off her POSE coach hat and put on her CrossFit coach hat (although actually, the two hats can be worn teamed up together!)and patiently began taking baby steps with me, teaching me the basic movements used in CrossFit. On those mornings after, when I awoke too sore, I would conveniently “forget” about CrossFit and focus on my running.

However, the realization that I needed to marry the two together forever came when she took me to CrossFit Endurance Camp a few months later.  Because “endurance” was in the name, I figured I’d be a natural because, after all, I was a hot-shot runner and therefore a stellar athlete (insert sarcastic tone). Who cares that I could only do one pull-up and thought a “Good Morning” was a yoga position. However, after spending a weekend at camp getting one-upped in everything from pull-ups to presses, I was humbled enough to admit that maybe I DIDN’T KNOW what was best for me, my body and my running.

And, that’s when I committed to making it all work together, the CrossFit and the running and the being good to my body. And, today I’m happy to report that I didn’t bulk up (in fact, I am leaner than ever), I have broken all my previous Master’s PRs in every distance from 5k to marathon, and have had virtually NO injuries to speak of. Even when I was much younger, one of my biggest aches and pains after a race would be my lower back; well, no more !  But probably most impressive thing to me is that I feel like I’m prepared to do anything, at any time.

2013_04 america river torin shoes

Yup, you guessed it! After agreeing to pace my friend and coach, Valerie Hunt, and CrossFit Games star, Carey Kepler, for 20 miles during the American River 50 Mile Endurance Run, I decided to make my own go for the finish line. Lets’ do this; why not? I was about 18 miles into the run when I decided it would be no big deal to just complete the whole thing. Who cared that I had never run a step past 26.2 miles and my latest long run in ages had been just 13 miles? With no training, no special preparations, no pre-race worrying, I was free to just run and enjoy. As the three of us picked up the pace on our final miles to the finish, we looked and felt strong. We reveled in the cheers from the spectators and high-fived our awesome friends who jumped in for a few hundred yards after crewing us the entire way along the course. These were uphill miles and very few participants were still running at this point. While my legs were dead tired at the end of the day, I finished the race easily and recovered quickly enough to place high in a 10 mile race the next weekend.

american river run bling

I have no doubt that it was the combination of all-over functional fitness (from CrossFit) and efficient running mechanics (from POSE) that gave me the wherewithal to run 50 miles on a whim. Because CrossFit is all about “constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement” and POSE focuses on moving your body in a series of efficient positions (hello, POSE is not just for running it can be applied to any human movement), the two team up perfectly to keep me prepared to do nearly anything that comes up on the spur of the moment – like running 50 miles – without too much trouble!  I don’t know if I would ever run 50 miles again, but it is a thrill to know that I could at any time!

jennifer fisher_thefitfork_stronger than I thought

 

Core Values

Valerie Hunt CrossFit abs

Aspire to abs like these with easy core workout.

There are many reasons to exercise your core muscles, not just having killer six-pack abs like my friend Valerie Hunt from Fit & Fearless CrossFit – although we’ll all agree this is a nice perk! Keeping fit in your midsection, by working out both the abs and back muscles, helps the body function properly with everyday chores like lugging around a kicking toddler or unloading bags of mulch from car. With stronger core muscles, you’ll be less prone to injury and have more stability, flexibility and muscle tone to boot! I used to avoid sit-ups and crunches at all costs, until one day after a 10-mile running race I wondered why my back hurt more than my legs. Apparently, it was almost too much for my weak core to stay upright for the distance – that’s when I gave in to a new workout plan that included a little more attention to my middle! Nothing hardcore or time-consuming, you can make up a routine at home that takes 15 minutes or less, two to three times a week. There are plenty of core exercises to choose from if you surf around the Web or flip through fitness magazines, here are three fun and fairly easy moves to get you started that were first published in Real Simple:

                                               Knee Fold Tuck 

(A) Sit tall, hands on floor, knees bent, squeezing a medium ball between them. (B) Lift knees so shins are about parallel to the floor; extend arms. Pull knees toward shoulders, keeping upper body still. Bring knees back to starting position. Repeat 15 to 20 times.

 

Side Balance Crunch

Begin with left knee and left hand on the floor, right arm straight up. Extend right leg so your body forms a straight line. (B) Pull right knee toward torso and right elbow toward knee. Straighten arm and leg. Repeat 10 times, then switch sides.

 

Sliding Pike

(A) Begin in a plank on an uncarpeted floor, hands under shoulders and a towel under feet. (B) With legs straight, raise hips and draw legs toward hands into a pike position—your feet should slide easily. Hold for one count, then return to start. Repeat 10 times.

 

Living Through (and Loving) the Deadlift

The first time I saw this exercise, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be for me.  I mean some massive 250+ pound guy was lifting a bar with an insanely large amount of weight on it as his eyeballs bulged out and he made Neanderthal-like grunting noises.  Really, how could this help me keep my status as lean-mean running machine and bona fide girly-girl?

But, but then my friend Valerie Hunt, a personal training guru and POSE running coach at Fit and Fearless CrossFit, reminded me how I’m always whining and complaining about tired legs that couldn’t power up a hill during races and a sore back and midsection after long training runs. She encouraged me to give the deadlift another look, reminding me that – if performed correctly – the deadlift is really a whole-body exercise that engages the quads, glutes, lower back along with the abs, traps and upper back. Check out this diagram that shows all the muscles involved – amazing!

I’m not planning on transforming into a weight-lifting record-setter by any means; I just want to reap the benefits of explosive power and overall strength this functional move can bring to my running – and everything else!   Using a modest amount of weight, about 75% of my body weight, I’ve been doing five sets of five lifts once per week (which is perfect for beginners) and am looking forward to seeing the results of this functional exercise in a 10K race next weekend.

For more information and an example of safe and proper technique, please check out The Deadlift by Greg Glassman published in The CrossFit Journal.