I don’t often feel like I’m getting older, but this weekend…I feel old. My body feels old. After eating heavy Thanksgiving food, then doing over 270 wall balls in one day, then going out for a girls night out, having a couple cocktails and dancing in heels all night long, then starting Monday off with air dyne sprints…I feel really freaking old. I woke up this Tuesday morning and just laid on the couch for 40 minutes, staring out the windows because my body felt too exhausted to function yet. I mean, the clouds are pink outside so it’s pretty wonderful to look at, but still. This body needs a relaxing dip in a hot tub…OH WAIT WE GET OUR HOT TUB THIS WEEKEND!!!! Squeeeeeeelllll!
Feeling like I’m old AF was totally worth it though. My knees may be broken from dancing in heels all night long, but it was the best night out in Colorado that I’ve had in quite some time! I have no idea how I danced in heels all the time in college. I’m not much of a bar girl anymore, I just feel like I can drink cocktails and talk to friends in the comfort of my own home instead of at an annoying bar. But when my friend invited me to a 90’s dance party at a bar that has really tasty cocktails, I couldn’t say no. And it.was.awesome!! If you lived through the 90’s, you probably remember a lot of the music, but I bet you forgot about a lot of it, too. This dance party had every artist from Britney Spears to Alanis Morissette to TLC to boy bands, people who only sing in vowels, and music that you thought was totally punk like Crazy Town. It was so freaking awesome to sing every word from every song. And all I did was jump for 3 hours straight. I won’t be able to do that again for another few months while my knees heal. Cute.
Funny that I’m saying I feel too old because I just talked about feeling too young on my podcast this week. I said that I still feel too young to raise another human and that I’m still questioning even having children. It seemed to be quite the controversial topic because all sorts of people left comments both on the blog and on my social media. It was really interesting to see how many people felt the same way OR had children and still understood why I felt that way. It was just so cool to hear other people’s experiences and the thought process they’ve gone through with having children or not. So thank you to all you awesome people who left a comment on the topic!
But I need your help this coming week with my podcast! I’m doing another random reader questions episode and I’d love to hear from you and any random questions you have! So far I have questions that range from paleo household staples, breast augmentation, microblading, CrossFit, Jackson, and how to stay motivated! So a huge range and I’d love to add more questions to the list! So feel free to leave them below and I’ll add them to the list!
PS – this casserole is stupid easy. And totally delicious. Make it now!!!
BBQ Chicken Casserole
- Yield: 4-5 1x
Ingredients
- 1 medium spaghetti squash (about 21⁄2 pounds)
- 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded (about 4–5 cups)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 red onion (1/8 minced, 1/8 thinly sliced)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 bottle Tessemae’s BBQ Sauce
- 3 large eggs, whisked
- 2 fresno peppers, sliced
- 1/2 cup sliced banana peppers OR pickled jalapeños
- chopped cilantro, to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. Place the squash cut side down on a baking sheet and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the skin gives when you press your finger to it. Remove the squash from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
- Grease an 8×8 glass baking dish. Use a fork to remove the spaghetti squash threads then place them in a bowl. Add the chicken, garlic cloves, 1/8 minced onion, garlic powder, salt, red pepper flakes, black pepper and bbq sauce to a bowl and mix well. Then add eggs and mix until combine. Pour mixture into greased dish and smooth our with a spoon.
- Top casserole with 1/8 thinly sliced onion, sliced fresno peppers and banana peppers or pickled jalapeños.
- Place in oven and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the center is cooked through and edges have begun to brown.
- Let set for 10 minutes before slicing. Garnish with cilantro.
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I have a podcast question. I am currently at a great crossfit gym that has great coaches and I love the community. The problem is, I can no longer afford to go because I’m a student. I find that going 4 times a week gives me great results but the payment is getting to be a bit out of my budget (would rather spend on quality food). Should I move to another, smaller gym (with potentially crappy coaches) or stick to this gym going less than 4 times a week? I’m not sure I have it in me to do workouts on my own and I’ve been doing crossfit for so long that a Globo-gym gives me anxiety! What would you do?
Also, as far as eating. I eat pretty much paleo (occasional peanut butter and heavy cream bc they don’t affect me) but my issue is snacking! I know you said it’s ok to be hungry sometimes but how do you get your mind off of it?! I am especially hungry when I’m sore but the workout wasn’t too intense. What do you do to keep yourself from snacking ESPECIALLY since you work from home where all the food lives?!!? Thanks!
Does you husband eat paleo when you are out to dinner? I cook mostly paleo at home but when we go to dinner he always gravitates towards the grilled cheese or mac and cheese.
Also, if you did have kids, what would they eat? This includes eating out with children, chicken fingers or cheese pizza from the kids menu, or would you just order a burger with no bun from the regular menu.
I want to make sure my kids eat healthy, but don’t want to be restrictive and overbearing parent that monitors everything that goes in their mouth.
Totally random question I have for you is about your nails lol. Do you get acrylic nails (I didn’t want to say fake since that word sounds so negative), or are your nails your own? Also, how often do you get them done? I’ve been thinking of starting to get my nails done, and I really like the way yours look because they’re not too long. Anyway, any info on what you do would be great! Can’t wait for the next podcast!:)
Hey!
Thank you so much for your blog and daily inspiration. You’re amazing and I love your blog, podcast, and basically everything else you do.
Questions:
1.So random: How often do you walk Jackson? Do you walk him as much in the winter months? We just adopted a border collie, she is 6 years old, but obviously still needs exercise and we live in Utah and it snows like nobody’s business.
2. When you were beginning crossfit how did you improve in movements? i.e. lets say you wanted to improve on pull ups, double unders, and a few other movements. Would you work on one at a time, or do a little of all of them every day? I hope that makes sense…
3. As a food blogger, do you eat everything you cook? I know you’ve said that you have to cook/photograph in natural light. You make SO many recipes, do you just refrigerate it all? Give it away to people?
4. What is your favorite work out music?
Thank you for all you do.
Hey Juli!
I would love it if you could talk a bit about how you’ve dealt with injuries since you’ve been doing CrossFit. I’m not talking about serious injuries – I mean those small, nagging things like sore joints/tendons, etc. I love CrossFit and I’ve been doing it for about a year now, but I find that my shoulders and elbows take a beating, and I almost always have some sort of minor “overuse” injury to deal with. Maybe it’s because I’m 32 now, or maybe it’s because I just haven’t worked out this much in my life before. So I’m really interested in whether or not you’ve experienced an increase in small injuries in your time doing CrossFit, and what kinds of things you do for recovery. Thanks 🙂
OMG! I can’t wait to try this recipe tomorrow when all my friends are here to visit. They would surely love this. Thank you!
Hey Juli!
First off you’re #1, also this has to do with the casserole- not podcast (even though I do love it). Did you include the skin of the rotisserie chicken or just tossed it out? It’s not really much other than some fat and added flavour- I was just curious if you kept it in there!
Thanks so much, hope you have a great holiday season!
PS: I love Jackson, and your snapchats get me through long school days.
i didn’t. i usually just eat the skin first while i’m making something lol
Hi Juli, love your podcasts — I binge listened in a couple of days!! I also love your recipes and they’ve made eating Paleo a breeze!!
My question – I live in Nebraska and am wondering if any adjustments need to be made to some of the recipes due to you have altitude and me — well not so much. I tried the sweet potato gratin and it was very watery and the tortillas needed a lot more tapioca flour since the batter was really runny. I know box mixes always had an adjustment for altitude so it got me to thinking!!
And I agree that Scooters coffee sucks! I’m a transplant from Philly!
Thanks in advance. Jennifer
Never mind to my questions Juli. I figured it out myself – I was only using the liquid from the coconut milk and not mixing in the fat so today’s tortillas were perfect. Assuming I did the same thing with the sweet potato gratin. User error! By the way, my camel coat from Nordstrom’s arrived and I LOVE IT! I have shorter arms and love that I can cuff it and have a pretty color showing without having to spend tailoring money. Thanks for the recommendation!
This recipe looks amaze . . . can’t wait to try it!
Stoked on the podcast! The reader questions one from last time was great.
My questions:
1. What are your favorite snacks? Pre workout, post workout, late night?
2. How much prep for dinners do you do during the day? I workout at night sometimes and just can’t bear to start cooking and not eat until around 9pm.
Here’s my random question: how can I get a beautiful wedding ring/band like yours? I know you said your dad designed it. I’m wondering if he works for a larger jeweler or what his business is called. Every time you put your left hand in a photo I can’t focus on the food because your ring is BAM gorgeous!! Thanks Juli!
UHHHH totally agreed. would love to give your dad the business if that’s the case. just gotta find a fiancé first lol lol lol