Hello, hello! Updates AND a new recipe today, woo hoo! Let’s start with the recipe!

Easy Grilled Chicken Beer Marinade

First up today I have a recipe for a super easy marinade for chicken that really ups the flavor and juiciness of grilled chicken and the ingredients are things you probably already have on hand!

I just want to say first that the beer & sugar do not add any significant amount of sugar or calories to the chicken. Only a small bit will be absorbed by the chicken and the rest gets discarded. Ditto for the salt, so please don’t panic when you see sugar and salt in the recipe. When marinading chicken, salt draws some moisture out of the meat which then allows the meat to absorb some of the flavors and liquid from the beer (or at least that is how I understand it to work).

And also, this chicken won’t taste like beer per se, but if you absolutely hate the taste/smell of beer then it’s probably not for you. You can use any beer you like (or don’t like as they case may be!). We have a pantry full of beer and there are some that we really don’t like for drinking but they have been excellent to use as a marinade! I’ve used an IPA and a gluten free pale ale. The IPA had a stronger beer flavor whereas the pale ale was more mild. I really liked both even though I’m by no means a beer drinker 🙂

Ingredients

• 3-4 pounds chicken breast, cut into strips
• 1 can/bottle of beer
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 2 Tablespoons salt
• 1 Tablespoon sriracha or hot sauce of choice
• McCormick Garlic Pepper to taste (optional)

Combine all marinade ingredients in a casserole dish large enough to hold all the chicken or in a large ziploc bag. Cut the chicken breasts up into strips/pieces. There is no proper way to do this, just use a knife or kitchen sheers and chop away. Add the chicken to the marinade and make sure the chicken is completely submerged in the marinade. Marinate for 4-24 hours.

Heat outdoor grill to about 450 degrees F and grease the grates with some coconut oil by using a silicone brush (be careful, don’t singe your arm hair off).

Cook chicken for approximately 4 minutes on each side. Cooking times and temps vary greatly depending on the time of year, wind, the grill etc so just make sure the chicken is cooked all the way through.

Remove from the grill and enjoy!

Running (injury) Updates

And now for part 2 of this super exciting post. My running, or rather NOT running update!

I had been training for a 50K (31 mile) ultra trail marathon for about 10 weeks and everything was going great. I was waking up early and hitting the trails before work and then doing long runs on the weekend. Training was going awesome and my body was feeling good. I rarely missed a run and was keeping up with my mileage and then BAM, I came down with a case of “runners knee” and it stopped me dead.in.my.tracks.

One Saturday, about 3 weeks ago now, I went out for a 15 miler. I read the trail map wrong and the trail was twice as steep as I thought it would be which meant…it was really steep. But I have a steely determination so I ran this trail even though my body started screaming in pain. The trail was also half the distance I thought it was so after finishing that trail (in pain) I still had to run 6 more miles. So I ran to a different trail, still needed more miles, and finished with yet another trail which was also steep. At this point every step was extremely painful. But I pressed on anyway. Why? Because I never seem to learn my lesson and I hate the thought of quitting anything! Arrrgh!! I “only” made it 13 miles in 3 hours, 45 minutes. Yep.

The next day walking down stairs was agonizing. It felt like my knee cap was going to pop off and fly across the room. So I rested, rested, rested and finally went to the Dr. He told me I just have a case of runners knee and it’s super common and told me I will be fine in a few weeks and it’s really not a big deal. He even thought I would still be able to run the race.

But in my head it became a huge deal. I started thinking that after taking 3+ weeks off there is no way I will be able to resume my training program and pick up with 19+ mile workouts. Especially since it’s been 3 weeks and my knee only feels marginally better!

So it was a huge drama in my head and I started thinking, well at least I can still do the half marathon distance. But now that I’ve calmed down (which can only come with a significant time away from training I think) I realized this is such a tiny, insignificant thing and who cares if I run 0, 5, 13 or 30 miles? Nobody!! Ha! I’m just thankful that’s its not my ankle, it’s nothing major and like, whoopety-doo I have tendinitis. Gold star. And now I honestly don’t even care if I do any race at all, I just want to feel better so I can get outside and enjoy running because I really, truly love the heck out of it.

One of the mistakes I made during this train up is that I wasn’t doing any sort of cross training. I was advised that with that much running it’s best to not do anything else. So no mountain biking (which I love), no strength training, no other cardio, nothing.

But putting 100% effort, time, dedication & determination into just one activity is a recipe for disaster I realize. Because if that one activity is taken away from you, what do you have? For me, I suddenly had a whole heap of free time and anxiety to match it. My knee hurt so bad that even walking, biking, lifting and swimming hurt. So I was in a bad spot mentally there for a little while.

If I had been say, mountain biking once a week and going to yoga once a week it would have been much easier for me to shift my focus to those activities and I wouldn’t have freaked out so bad.

So now it’s feeling good enough to walk and do easy mountain biking and I can do yoga. So that’s where I’m at and I’m not totally fine with it but I recognize I’m being a giant drama queen and that’s annoying, haha!

Alright, that is quite a novel and probably enough for one post. I actually have another recipe I’m excited to put up so I will be back soon!

Have a great week!

Laura