Paleo Tandoori Sauce- for Chicken and Veggies

Ahhh the Open is over :) I have such mixed emotions about this year. I know a few things... I should have trained harder after strength was such a glaring weakness last year. I did train, don't get me wrong, I did extra work above the normal programming to increase my strength, but looking back could I have done more? Probably. But the other part of me knows this was a rough year for training mentally for me and I decided to purposely take a step back... it is increasingly hard to compete with girls in their 20s training doubles or hours a day... and I need to stop frustrating myself trying. These last few months I geared my focus towards being a good mom, a good teacher, a good girl friend, and the best athlete I could be managing all of that. I didn't want to look back and think I was shitty at being a mom, but damn I did well in the open! Despite how unprepared I felt going into the Open this year, it was my best year yet place-wise, making it even hard to stomach what I could've done had I tried to work harder. My place in Central East in 2013 was 1507th, 2014- 433rd, 2015- 367, and this year, 2016- 255th. I had my highest placing ever in an open workout- 117th out of 8034 girls in 16.4. Can't be too mad about that! I also dropped 2.5 minutes from 14.5 to 16.5.... everyone else got better too so my place in that was my worst! But it's ok :) Re-focusing my attention to what made CrossFit fun in the first place helped- if I thought I did my best, I didn't re-do the workout. Would I have done better on the second try? Probably, but what's the point? If it wasn't going to help my team I didn't need to do it for my own validation. As I am now moving on from competing for the next few years... assuming I am not on the regional team, a dream I am learning to let go of... I look at my biggest fan and what she sees... She comes to the gym with me frequently- she was there at the beginning (albeit 8 weeks old) when I couldn't do a push-up on my knees and my baby-hands had no calluses having never lifted a weight- she sees me now still working hard to become better, pushing myself. She mimics my movements, tells me she is going to eat well so she can be strong like mommy. She has always been my "why"- she is why I train, why I take days off to be with her, shes always why I don't give up even when I want to. She's my "why" and she thinks I am the best athlete no matter what the leader board says and stepping back I need to keep that in mind- I really did do my best to balance life, work and training and I can still get better even if I next year's open is not my focus.

As I was officially closing up my house and saying good-bye- so sad to see an empty little blue house where a lot of memories and our new beginning was- I found a lot of things I hadn't looked at since before my divorce. Some of them being my cookbooks from my travels. I like Indian spices so when I was flipping through cookbooks from Malaysia I found some recipes from my host-family and decided to re-create one of my favorite spicy sauces. I poured mine over chicken, rice and broccoli because I am still following RP Strength diet programming and figured the coconut milk could be my "fat" so this was what my meals looked like :) 

I also made mine spicier by using more cayenne so this was not kid-friendly! Tandoori is usually used a chicken marinade with yogurt. The chicken is left in the yogurt-spice mixture overnight and then grilled... this could easily be used a marinade, I just prefer it as a sauce. I also subbed the yogurt for coconut milk to make it paleo and I like the flavor and fat it adds! 

Paleo Tandoori Sauce

- 1 tsp Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper* (more or less depending on how hot you like your food- I use 2 :)
- 2 tsp Paprika
- 2 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 2 tsp Cumin
- 2 tsp Turmeric
- 2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 Cup Full-Fat Coconut Milk (or cream)

1. Combine all of the spices in bowl- mix- add the coconut milk and stir again. Test for spice at this point, remember that you are not eating this plain so it can be a little spicy at this point and the food will cool it down. 

2. Store in the fridge and pour it over your veggies, chicken, or rice... yum!