Delicious Roasted Cauliflower

Great easy way to make some tasty cauliflower! I have also modified this recipe for use in my low-carb cauliflower "mac n cheese" which I will be posting next.

Ingredients:

1 Large Head Cauliflower
2 Cloves Garlic
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 400. Break Cauliflower into florets of your choice. Dice up garlic. Combine all in a mixing bowl; try and get the cauliflower as evenly coated with the oil as possible. Cook on 400 for 10 minutes and remove the pan and flip/stir the cauliflower. Cook on 400 another 10 minutes and it is done!

Optional: If you plan to eat the cauliflower plain you can sprinkle some parmasean cheese on and flip the oven to broil for the last 2-3 minutes.

Remove from the oven, let cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

Getting back on the mat, and getting into deep half guard

So I have about ten excuses why I have been off of BJJ for the most part for about 6 months. Here is a not so comprehensive list in no particular order. Just know it was one thing after the other and not all at once, hopefully it gets the point across:

• Broken big toe (first time)
• Dual nevicular fracture (foot broken in two places)
• Another broken toe, very bad break
• Eye surgery
• A ton of other stuff I don't feel like posting on the internet
• etc...

So yeah, those are my excuses. Everything is healed up and some more personal things seem to be falling back into place. The important thing? I am back on the mat and hungry as ever! So while being away some of the guys that were new when I was in the gym have stuck around and gotten pretty tough. I come in rusty as ever and while they aren't quite crushing me they are definitely giving me a hard time! I did notice right away that one demon in particular that I was working through before my string of injuries came back to haunt me; getting caught in turtle guard.

I have identified how I am ending up there (losing a scramble) but could not find a way out. It seemed like I was doomed to be turtled up every time I rolled with no way to escape. Sure, I wasn't being submitted but I think what my opponents didn't know was that I really was kind of lost as to how to escape. So what did I do to finally crack the code? I Googled it.* I came up with a great video that demonstrates an exceptionally simple way to recover from turtle guard. The video below illustrates the simple turtle guard escape: sitting on your ass and pulling guard/half guard.

*Please note that my instructors attempted to teach me firemans carry's, peek outs, sucker drags and a bunch of other techniques every time I asked for help and I just couldn't grasp it. This is my fault, not any fault of my instructors. I suck so this simple stuff works for me.



So yeah, simply sitting on my hip when they are coming around has made my turtle guard experience about 1000x better. I used to spend my drive into class thinking "gee, I wonder how much of today's class I will spend in turtle guard." Not anymore. But, as with pretty much anything in BJJ, learning one new technique opens up more obstacles or as I call them, opportunities.

The problem? I keep getting stuck in half guard now and have learned just how terrible my half guard game is. So, I did what I did last time I had a hurdle like this: I Googled it. In my search for a half guard sweep I found this next beauty and drilled it with my girlfriend before class (she wasn't too happy but was a trooper), with a few students during class, and my instructor after class. I didn't know it but it looks like the video below has started my deep half journey and I am happy to finally see it.




Before this video I must admit that I wasn't quite sure what deep half was but after trying this out and feeling the change in my opponents balance, they way that I am in control from the bottom, I know that I am going to start using deep half moving forward. There is another guy in my class who works a ton of deep half and I think him and I are going to be trying a lot of new stuff together. I am excited!

So, I suggest both of these videos to anyone who gets stuck in turtle guard or half guard. Both great techniques; the first one simple, the second one not so much, but both are fantastic and so far have proven to be effective. I truly feel that linking these two techniques has gotten me over two huge hurdles in my game. 1) Constantly being stuck in turtle guard and 2) Getting over the relative fear of always getting crushed when pulling half guard.

Thanks for listening.

--Danny

Cauliflower Ham Bake

So I decided to try a few cauliflower recipes to expand my low carb horzions and on the second try I found this little gem! This bake reminds me of augratin potatos or scalloped potatoes. I ended up eating this with my toy salsa and it was excellent! I hope you enjoy it as well!

A note: I used a 1 pound ham steak which was about 1/3 the price per pound as the other ham AND just the right size when chopped into cubes.
Ingredients:

2 lbs cauliflower
2 lbs ham
8 oz cheddar cheese
1 cup heavy cream
2 eggs beaten

Start by breaking the cauliflower up into manageable floret size. Think broccoli florets. steaming/boiling the cauliflower. I enjoy steaming as it is easy and has little mess but whatever you want to do is fine here. The cauliflower does not have to be completely steamed as it will continue to cook when baking. Next, mash up the cauliflower slightly. Think macaroni size, maybe a little bigger, seems to be the best texture. Beat the eggs and mix with the cream. Mix everything together and put in a baking dish.

If your cauliflower is still hot cook on 375 for 30 minutes - I like to add some cheese on top at the end and give it five minutes to melt, this is up to you.

If you let the cauliflower cool down cook on 375 for 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

Awesome Chorizo, Pico and Jack Scarmble

Just had an amazing scramble that Emily came up with and wanted to jot this down as it was SO tasty!

Ingredients:

3 eggs (beated)

Chorizo, about 2 ounces

1/8 cup Pico De gallo (or your favorite salsa)

Monterey Jack Cheese (shredded or 1/4" squares are the best)

This is super simple. Put the chorizo in your egg pan and brown it. Add eggs and cook until almost done. When almost done stir in cheese until melted. If using squares try to let them melt but not mix in too much, they will act like little flavor crystals. Mix in pico and serve.

You can also top the scramble with your favorite salsa/pico rather than mixing in. This scramble was so easy and tasty I had to share it!

Beef Taco Soup

1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic minced
1 Pound ground beef
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
few dashes of tabasco
8 oz cream cheese
1 10 oz can of Rotel (drained)
1 4 oz can of diced green chilis
1 14 oz can of chicken or beef broth (I prefer chicken but beef is great as well.)
1/2 cup heavy cream
A few dashes of salt and pepper

Brown ground beef in large pot, add in diced onion and minced garlic. After ground beef is browned drain off liquid and add cumin and chili powder. Mix in well and add cream cheese (it helps to soften up the cream cheese in the microwave first). Mix the cream cheese in until it is evenly distributed and add all other ingredients. Cook until warm. Serve with some shredded cheddar cheese on top and add a dollop of sour cream as well.

BJJ Journal - 5//19/2011

Today during the day it was jut me Morgan, and Donna. Donna is a blue belt, Morgan is my 3-stripe brown belt head instructor.

We covered the standing guard pass. Basically the move involves grabbing your opponents lapels and standing one foot at a time (think Sumo style). From here you anticipate their legs opening behind your back at which point you want to squat over their legs almost like a stack. One important detail is to keep your head up and not lean over.

Once their legs have broken you need to stay heavy. Control the leg and if needed slide the leg downward while keeping your bod weight on your opponent. use your body and keep pressure on them while you pass and try not to let them get to their knees. End in good solid side control with good pressure on your opponent.

BJJ Journal - 5/5/2011

So this is my first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) entry. It will be much like my Judo Journal only the topic is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Today I did a lunchtime class. It was me, Nate, Ray, and our instructor Morgan. Morgan is a 2 stripe brown belt I am currently a 3 stripe white, Ray is a 2 stripe white, and Nate is in his second class so no stripes yet.

At this point I am training for my first BJJ tournament on Saturday so Morgan was nice enough to help me work on some things, mainly what to do when I have pulled half guard.

The first thing we drilled from half guard is correct posture. I do not want my back flat on the mat, ever, and especially not when using half guard. This means my body is always to one side.

The next very important step is to get the under hook. This means that if my arm is on the outside of my opponents arm (think over the shoulder) I need to change to have my arm under his arm (like hugging under the arm pit). To achieve this I need to move my arm inside and under my opponent placing my hand in front of me on the ground (remember, i am on my side so my hand would be in front of my body.). Next I need to work my hand back out and under his arm. This can be tied in with the next part of the escape to make some space.

Next I need to get up on my elbow on posted up on my hand. Also remember that if I am unable to get the under hook I can start working to get up on my elbow/hand and often times this will open the door to let my hand sneak under for the under hook.

Once in this position there are options. I can either pull my head out and go to my knees or I can pull my opponent onto his back and let his weight pull me up into side control. Which way to go depends mostly on what he is giving me.

If he is staying low on me I want to slip my head out. It is important that I leave my same side hook in as I come up. Basically I use my under hook to pull my head through and then I sit up and I am already in a great harness position.

The other option is if my opponent is up high on me. This means that his center of gravity is closer to my torso than my hips. If so I can grab with my under hook and pull him toward his back. I will let his arm stay behind my head so that when he starts to roll over he takes me with him. On the way up I want to slip my hook out and I am in a great position for side control, knee on stomach, and possibly even mount.

We trained a few variations as well. One was the same as the other two up until you are posted out on your hand. The move involved shooting an arm under your opponents knee (the knee furthest from you) and basically do the last variation I discussed only while lifting and controlling the leg as well.

I rolled around with both Nate and Ray and was able to pull these off while rolling and it felt great. I really appreciate Morgan working with me on what I feel is a great big hole in my game. I worked a lot on side control escapes a few weeks back and while I am far from perfect at it I at least feel like I have some idea of what I am doing when put in side control and when I pull half guard.

Basically, the top game is the easy part, I just don't want to get stuck on bottom so I have been working it every chance I get!

Thanks to everyone for helping me get ready for my first tournament!