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SMITHERS! RELEASE THE HAMS!
... been busier than a termite in a woodpile lately, travel work and all that good stuff... and a lady has me all gooned up...
... but its back in the food saddle happening NOW!
Between this and other threads, the crux of the biscuit has been determined to be the following:
Quick breakdown of my goals and where this food is taking me. I am 40 years old, 6' even and currently at 226lbs. I started last year at close to 300lbs and miserable. I had let my life fall into a shit can from personal problems at home, a six year lawsuit that looked as if it had no end, to injuries that added excuses to my exuses, etc.. the good news is, i have dropped about 75lbs in weight, and within that number have added a LOT of LBM and my strength although not at my PLing all time high is up there and my endurance: best in my life since my racing days. Am I natural? No. Is that for you? I havent the slightest idea. But I can tell you this: its way more than 75% diet. I like to joke and say its 90% diet but you will make that call on your own.
You have the Digested version of the history, now lets get to food.
Again, i am approaching this as if you DONT already do all this stuff. you might. you might do it better, just take what you need and leave the rest, my hope is that a little bit of this rant, even just a smidgeon, helps at all. that would make it a success for me.
It's Sunday late afternoon and its time to cooks some for the WHOLE week. I eat 6 meals a day. two of which are shakes that look like this:
Two shakes that consist of Two Scoops of EAS Whey, a half a banana, 1tbs of ANPB, 1tsp of Flax oil and the post workout of the two shakes gets an addition of a very low carb, low fat VERY high protein yogurt.
The breakdown for the shakes looks like this:
kcals: 822
pro: 52% @ 115gm
cho: 17% @ 42gm (of which 4 are fiber)
fat: 31% @ 30gm (sat:6, poly:12, mono:12)
Flavors come from the addition of one or more of the following non nutrient dense addtions: a sugar free coffee syrup, cinamon, fresh ginger, instant coffee or yesterdays coffee frozen into cubes (thanks Jen, darling, you rule), ground fennel seeds, a drop of orange or grapefruit oil.. wow.. any and most of the above in reason mix and match pretty well...
Ok, y'all have your shake thing down to a science anyway, so i wont belabor the point, now its onto getting foods ready:
I get a decent sized pasta type pot on the fire, for brown rice and barley. in goes goes two low sodium chicken bullion cubes, a tablespoon of ready chopped garlic out of the jar, a healthy pinch of black pepper, a tbs of low sodium 'superior' soy, a tablespoon of chopped red chillies out of a jar, a tbs of ginger purre out of the jar and a tbs of lemongrass out of jar.
WHOA!! HOLY SHIT the kitchen already smells like its time for sex RIGHT NOW! and i haven't chopped a damn thing or even pulled out a cutting board. You say, but Mr. Melonhead, all that store bought stuff is not as fresh as if i slaved like a damn fool and prepped it all from natural... uh.. yeah? you're right, tell it to my mom and I have to fight you, but for us: it WORKS! and its DONE without ANY clean up, so the trade off of a little flavor for the ease of prepperation is cool with me...
Ok. UncleBens Brown Rice takes about 40 minutes, barley takes about an hour?!?! nahhh... i want to undercook them both, you will see why later. Sooo... bring our monster awesome huge sexy as hell broth to a boil and season it a bit if its lonely, you be the judge by TASTING IT!!! You want taste? you have to TASTE IT! Ok, in goes the barley, timer for 15 minutes. When it goes ding, in goes the rice.. In the same pot, Cheffy?!!? SACRILEDGE!! yah yah i know, fine, it works, ok? just dont tell the union. Set the timer again. please.
While thats cooking away, I get out my chicken boobs that i have artfully defrosted in the fridge over night, I am going to cook 8 of these firm, natural, supple, smooth beauties,(er.. sorry.. i need some TLC, LOL) in two batches of four, in the... gasp... MICROWAVE!!!
Ok, ok, i know jen and vel would rather grill or poach these boobs, but frankly, I DONT HAVE THE TIME! I need to get in and out of this kitchen in record time, and do little to no dishes or pots. SO... here goes Microwaving Boobs 101: i lay four of them out on a dinner plate with the pointy ends pointing in, that is to say: fat parts out toward the rim, that makes sence, no? Right. Do that for all eight using two plates, and onto two breasts use a different dry spice mix. This past sunday, two boobs got 'Italian Herb Mix', two got 'Asian Mix', two got 'Montreal Chicken', two got 'Mescuite Chop Mix'. Into the wave goes one plate, i have a monster microwave, but have done this on a basic 750w model and four smallish boobs take ABOUT 8-10 minutes: you will have to experiment with this to get it just right, but remember they continue to cook after you take them out, so when the timer goes off, just give them a quick poke in their thickes part with your index finger. Firm means done. Not sure? wait for 3-4 minutes and sneak a cut with a sharp knife, done? Jaming. Dry? next time lower the cooking time by a full minute. You get the idea.
One batch is done, get the next one in and cook for one minute less than the last one: microwaves cook faster when warmed up.
When your timer is done on your brown rice and barley mix, strain and spread on a pan or big bowl and let it cool.
when your grains are cool get out your sandwich bags.. you will need a lot of them. get your *gasp* frozen vegetable mixes out of the freezer, i have three different kinds by law: asian mix, brocoly and a 'garden mix' of mostly brocoli, carrots and cauliflower. Yah, i know the carrots are a no no, so sue me.
Get out your nuts....er... yah. Uh huh. well then. SORRY, I digress: get out your walnuts, pecans, unsalted peanuts, pine nuts and hulled roasted pumpkin seeds.
Get out your flax oil.
Time to bag it up.
A half cup of my grain mix into as many bags as it takes. Three quarters of a cup of my diffenent frozen veggies mixes into the bags: one third gets asian, on third gets.. you get the idea. One fifth of the bags get a scoop of walnuts, one fifth get pecans, one fifth get a tbs of pine nuts, one fifth get pumpin seeds or peanuts. Every bag gets a scant tsp of flax oil. If I am feeling energetic, a pic one third of the bags and toss in mustard seeds, one third get black sesame seeds, on third gets nada.
WHEW... i have a sea of small plastic bags on my counter top that have:
-A great grain combo that affords fantasticly complex carbs.
-My fats spread evenly through the day
-Nuts and seeds that add both natures highest forms of Electrolytes as well as great EFAs and CRUNCH and FLAVOR
-A great, diverse set of vegatables.
-All without cutting or prepping SQUAT!
Close 'em up and freeze them, all but for 8 bags, which are for monday and tuesday, each day i take out four more for the DAY AFTER TOMORROW so they have time to defrost in the fridge, and since we slightly undercooked the grains, they will soak up any water expelled by the defrosting of the frozen veggies. I now have boobs for two days, and i bring to work with me either pre-washed spinach or romaine to add the needed freshness.
At work i keep: three kinds of hot sauce, two kinds of vinegar (rice and sherry) and some mustard in case i need to really mix up the flavors.
Ok, you purists are ready to puke. i just made a MISH MASH of flavors, but FEH! on you, they all WORK, they all took me NO TIME, i had to wash exactly ONE pot and two dishes and two spoons. I have a VERY diverse set of grains set up for a week or more and can do the proteins easy peasy: take two boobs to work, a can of tuna. Next day? Scramble up some egg whites and have some quick fresh fish. No muss, no fuss, and PERFECTLY alligned to my macro needs.
Flavor. No added transfats or salts. Healthy and under my complete control.
My boob & grain fest looks like this WITH the shakes breakdown included:
kcals: 2138
pro: 47% @ 249gm
cho: 26% @ 160gm (of which 25gm are fiber)
fat: 28% @ 65gm (sat:10, poly:28, mono:17)
Next time its swap out the Barely for Quinoi, maybe? Hmmm...
questions?
Ask the chef.
SMITHERS! RELEASE THE HAMS!
... been busier than a termite in a woodpile lately, travel work and all that good stuff... and a lady has me all gooned up...
... but its back in the food saddle happening NOW!Between this and other threads, the crux of the biscuit has been determined to be the following:
- We need to get food prepared in advance as much as possible, the demon for most of us is the savagery of store bought meals: too much of what we dont want. period. if we dont prepare, we end up guessing and that sucks, no? yes.
- We need to flavorise our strictest diets phases, thats the main need, make the restricted calorie life less feckin' boring and we are apt to consider it liveable rather than a punishment.
- Make it EASY damnit! Dont make me work any harder (well, not much anyway) than i already do! I dont have the friggin time to do the gourmet boogie all the time just ot eek out some flavor from my day to day. PLEASE, MR. SMOOVE, DONT MAKE ME SPEND HOURS PREPPING. I heard ya, i wont, i promise.
- Good god man, do NOT, repeat DO NOT make me do a lot of dishes. I'll kill ya, so it only takes a half hour to cook, if it takes an hour to clean up after it, you stil hosed me and i wont follow it.: back to the crap food for me... NO i wont let you slave away in the kithen. I promise
- All thats well and good, dont make me go broke. Eating all this food isn't cheap as it is, PLEASE dont add a lot of expence. Hmmmm.. ok.. you may have to make some startup investments in some spices/etc, but then its back to normal costs...
- Take it as law: the determination of total kCals and macro breakdowns is on you guys. You know what you need, if you dont, Mr. X and the other knowlegable folks on these boards have more than a dozen dozen times broken down the isocaloric diets and ckds by the macros, and your personal calorie requirements are TOTALLY that YOUR PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS. This particular thread is about methodology and flavor. I will use my diet and habits as examples, both good and bad, to try and steer you toward doing some stuff that is inspiring to YOU... many of you are way ahead of me in this regard, and to you i say 'thanks' for getting me going in the right direction more than once, i am trying to return the favor. That having been said... lets do this.
Quick breakdown of my goals and where this food is taking me. I am 40 years old, 6' even and currently at 226lbs. I started last year at close to 300lbs and miserable. I had let my life fall into a shit can from personal problems at home, a six year lawsuit that looked as if it had no end, to injuries that added excuses to my exuses, etc.. the good news is, i have dropped about 75lbs in weight, and within that number have added a LOT of LBM and my strength although not at my PLing all time high is up there and my endurance: best in my life since my racing days. Am I natural? No. Is that for you? I havent the slightest idea. But I can tell you this: its way more than 75% diet. I like to joke and say its 90% diet but you will make that call on your own.
You have the Digested version of the history, now lets get to food.
Again, i am approaching this as if you DONT already do all this stuff. you might. you might do it better, just take what you need and leave the rest, my hope is that a little bit of this rant, even just a smidgeon, helps at all. that would make it a success for me.
It's Sunday late afternoon and its time to cooks some for the WHOLE week. I eat 6 meals a day. two of which are shakes that look like this:
Two shakes that consist of Two Scoops of EAS Whey, a half a banana, 1tbs of ANPB, 1tsp of Flax oil and the post workout of the two shakes gets an addition of a very low carb, low fat VERY high protein yogurt.
The breakdown for the shakes looks like this:
kcals: 822
pro: 52% @ 115gm
cho: 17% @ 42gm (of which 4 are fiber)
fat: 31% @ 30gm (sat:6, poly:12, mono:12)
Flavors come from the addition of one or more of the following non nutrient dense addtions: a sugar free coffee syrup, cinamon, fresh ginger, instant coffee or yesterdays coffee frozen into cubes (thanks Jen, darling, you rule), ground fennel seeds, a drop of orange or grapefruit oil.. wow.. any and most of the above in reason mix and match pretty well...
Ok, y'all have your shake thing down to a science anyway, so i wont belabor the point, now its onto getting foods ready:
I get a decent sized pasta type pot on the fire, for brown rice and barley. in goes goes two low sodium chicken bullion cubes, a tablespoon of ready chopped garlic out of the jar, a healthy pinch of black pepper, a tbs of low sodium 'superior' soy, a tablespoon of chopped red chillies out of a jar, a tbs of ginger purre out of the jar and a tbs of lemongrass out of jar.
WHOA!! HOLY SHIT the kitchen already smells like its time for sex RIGHT NOW! and i haven't chopped a damn thing or even pulled out a cutting board. You say, but Mr. Melonhead, all that store bought stuff is not as fresh as if i slaved like a damn fool and prepped it all from natural... uh.. yeah? you're right, tell it to my mom and I have to fight you, but for us: it WORKS! and its DONE without ANY clean up, so the trade off of a little flavor for the ease of prepperation is cool with me...
Ok. UncleBens Brown Rice takes about 40 minutes, barley takes about an hour?!?! nahhh... i want to undercook them both, you will see why later. Sooo... bring our monster awesome huge sexy as hell broth to a boil and season it a bit if its lonely, you be the judge by TASTING IT!!! You want taste? you have to TASTE IT! Ok, in goes the barley, timer for 15 minutes. When it goes ding, in goes the rice.. In the same pot, Cheffy?!!? SACRILEDGE!! yah yah i know, fine, it works, ok? just dont tell the union. Set the timer again. please.
While thats cooking away, I get out my chicken boobs that i have artfully defrosted in the fridge over night, I am going to cook 8 of these firm, natural, supple, smooth beauties,(er.. sorry.. i need some TLC, LOL) in two batches of four, in the... gasp... MICROWAVE!!!
Ok, ok, i know jen and vel would rather grill or poach these boobs, but frankly, I DONT HAVE THE TIME! I need to get in and out of this kitchen in record time, and do little to no dishes or pots. SO... here goes Microwaving Boobs 101: i lay four of them out on a dinner plate with the pointy ends pointing in, that is to say: fat parts out toward the rim, that makes sence, no? Right. Do that for all eight using two plates, and onto two breasts use a different dry spice mix. This past sunday, two boobs got 'Italian Herb Mix', two got 'Asian Mix', two got 'Montreal Chicken', two got 'Mescuite Chop Mix'. Into the wave goes one plate, i have a monster microwave, but have done this on a basic 750w model and four smallish boobs take ABOUT 8-10 minutes: you will have to experiment with this to get it just right, but remember they continue to cook after you take them out, so when the timer goes off, just give them a quick poke in their thickes part with your index finger. Firm means done. Not sure? wait for 3-4 minutes and sneak a cut with a sharp knife, done? Jaming. Dry? next time lower the cooking time by a full minute. You get the idea.
One batch is done, get the next one in and cook for one minute less than the last one: microwaves cook faster when warmed up.
When your timer is done on your brown rice and barley mix, strain and spread on a pan or big bowl and let it cool.
when your grains are cool get out your sandwich bags.. you will need a lot of them. get your *gasp* frozen vegetable mixes out of the freezer, i have three different kinds by law: asian mix, brocoly and a 'garden mix' of mostly brocoli, carrots and cauliflower. Yah, i know the carrots are a no no, so sue me.
Get out your nuts....er... yah. Uh huh. well then. SORRY, I digress: get out your walnuts, pecans, unsalted peanuts, pine nuts and hulled roasted pumpkin seeds.
Get out your flax oil.
Time to bag it up.
A half cup of my grain mix into as many bags as it takes. Three quarters of a cup of my diffenent frozen veggies mixes into the bags: one third gets asian, on third gets.. you get the idea. One fifth of the bags get a scoop of walnuts, one fifth get pecans, one fifth get a tbs of pine nuts, one fifth get pumpin seeds or peanuts. Every bag gets a scant tsp of flax oil. If I am feeling energetic, a pic one third of the bags and toss in mustard seeds, one third get black sesame seeds, on third gets nada.
WHEW... i have a sea of small plastic bags on my counter top that have:
-A great grain combo that affords fantasticly complex carbs.
-My fats spread evenly through the day
-Nuts and seeds that add both natures highest forms of Electrolytes as well as great EFAs and CRUNCH and FLAVOR
-A great, diverse set of vegatables.
-All without cutting or prepping SQUAT!
Close 'em up and freeze them, all but for 8 bags, which are for monday and tuesday, each day i take out four more for the DAY AFTER TOMORROW so they have time to defrost in the fridge, and since we slightly undercooked the grains, they will soak up any water expelled by the defrosting of the frozen veggies. I now have boobs for two days, and i bring to work with me either pre-washed spinach or romaine to add the needed freshness.
At work i keep: three kinds of hot sauce, two kinds of vinegar (rice and sherry) and some mustard in case i need to really mix up the flavors.
Ok, you purists are ready to puke. i just made a MISH MASH of flavors, but FEH! on you, they all WORK, they all took me NO TIME, i had to wash exactly ONE pot and two dishes and two spoons. I have a VERY diverse set of grains set up for a week or more and can do the proteins easy peasy: take two boobs to work, a can of tuna. Next day? Scramble up some egg whites and have some quick fresh fish. No muss, no fuss, and PERFECTLY alligned to my macro needs.
Flavor. No added transfats or salts. Healthy and under my complete control.
My boob & grain fest looks like this WITH the shakes breakdown included:
kcals: 2138
pro: 47% @ 249gm
cho: 26% @ 160gm (of which 25gm are fiber)
fat: 28% @ 65gm (sat:10, poly:28, mono:17)
Next time its swap out the Barely for Quinoi, maybe? Hmmm...
questions?
Ask the chef.
Last edited:
