Mike's Food Journal (Meal Recipes)

Many of us have wanted at one point or another to clean up our diets. I, for one, have read up just about everything that's come out on this forum (and others) about nutrition, without ever being able to really translate that to real life. Why? I knew what ingredients I had to get, I got them, but then I either didn't know what dishes to make with them or got sick of making tasteless food, which inevitably led to me going back to my old diet of sandwiches and pizza while all those chicken breasts were slowly rotting away in my fridge.

Let's face it - diets are not fun. If you're bulking, eating 3000+ clean calories a day is hard enough without having to put in all that effort cooking nice food. Same deal if you're cutting. It makes sticking to a workout routine that much harder.

Well, I spent some time recently trying to compile a list of clean, tasty, easy to prepare, and cheap recipes that follow Industry's rules for eating (http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=33874).

The bottom line is, I only wrote a few down, and they're mostly suitable for bulking as I added a few more fatty ingredients to make the dishes more palateable, but I'm gonna come up with more and post them here, the idea being to get a definive thread of recipes going on this forum.

Mostly, I'm assuming that the people reading this know how to cook, so I'm not going to go into great detail on how to do things, for example cooking pasta.

Go ahead and post new dishes or variations of mine.

Here goes for the first few:

Crab In Tomato Sauce And Spinach With Pasta

Ingredients (for 3 servings)
• Crab meat 170g x 2 (pref. canned)
• 50-75g Tomato sauce/light Bolognese
• Baby Spinach 225g
• Pasta (I prefer penne)
• Parmesan cheese (or subst. cheddar)

Instructions:
Start heating the water for the pasta and put the pasta in when the water boils.
Pour about a third of the tomato sauce into a frying pan. Heat it gently without allowing it to boil, and add the crab meat. Cook for 5 minutes at low-medium heat.
When the pasta is almost soft, add the spinach. Use a wooden spoon to mix the spinach well with the pasta. Cook until the spinach melts (if it is fresh) or until it is hot (if it is packaged).
Drain the water, add the rest of the tomato sauce. Add the crab meat and the cheese (parmesan or cheddar; I prefer cheddar). Mix thoroughly with the wooden spoon. If you're using cheddar, then place the saucepan on low heat until the cheese melts.


You can get more detailed instructions for this recipe at
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1945,149190-253203,00.html,
but note that the ingredients differ from mine.

Tuna, Egg, Rice, & Avocado Salad

Ingredients (for 3 servings)
• 150 grams of tuna
• 3 eggs
• 2-3 cups of rice
• 1 medium avocado.
• (optional) rocket salad

Instructions

Cook the rice and hard-boil the eggs. Slice eggs and combine everything, mixing thoroughly.

Excellent idea for a thread. I was actually going to do this myself at some point. Here is my first addition:

Dish:Chilli

Difficulty:Easy

Macro breakdown:Mostly protein and fat, carbs from veggies but this is ok after carb cutoff.

Ingredients:

800g of minced beef (Roughly 1.75 pounds)
Two cans of chopped tomatoes
1-2 onions
Chilli powder
Cumen powder
Tomato puree
Optional-Kidney beans/peas/other vegetables

How to make:

1.Put 800g unfrozen beef and the chopped onion into a pot, heat on high flame for a few minutes until beef is brown.
2.Rinse the fat out of the beef and put back into pot.
3.Add two cans off chopped tomatoes, some chilli powder (as much as you like), and some cumin. Also one-two tablespoons of tomato puree. Add kidney beans here if you like them if not go to stage 5.
4.Mix together and set on a low flame for 40-60 minutes stirring occasionally. If it starts to get too dry add a little boiling water.
5.Near the end, if you didn't add kidney beans, add some peas if you like them. Makesure and put them in 5-10 minutes before you take the whole dish off.

The above will do 2-4 meals depending on how much protein you need. You can use more or less meat and adjust the other ingredients accordingly. I usually have some liver tablets too bolster protein so I can spread it out over four servings. Something like this, or just adjust the amount of meat you are using:

BodyWeight:
120-150lbs-Four servings each roughly 200g of meat (40g protein)
150-180lbs-Three servings each roughly 270g of meat (55g protein)
180lbs+-Two servings a bit much, use a 1kg (2.25 pounds) of meat and spread out over three servings. Roughly 330g of meat (65-70g protein).
Effort and WBA-Two servings

You can store this in the fridge for one day, or freeze and eat when you want. I usually make four servings. One I leave out and eat later in the day, one I put in the fridge for the day after, and two I freeze for 2-3 days later.

Nice, simple recipe that pretty much everyone can make. This meal is better later in the day after your carb cutoff.

I'll maybe post up some more at some point. I have a good meatball recipe and a recipe for a greek dish called stefado. Both a little harder than this though.

Quagmire

Ps-This thread will probably be a great addition to the vault.

Bump.

Come on guys, lets see some input.

This is a great idea for a thread. Unfortunately, I don't really have anything to add, as most of my meals are very simple. Theres not much to frying a steak in a pan with an onion and a red pepper...

Still, if I come up with any ideas or see any good recipes elsewhere, I'll post them here.

SAFC said:

This is a great idea for a thread. Unfortunately, I don't really have anything to add, as most of my meals are very simple. Theres not much to frying a steak in a pan with an onion and a red pepper...

Still, if I come up with any ideas or see any good recipes elsewhere, I'll post them here.

Click to expand...

It doesn't matter, simple is good. I have never cooked steak with onion and red pepper, get that recipe up!

Tuna:

2 pouches of Tuna.
Thinly sliced scallions
diced red peppers (or any pepper)
olive oil
vinegar

eat as is, or heat up in a pan and pour over pasta.

I'll sticky this for a little while

Tuna: simple snack that I eat at night sometimes

2 Cans of tuna
4 tablespoons of cottage cheese
hot pepper rings

Serve in a bowl

Eggs: a nice meal that tastes good, really easy to cook.

6 large whole eggs
grated cheese
hot pepper rings
diced green pepper

Throw all this into a fry pan and stir for 15 seconds, then let it sit till one side of the egg thickens, flip it, and cook the other side. There, done.
Cooked with unsalted butter.

Ground beef: good meal that will fill you up

225g of lean ground beef(half a package where i buy it)
hot pepper rings(4-8 pcs)
diced green peppers(1/4 cup)
diced red peppers(1/4 cup)
diced tomato(half a tomato)
throw in a few large crackers to add thickness

Cook the beef in a fry pan till it's browned, then throw the rest of the ingredients in, mix it all around, turn the heat down to 50%, and put the lid on for roughly 2-4 minutes. This ensures the meat is cooked, and the vegetables are steamed rather than fried.

Cooked with unsalted butter or extra virgin olive oil.

Basic Steak

300-500g of steak
1 small onion
1 red pepper

Heat the pan with a little olive oil, and add in the steak. Fry for a minute or two on each side, and add in the sliced pepper and onion. Fry for a few more minutes each, depending on how you like your steak.

Simple as that. You could add some frozen vegetables as well. This makes for a good evening meal, as the carbs come from veggies.

Omelettes

Here's one more. It's especially good if you're bulking up, as it offers a lot of protein, minimal carbs, at the expense of some added fat, which you can minimize by following the instructions in parentheses. Here goes:

Ingredients (1 serving)
-----------
-3 medium-size eggs (remove one yolk)
-25-30g mature grated cheddar

Either

-1 bacon rasher (trim the fat first)
and
-1 small sausage (use low fat or turkey)

OR

-1/4 pound ground beef

-(optional) 25ml skimmed milk
-(optional) 2 tablespoons light bolognese sauce

INSTRUCTIONS
--------------
1. Break the eggs into a bowl. (If needed, remove one yolk). Add the milk and cheddar.
2. (for bacon/sausage) Place some oil or butter in a frying pan and turn to meadium heat. When the butter/oil is hot enough, put the bacon/sausage in. Turn sausages/bacon occasionally. When the sausages/bacon are almost done cooking, add the bolognese.
2. (for ground beef) Place the ground beef in a frying pan on low heat until the fat has dripped onto the pan. Then turn the heat up to a medium setting until the beef is browned. Make sure to stir beef occasionally. When the ground beef is almost done cooking, add the bolognese.
3. While the meats are cooking, beat the eggs until they are slightly foamy.
4. When the bacon/sausages or ground beef is/are done cooking, put them into the bowl as well. Stir a little to mix everything up.
5. Pour the mixture into a frying pan and turn to high heat. If you like, you can butter it up first. Wait for the omelette to set, and fold it and turn it over.
7. Serve the omelette.

Canadian eggs/ Spanish eggs

These are two great variations to the usual fried eggs.


CANADIAN EGGS
----------------
Ingredients
-1 egg
-15g mature grated cheddar cheese

Instructions

There are two ways to make canadian eggs. In my experience they both give a similar taste. The first (frying) takes less time, whereas the second (oven) is leaner.

Method A (frying)

Break the egg in a small saucepan. When the egg starts to become white, sprinkle the cheese on top. Wait until the cheese has completely melted on the egg before flipping it.

Method B (oven)

Preheat oven to gas mark 7. Break the egg in an oven dish and sprinkle the cheese on top. Place oven dish in oven and leave for 15 minutes, or until a thin translucent white layer forms over the yolk of the egg.

SPANISH EGGS

Ingredients
-2 eggs
-1/2 Tomato (or 2-3 tablespoons of light bolognese)
-1 merguez sausage (or turkey sausage, which is leaner)
-3-4 slices of chorizo

Instructions
Cook the sausage first. When the sausage is about half-cooked, break the egg into a frying pan and when the egg begins to whiten, add the bolognese (or tomatoes) and chorizo. When the egg is almost done cooking, add the sausage and turn the heat to low. Leave for a minute or so and serve immediately.

On the topic of eggs, this is for those of you who are lazy in the diet department like me:

Dish:Egg mayonnaise
Difficulty:Very easy
Macro breakdownrotein and a lot of fat

Ingredients:

6eggs (Although you can use anywhere from 4-12, my PR is 10 ).
1-3 tablespoons mayonnaise

1.Put eggs (shells included) into pot. Add boiling water, enough to cover the eggs.
2.Take the eggs off 10 minutes later.
3.Remove egg shells. This is the annoying part.
4.Put eggs into a tub. Add 1-3 tablespoons mayonnaise, depending on how dry/not dry you want it. You'll know your preference after a few tries. Use light mayonnaise if you want to reduce fat. Or just use less.
5.Mash the whole lot together.
6.Eat.

Again, the number of eggs will depend on how much protein you are aiming for. I usually boost this meal again with 6 uni-liver liver tablets. Six eggs will give somewhere in the region of 40g of protein and a little from the mayonnaise. So the bigger guys will have to use more eggs or get protein from another source.

Pretty simple!

Since this thread is about diet, I thought I would include two tips that I don't see written about a lot.

This first isn't a meal in itself, but it very useful for upping protein/ and hitting that 2x bw in grams.

-Liver tablets. I think I mention them in the two posts with meals in them above. These things are great, take six out of the tub, knock them back and bam, 9-10g of protein right there. This is assuming that you use uni-liver of course (a brand).

From all I have seen on liver tablets, which is not a lot, the two brands I know off that are good quality are Universal Uni-liver and Beverley International. I've only used uni-liver so I can't really comment on the other ones.

If you take 20-30 of these a day you are getting an extra 30-50g of protein per day. Just spread them out over the course of the day, or have 8-10 three times a day at the meals you are at home for. Or whatever.

Here is a good deal for you Americans:

http://www.1fast400.com/p386_Uni-Liver_Universal.html

Not so sure about it for the Europeans, Simon says (heh) he got nailed on customs charges shipping from America, so be careful. I know UK suppliers sell them, but they are a lot more expensive. Bah. They are loaded with B-vitamins and great for recovery and some other stuff as well. WBA got me on to them citing increased gains etc, and I had to say they worked well for me. Made a noticeable improvement. Word of warning however, the capsules are LARGE and take some getting used to.

-Tip number two. Olive oil. High calorie, high fat, healthy. Knock two tablespoons of the stuff back per day and you are getting an extra 250-300 calories. Useful for upping the calorie intake if gains are slowing down. I find it doesn't really taste of anything and is quite easy to take. That's it.

There they are, some helpful tips to help move things along!

Quagmire911 said:

On the topic of eggs, this is for those of you who are lazy in the diet department like me:
3.Remove egg shells. This is the annoying part.

Click to expand...

Great recipe. As for the shells being annoying to remove, try draining the hot water and pouring enough cold water into the pot/saucepan to cover the eggs. Then leave for a few minutes. I don't know why, but this makes the shells easier to remove.

Fish

I don't know if they sell these in the US, but Sommerfield's and Tesco in the UK sell cod filets that you can put straight into the microwave (650 watts for 2'30"), and the result tastes like it's been steamed. If you can find these, then you have yourself a very lean, high-protein meal. However, if you're like me, the taste of steamed fish, alone, is enough to scare you out of ever wanting to start a diet. Here's ways to spice that up:

1) (Green) pesto sauce

Pesto and fish go very well together in my experience. Once your fish is out of the microwave, smear a tablespoon or two of pesto onto the fish, and if need be put it back in the microwave for 40 seconds at 650 watts (or something equivalent).

2) Egg with light bolognese

Start frying the egg when you put the fish into the microwave. Add a tablespoon or two of bolognese to the egg after it has turned a solid white color. Take the egg and place it carefully over the fish. pour the bolognese over the whole thing, being careful not to disturb the yolk.

3) Marinades

I'm not a great fan of marinades, because they take at least 30 minutes to make, if not more, but if you have more patience than me, check out the following link on how to make a lemon & soy fish marinade:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1745,130179-247192,00.html

4) Mayonnaise

Fish aren't high-fat, and if you're bulking this could be a bad thing. Adding mayonnaise to fish is quite tasty and will bring in those extra calories. Obviously, use light mayo if you want less fat.

BBQ Chicken

This is a low-fat, high-protein, and very easy recipe to make. In total, it takes about 40 minutes to make, but you only have to be in the kitchen for 10, the rest of the time being the time required for the chicken to marinade.
I assume that you have a rice cooker or that you won't make the rice.

INGREDIENTS

-1-2 tablespoons of BBQ marinade (I use Tesco Sticky Barbeque Marinade, which has almost no fat)
-1-2 chicken breasts
-(optional) 1 cup rice

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Score the chicken breasts and place them in a plastic container (don't close it yet).
2. Take one tablespoon of marinade per chicken breast, and spread it on the breast (like you would peanut butter on toast). If any drips to the side, that's fine.
3. Close the plastic container and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. (optional) After 20 minutes or so, start cooking the rice
5. After the 30 minutes have passed, sauté the chicken in a frying pan. Combine with the rice.

Chicken & Tuna Pasta

This is one of my favourite meals. I know there's some controversy about mixing protein, fat and carbs together, but I love this dish so much that I don't care!

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
portion of pasta (preferably durum wheat)
1 tin of tuna
1 tablespoon mayo (optional)

1. put the pasta in a pan and start to boil it
2. cut up the chicken into small pieces
3. put a little olive oil in a frying pan, leave on a medium heat for a minute or so.
4. add the chicken.
5. drain tuna and put it into a bowl.
6. add a tablespoon of mayo into the bowl and mix (optional)
7. when cooked to taste, drain the pasta
8. remove the chicken from the pan when golden brown.
9. Put the tuna on the pasta, then add the chicken over the top.

This should take about 15mins or so overall. The mayonnaise is optional, but without it, the dish would probably taste a bit dry.

Quagmire911 said:

Not so sure about it for the Europeans, Simon says (heh) he got nailed on customs charges shipping from America, so be careful. I know UK suppliers sell them, but they are a lot more expensive. Bah.

Click to expand...

bodybuilding.com sells them for only $0.85 more and you won't get charged customs if you ship by the US PS. http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/univ/liver.html

Quagmire911 said:

3.Remove egg shells. This is the annoying part.

Click to expand...

When I was eating masses of boiled eggs I developed a technique of eating one egg with one hand and peeling another egg with the other. :rockon: My record was 18. Didn't feel very well afterwards

simon said:

bodybuilding.com sells them for only $0.85 more and you won't get charged customs if you ship by the US PS. http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/univ/liver.html

Click to expand...

Thanks.

Is the option the "International postal service"? Seems like it may just be easier going with a home supplier, and only £5-10 more.