MR. BMJ
02-11-2008, 10:39 PM
Updated and a little more.... Food Time is Now. By: ChefWide
This is a new version, and its long, so get some coffee.
These are of some deep moves that i hold dear, i hope the reading is worth your time, my hope is to elicit a responce that moves you to acting on your behalf, but more importantly to teach those around you how there are no bad foods, that food is the passion of life and should be treated as such, not as the enemy. Live and celebrate your living.
soooo.... Excellent!!
SMITHERS! RELEASE THE HAMS!
I am, by vocation and avocation a FoodNerd. I get paid to sift through the veritable information toxicity that abounds about ill begotten food choices and short term solutions. I work for a huge chain that is really, REALLY making some wonderful decisions. My project, if all goes well, will mature into teaching people what the already intrinsicly know: how to eat, NOT how to diet.
That in in a saucepot is fine, but the real deal is that some of us have greater goals than 'health' and fitness is a baseline for us, not a finishline. Supra health, supra maximal effort begets superior achievment and nothing less will ever ever do. Thats us. Not normal? Good. I dont want to be anything close to 'normal'.
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 it! 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.
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 es/etc, but then its back to normal costs...
Quick breakdown of my goals and where this food is taking me. I am 42 years old, 6' even and currently at 230lbs hovering around 10% at the moment, i prefer to be 8%bf.
Over the past few years I have gone from 315+ lbs at over 38% bf to my present harder, faster and smarter self and to say that life is better is a joy and a stolen chance at the impossible.
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 say its 90% diet but you will make that call on your own. My goals are a well rounded, general, combat ready level of aggressive fitness. I am not a bodybuilder, but have been strength athlete for long enough to claim intimate understanding and have been coaching said for long enough to claim expertise on a level that neither surpasses nor embarrasses my mentors. I want to be ready for all life can throw at me from a 500+ squat to a 5k, from Tabata SquatPresses with 75's to Hill Repeats on my bike. I want to win. Me likee.
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, depending on load.
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 the kitchen already smells like its time for sex RIGHT NOW! and i haven't chopped a 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 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 in two batches of four, in the... gasp... MICROWAVE!!!
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 use a different dry e 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. you can dress these up for ever, see the recipes i have pasted below....
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 Walnut 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 walnut 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!
I now have boobs for two days, and i bring to work with me either pre-washed spinach or mustard greens or greenbeans or nuked brocoli to add the needed freshness.
At work 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 grains for those listed in the posts below, maybe? Hmmm...
questions?
Ask the chef.
This is a new version, and its long, so get some coffee.
These are of some deep moves that i hold dear, i hope the reading is worth your time, my hope is to elicit a responce that moves you to acting on your behalf, but more importantly to teach those around you how there are no bad foods, that food is the passion of life and should be treated as such, not as the enemy. Live and celebrate your living.
soooo.... Excellent!!
SMITHERS! RELEASE THE HAMS!
I am, by vocation and avocation a FoodNerd. I get paid to sift through the veritable information toxicity that abounds about ill begotten food choices and short term solutions. I work for a huge chain that is really, REALLY making some wonderful decisions. My project, if all goes well, will mature into teaching people what the already intrinsicly know: how to eat, NOT how to diet.
That in in a saucepot is fine, but the real deal is that some of us have greater goals than 'health' and fitness is a baseline for us, not a finishline. Supra health, supra maximal effort begets superior achievment and nothing less will ever ever do. Thats us. Not normal? Good. I dont want to be anything close to 'normal'.
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 it! 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.
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 es/etc, but then its back to normal costs...
Quick breakdown of my goals and where this food is taking me. I am 42 years old, 6' even and currently at 230lbs hovering around 10% at the moment, i prefer to be 8%bf.
Over the past few years I have gone from 315+ lbs at over 38% bf to my present harder, faster and smarter self and to say that life is better is a joy and a stolen chance at the impossible.
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 say its 90% diet but you will make that call on your own. My goals are a well rounded, general, combat ready level of aggressive fitness. I am not a bodybuilder, but have been strength athlete for long enough to claim intimate understanding and have been coaching said for long enough to claim expertise on a level that neither surpasses nor embarrasses my mentors. I want to be ready for all life can throw at me from a 500+ squat to a 5k, from Tabata SquatPresses with 75's to Hill Repeats on my bike. I want to win. Me likee.
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, depending on load.
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 the kitchen already smells like its time for sex RIGHT NOW! and i haven't chopped a 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 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 in two batches of four, in the... gasp... MICROWAVE!!!
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 use a different dry e 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. you can dress these up for ever, see the recipes i have pasted below....
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 Walnut 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 walnut 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!
I now have boobs for two days, and i bring to work with me either pre-washed spinach or mustard greens or greenbeans or nuked brocoli to add the needed freshness.
At work 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 grains for those listed in the posts below, maybe? Hmmm...
questions?
Ask the chef.