Cutting Tips, Recipes, Ingredients

[noah_k]

Some things I wish I had known when I first started eating better! Most of my cutting recipes try to minimize carbs/fats when reducing cals (sometimes to an extreme), or maximize protein. Protein is great for retaining/building mass, but it also is far more filling per calorie than fats or carbs. I can eat 4500cals and still be hungry, but the same can't be said for 3000 of only seafood, game, or poultry that's essentially protein and not a single thing else.

Anyway! I have an absolute shit ton of this stuff and I like to cook, so I'll post from time to time if there's any interest, and share whatever you've got too! Memory isn't the best so I'll start with what I've been eating lately (i.e. not sick of).


A good starting point is to use allrecipes.com, look up stuff you like and substitute accordingly, or a diet index like top scoring links : fitmeals


Creams and Thickeners: Use Fat-Free Greek Yogurt in place of creams, butters, milks. Very filling and per 6oz: 100kcal, 18P, 7C, 0F

Examples: Baking (in place of sour cream), with Mexican food or wraps in general, to thicken sauces and dry foods (tuna), with scrambled eggs.


Sweets & Baking: If you like sweets, sweet sauces, or baking, keep sucralose (Splenda) and No-Sugar-Added Apple Sauce on hand. The apple sauce can be used in place of oil & butter in a lot of cases -- not cookies unless the shape doesn't matter.

Example: Here's a really good sweet teriyaki chicken without sugar.

Chicken Ferocious Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Good recipe of the previous two (cream/sweetener), Protein Cheesecake! (See next post)


For ice cream and frozen treats, Blue Bell and other brands have some very decent Dutch Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry, etc ice cream that's sugar free / low fat. Alternatively, there's an awesome way to make banana ice cream using just bananas, and maybe a few tsp of peanut butter.

How To Make Creamy Ice Cream with Just One Ingredient! | The Kitchn

There's also Casein Protein Fluff

http://www.leangains.com/2010/09/high-protein-recipes-and-jack3d-review.html

Speaking of peanut butter, there's a decent low fat peanut butter called pb2

Bell Plantation - Home page

Zero/low-cal sauces: Sriracha (garlic version with golden tip is also very nice variation), Mustard, Salsa Verde, Tzatziki (without olive oil and with fat-free greek yogurt), Soy Sauce, Balsamic/white wine/red wine vinegars, hot sauces, etc


Spices: Make use of spices/rubs and match them with meats! Italian, Indian, Cajun, French, brand names like Old Bay, Blackened Cajun Seasoning, Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning whatever

A great read: The Ultimate Guide to Spices | Greatist


Veggies: Make use of veggies! Garlic and onions sauteed lightly or baked go good with damn near everything. Then all your greens for health and keeping you full on a cut.


Marinate! Once again, allrecipes.com should get you started. Look up dishes you've had or like, and find out what you can take out to keep a certain marinade lean.


Cheese: Fat Free Cheese is available for cheap in everything from cheddar, to pepperjack, to camembert. Still looking for blue cheese, but whatever. Throw it on a burger, toss it and heat in pieces with some greek yogurt for a creamy cheese sauce, throw on some seasoned meat and eat as a mexican dish with yogurt / salsa verde / hot sauce.


Ground Beef/Turkey/etc: Red cabbage can be used to thicken ground meat dishes with barely any extra cals and no added taste/texture. Use leaner meats, and reuse the greased pan from sauteed veggies.

Baked meat is great as you can drain excess fat right off the baking dish. Some people rinse pan fried meat. See White Castle Baked Burgers in next section.


___


So! That's it for now.

 

[noah_k]

Two recent meals to start

Protein Cheesecake with a 2:1 Ratio of Protein to Carbs

Macros

834 calories
123g Protein / 63g Carbs / 10g Fat

Recipe: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=141848361 (Protein Cheesecake: 2:1 Ratio P/C - Bodybuilding.com Forums)

If you don't feel like baking / don't have a spring form pan, you can just make it as batter and chill it in the freezer. Eat the batter as-is or with blueberries/strawberries yo.

From top to bottom, Original with Raspberries, Another Raspberry Variation, Chocolate & Coffee with Cool-Whip and Blackberries, Bacon Pecan Streusel, Maple with Candied Bacon, and the Classic Original - Plain.

 

[noah_k]

White Castle Baked Burgers

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds 90-93% lean ground beef or turkey. Leaner is better for cals, but more fat would taste better.
2 tsp near-zero-cal onion soup mix (or make your own: allrecipes.com/recipe/onion-soup-mix/ )
1 large onion, very finely chopped
Mustard
Fat-free Cheese Singles (I like half the burgers to be pepperjack, other half american)

Optional:
1 dill pickle, sliced as thin as possible
12 Soft Dinner Rolls (I ditch these and eat knife&fork style because carbs, son!)


Mix the ground meat and onion soup mix in a bowl. Spread the ground beef on a 12-15" cookie sheet. Use a rolling pin (or cover with parchment paper and flatten by hand) on the ground meat to flatten it out to about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Take out and pour off grease. Spread diced onions along the edge of the sheet so they lay directly on the sheet where the ground meat has shrunk away from.

Bake for 15 more minutes then spread the onions evenly on top of the ground beef and layer with cheese slices. Bake another 6 minutes to melt cheese

If using buns, now's the time to slice your dinner rolls and wrap them all in a damp paper towel. Microwave them in the paper towel for 60 seconds to steam them. (You can also load them in a tortilla warmer instead of a paper towel if you have one.) Spread out the top buns and add mustard on them just before you are ready to remove the ground beef from the oven.

Take it out of the oven. Spread as many pickles as you like on top of the cheese. Arrange the top buns on the ground meat to make hamburgers. Slice the meat beef between the buns with a pizza cutter and pick up the top bun and burger with a spatula and set it on the bottom bun. Or just cut with a spatula and eat with a knife and fork.

 

[noah_k]

Ah yeah, another quick one. You can do endless variations of mexican seasonings, chicken, ground meat, salsa verde, fat free cheese, greek yogurt, salsa, jalapenos, tomatoes etc etc for protein-only mexican dishes as mentioned in the start.

But that gets old. So here's two low fat low carb cajun fish dishes that are really quick to make:

Tilapia or Mahi-Mahi baked or pan fried with very little oil, rubbed with Cajun Blackened Seasoning. You can use fresh or frozen, but thaw it in a sealed bag under water - no microwave/defrost.

Serve over green leaf spinach (fresh) with diced onion/tomato and optionally sweet potato fries on the side, rubbed with cinnamon. Done.

OR with a little more time:

Forget the spinach, combine cabbage mix (sold in bags, no need to cut yourself) with 97% fat free slaw dressing, combine fish, coleslaw, tomatos, onions and top with sriracha -- either inside a tortilla or as-is. Black beans and rice on the side if carbs don't matter. Greek yogurt to dip as always.

 

[baseballstud123]

great thread noah

 

[Mike Oxbig]

Cheesecake with bacon?

:wank:

 

[noah_k]

Thanks buddy.

Quick word on non-anabolic cutting drugs, since we are on meso after all. Some anabolics help with recomp, hardening, etc but for some of the others... my personal take [|)] Or at least, another opportunity for me to rep ephedrine I'm sure most folks already know all of this, but anyway

Ephedrine/Caffeine: I've only been using it off and on in recent times but I wish I would have always had it. Its status as a thermogenic is very mild at best, you have to have everything else in order, but it works great to suppress appetite kill cravings for a few hours. While relatively safe in normal doses, there's a totally psychological dependence on it at least for me, so I only use it during hard cuts. The boost in energy is nice, especially on a reduced cal diet. Recent precautions against meth production makes it hard to import from Canada in pure hcl form, but can be purchased OTC in the States as Bronkaid, Primatene, and some inhouse brands -- ephedrine sulfate or ephedrine hcl suffice, NOT pseudoephedrine.

At the moment, this is hands down my favorite for a balance efficacy and safety in dieting.

Phentermine is another suppressant that's part of the infamous phen/fen stack. But taken alone it's extremely potent as a suppressant, and some guys here run it and swear by it. I have it on hand thanks to another member here, but still haven't given it a go!

Yohimbine is another thermo, generally not advised to take with ephedrine as an ECY stack, but can be done. I'm one of the unlucky few that are susceptible to major side effects, anxiety, increased heart rate with this, so it's a no-go for me. It's exceptional at targeting stubborn fat (receptors on abdominals, lower back, etc) so it's better for leaner states. It works very well with Intermittent Fasting since an insulin spike will blunt the benefits almost entirely. Tapering up is essential as you build a tolerance to nasty sides fairly quick.

Clen / Albuterol: Tried and true. Cannot be taken efficiently with another beta-antagonist like ephedrine, as they compete for the same receptors. Personally, clen helped, but the cravings outmatched the burning benefits, so there's no appetite suppression, sometimes the opposite. The wired feeling is pretty severe at higher doses. Albuterol is known to be more mild but similar in action. The debate on whether clen is truly anabolic / muscle sparing or not in humans continues on, as far as I know.

T3: Commonly used as a stack with clen and an anabolic (to prevent suspected muscle catabolism in higher doses), known to be more effective than all of the above thermogenics individually. Temporary endogenous thyroid suppression is its own topic entirely.

DNP: Meso has some of the best threads on it, but personally I don't have anything to add.

Clearly just a quick overview of what's well known.

 

[noah_k]

Come on guys let's see what you got [|)]

Tiramisu Protein Pancakes

The original for this one called for some weird cottage cheese blend. As always I used... fat free greek yogurt.

Directions for 1 serving

For the Pancakes

1/3 cup rolled oats
1 scoop (30g) vanilla protein powder -- better than chocolate, as vanilla doesn't mask the coffee taste
2 Tablespoons ground flax seed
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg white
1/4 cup strong brewed cold coffee (use good coffee if you can)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coffee extract (mcormick sells this, or just use more coffee)

For the Filling

1/3 cup fat free greek yogurt (or cottage cheese, like the original)
1/2 large banana
1/8 teaspoon coffee extract
unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
optional: sweetener to taste

Instructions

Heat a non-stick skillet or pancake griddle over medium heat.

In a small food processor or blender, ground oats into flour.

Combine oat flour, protein powder, ground flax, and baking powder in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg white until frothy.

Add coffee and extracts to egg white, stir and add to dry ingredients.

Stir until flour is incorporated.

Let batter sit at least 5 minutes before continuing.

Spoon batter onto skillet surface, forming 3 medium-sized pancakes.

Cook 5-6 minutes per side, or until golden brown with crisp edges.

Combine yogurt, banana, and extract in a small food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Stack pancakes and dust with cocoa powder

 

[azazul]

noah, bro, thanks a ton for these, lets see if we can get other bro's to post
I will post up tomorrow

 

[noah_k]

Thanks brother, looking forward

Not too sure how many people pass through the nutrition sub

 

[joe0035]

Great idea for a thread Noah! Look forward to reading and adding to it!

 

[joe0035]

Has anyone tried Guys award winning sugar free bbq sauces? No sugar or fat 5cals per serving and even relatively low in sodium as far as sauces go. I am going to order some and was wondering if anyone has tried them.

And remember eat vegan! Those fuckers are delicious! Low in fat, high in protien and filled with vitamins usually gluten free as well! Hahaha Freakin vegans!

 

[noah_k]

No but that sounds pretty on point. I'll give it a try if it's not too expensive. Right now it's all sweet baby ray's and sonny's :drooling:

 

[beezil]

nice work, Noah.

i don't know why i didn't hit this thread earlier.

I am not a big sweets kind of guy but, my wife is. I will have to get her to make a couple of your recipes.

i guess i have gotten used to bland foods... military chow wasn't always the best... and this lifestyle doesn't lend itself to the most tasteful of meals.

thanks for starting this thread.

 

[joe0035]

I am with you noah! sweet baby rays spicy is so good even better mix with gods nector sriracha sauce!

 

[hghmeds112]

After creaming together butter and sugar, the next ingredient in many cookie recipes is eggs. They should be added one at a time, each one thoroughly beaten in before the next is added, to allow the creamed butter/sugar mixture to most effectively retain its trapped air. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl so all of the butter/sugar mixture is incorporated.

 

[noah_k]

After creaming together butter and sugar, the next ingredient in many cookie recipes is eggs. They should be added one at a time, each one thoroughly beaten in before the next is added, to allow the creamed butter/sugar mixture to most effectively retain its trapped air. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl so all of the butter/sugar mixture is incorporated.

Robots like to bake too

Course they do

(this account looks like it grabs random comments from other places and pretends to post them in relevant threads)

 

[heel hook]

Some fine recipes here Thanks for them, Yes Allrecipes.com have some Great ones go their often.

 

[noah_k]

Two easy ones with a weird taste

Kale Chips!

Really easy to fuck up -- undercook or overcook. But get it right and it tastes a bit like a crunchy salty fresh chip. Tons of vitamins, and kale can be found for really cheap in the right places.

Baked Kale Chips Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Add garlic powder or paprika to change things up


Fat Free Horseradish Sauce

Tastes good on prime rib, or most meat cuts and sandwiches, but only if you like the harsh taste. A nice option in place of mustard, sriracha, and other low cal sauces.

Whisk together:

3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 cup fat free sour cream

Optional:

1 tablespoon cider vinegar (only add if the horseradish does not have it, e.g. from fresh homemade root)

 

[anaconde]

Sweet thread. Definitely going to keep updated on this one.