Bodybuilding recipes - Cheap and Nutritious

[kosko]

Now what is good about Mexico aside from its women is its cheap and filling staple foods that if you tweak can be very good meals for body building. I don't know if you would call these "Tex-Mex" my old homie from Mexico just basically broke down the most basics of tacos and its just having a good seasoned and soft protein, good fresh salsa, some onions, maybe a crema/fat or salt type competent on top, and a garnish like onion or something. Very basic shit. They start to taste like shit when you complicate things, they are best the most simple as possible.

I like hood and peasant immigrant staples. Because they are cheap and get the job done. These tacos are literally only 3-4 steps and impossible to mess up. For me personally I get good clean energy from corn tortillas and have had many good workouts using them as fuel carbs, and they are good post workout carbs too and it is easy to control portion wise.

TACOS

Meat:

Take some chicken thighs. If your rolling in that cash money you can get them already boneless and skinless (if so then sear them quickly before baking for a bit more flavor, if not just use regular with skin and bone).

1 kilo of Chicken Thighs (roughly 6-8 depending on the size of them)

Seasoning option 1:

Use your favourate mexican style base that ideally is salt-free like a Tex-Mex or Chiplote Miss Dash for example.

It is best to use no-salt seasonings so you can control your sodium.

Add Salt and Black peeper to taste to your Miss Dash/No-Salt Seasoning to round it out. If you have regular stuff, just don't add any more salt. Simple.

That is the easy way, if you want more control of flavor and to add your own style continue below, if not skip this part.

Seasoning Option 2:

I personally just make my own mix which usually is this:

Kosher Salt
Sugar
Smoked Paprika
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Chili Powder
Cracked Black Pepper
Oregano
Bay Leaf Powder (or just use the leaves and stick them under the skins
Chili Flakes

Optional - Adobe Peppers in a can (use half a can).

Put a table spoon of each into a bowl except for the salt and sugar. Add a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of sugar to start and adjust those two to your own preference. Taste the powder to make sure you have it right.

Put the mixture over the chicken and get it under the skin and all over.

Optional: If you want you can leave this overnight to marinate. Add olive oil, a little lime juice so it does not dry out.

Cooking:

- Now just pre-heat the overn at 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Just bake them bitches until they are cooked which should take 35mins, you can temp them if your a health nazi, or just wait until the meat starts to pull away from the bone and the bones are clear/brown. Meat is done.

PREP:

While your meat is cooking warm up some corn tortilla in a dry hot frying pan for 15 seconds each side a tortilla. Warm up as many as you like. Maybe 6-10. Keep them warm under a kitchen towel on plate.

- Cut up some red onion, or use green onions or chives (I personally like green onions or chives as I don't like the strong flavor of raw onion in my mouth.. even though it does taste the best, your choice).

Take some tomatillo sauce/Salsa Verde/ Green Mexican sauce. Get good stuff no shitty Ol Del Paso.

Optional - Add cilantro.

Hardest part:

Now get all your ingredients together --> Make Tacos --> Eat them.

---

In its most basic most quick steps this recipe takes 45mins to a hour max to cook and stuff in your face. You can make it more fancy if you choose to but even if you do it is still a cheap and efficient meal no matter if you make your own spices, marinate, etc or not.

Costs:

1 Kilo of Chicken thighs for a good price in Canada is $5-6. In the States its probably $3-4.

Spices - Miss Dash or other Season base = $3-4; you make your own.. $0.50.

Corn Tortillas - These are basically free they are so cheap it seems. You can find a pack of like 40 of them for like $2.00. Toiler paper costs more for fuck sucks.

Salsa - even good shit is like $2-3 for a bottle/container if you look in the Mexican/immigrant section or go to a Latin Grocer. Crap like Old Del Paso/Pace is more expensive and tastes like shit.

The whole meal costs you $5-6 max, way less if you use drumsticks, and you can get the costs down to below $4.


Marcos (estimates):

6 Tacos -

Protein 90 grams
Carbs - 66 grams
Fat (if you remove the skins.. I don't) - 18 grams

- Add a spinach tomato salad and tomato juice on the side to round out the meal.

Troll instagram and women by making a nice one, putting a lime wedge and a garnish of cilantro and call your self a chef. Hipsters pay $25 for what you just made, just remember that.

Cheers.

 

[Enigma]

^ I've been making tacos recently also, but I slow cook the chicken or pork and shred it.

I use a homemade salsa too. Just dice some onions, tomatoes, and a tiny bit of cilantro, throw it in a tupperware, squeeze a little lime and a hint of salt and pepper. Also can dice a hot pepper and add a little of that for some kick (or even just the seeds).

Voila. Fresh salsa. It's best if you do that when you first start the slow cooker and let it sit in the fridge.

Guacamole is pretty much the same deal, you just add avocado and mush it a bit after you're done. Tomatoes are optional.

When your meat is ready, just throw a little in the shell, top it with some salsa, cheese, and whatever else you want.

Last week, I bought these taco bowls that I found at the grocery store. Threw some shredded chicken on the bottom, then some brown rice, then black beans, then topped it all off with some salsa and shredded cheese. Fucking delicious.

You could do the same idea with some burritos, it's just hard to find soft tortilla shells here so I went with the bowls.

 

[Hannibal]

If you have a pressure cooker you can make a stew in 20-30 minutes.

I've got the 7 quart Kuhn Rikon Duromatic, it's definitely one of the best investments I have ever made in cooking for myself. It's a real game changer for me, I can cook enough food for a couple days and bring it to work in pyrex bowls.

A decent sized stew (about 4.5 quarts) lasts me a couple days. I got the idea for stews from Jamie Lewis off his Chaos and Pain blog. If you're curious, you can google "stew-roids" and you'll find his series on them. I never had any luck cooking stew with a crockpot, but the pressure cooker has been nothing but awesome for cooking gigantic batches of savory stew. It's perfect for the winter, I bring two bowls to work every day.

Easy pressure cooker stew recipe
- A couple lbs of whatever meat you have lying around. I have used ham, pork loin, beef, chicken, even bacon works (it's fatty as hell though). If you want the meat to have more flavor, sear it in a pan first. Pressure cooking makes the meat tender.
- 6-8 decent sized potatoes, quartered
- a bag of baby carrots (I like them because I don't have to cut them up)
- 6-8 stalks celery, chopped
- a large onion
- a package of dry onion soup mix, chicken or beef bouillon cubes are optional.
- enough water to about cover the contents of the stew.
- whatever spices you want to add. I like a shit ton of pepper, garlic and Mrs. Dash

Directions
Put all the ingredients in the pot, nothing fancy here.
Cook on high on the stovetop until it is almost boiling, then put the lid on it
Bring it up the pressure for 2 bars (I think that's 15 psi, depending on what model you're using, I've only ever used my kuhn rikon duromatic)
Cook for 18 minutes at 15 psi. Once you bring it up to pressure, you need very little stovetop heat to maintain a proper cooking temperature.
Use the cold water release method to rapidly bring down the pressure.
Serve
Optional : If you want to thicken the stew, you can add corn starch and mix it well until you hit the desired consistency. If you don't like corn starch, you can use a mixture of flour and butter or simply mash a potato and throw it back in the stew.

 

[nizona]

Thought I would share my favorite salsa recipe to go with these tacos.

1 can Rotel (mixed tomatoes and pepers)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 table spoon vinegar
1 table spoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
big squeeze of lime juice


Optional
jalapenos to desired spice level
can of corn is my first choice add on
can of black beans is also popular among my fam and friends

 

[Giovonny]

[Draft post removed by moderator.]

 

[rdvirus]

Garbage Stir Fry:

I've been doing this since my sophomore year of college. Basically what I do is use rice as a base, and then throw in whatever kind of meat is in my fridge. Chicken, pepperoni, salami, ham, sausage, leftover brats, etc. If I liked vegetables and peppers I would probably throw them in as well.

I usually start by scrambling some eggs in a fry pan.

Once they are cooked I throw everything else in that same pan, the rice, chicken, pepperonis, cut up brats, and then add some soy sauce to give it some flavor.

It is one of my all-time favorites.

I essentially did the same thing the other day.

2lbs of ground beef.
4 diced up brats
6 eggs
Small bag (dont remember exact size) of freezer aisle mixed veggies
peppers and onions to your desire
2 bags of boil in te bag rice, I think they are about a cup of rice a piece

Fry it all up, takes about 15 minutes. Probably around 2bucks a serving, delicious.
The only thing I have found is thats not very filling. I can easily eat a couple big bowls of this and an hour later I'm hungry again. My hunger might just be insane lately though.

Just finished making Anti's recipe! Turned out great. I considered adding pasta sauce but decided against it. I like fresh rice and this is easily a few days worth of food so I didnt add any in. Just going to throw some rice in the rice cooker and fix myself a bowl when I want some.

I used 4 hot italian sausages this time around. Next time I will use a few more because that was the best part for me and some extra protein wont hurt. I also mixed in some sriracha sauce to add some flavour. Overall enjoyable, quick, easy and fits into my diet nicely.

Gotta try some more of these recipes out. Thanks Anti +1

 

[rdvirus]

brocolli and tuna baked potatoes using microwave for a quick prep:

Ingredients:

2 Large baking potatoes
10oz box of frozen broccoli
1 can tuna
Some shredded cheese
Mayo optional

Prep:

1.) Poke holes in potatoes and cook for 8 minutes.
2.) Cook frozen brocoli for 3 minutes (you want brocoli that is easily cut with a fork, adjust time as required).
3.) Mix together broccoli and tuna in large mixing bowl. Sprinkle in shredded cheese. Add mayo if desired, just note this will take an almost fat free meal and introduce the deliciousness of fat.
4.) Cut baked potatoes, spoon in the mixture.
5.) Enjoy


Super quick filling meal. Two baked potato meal costs around $3. Feel free to only do one potato and keep the mixture in the fridge for when you want a quick healthy snack.

edit - I also just throw together enigmas pulled pork recipe in the process of waiting for the potatoes to cook.

Made a variation of this the other night.

3 potatos
olive oil
salt
2 cans of tuna
1 1/2 cup of broccoli
mayo
sriracha
grated cheddar

Poked holes in the potato with a fork. Rubbed the potatos in olive oil, sprinkled with salt. Baked for 75 mins at 350. Mixed up 2 cans of tuna, broccoli, mayo and sriracha(I used quite a bit, maybe a tablespoon, next time will use even more) in a bowl. Cut potatos in half and spooned out the potato, leaving just the skin and a little bit of the meat. Mixed that into the tuna/broccoli and spooned it back into the skins. Topped with cheddar and back into the oven until cheese melted.

Turned out great, tasty and cheap. Will have to skip the mayo next time and see how it tastes.

 

[AntiTrace]

I made a brocolli/squash/tuna "paste" the other night for the baked potato recipe. Just heat the broccoli and squash up, throw in the a blender with just a bit of milk. Blend it all up, put in serving bowl and add the tuna.

 

[Enigma]

So I've been experimenting with dry cooking in the crock pot lately.

Grab some root veggies, like some sweet potatoes. You can cut them into chunks, but I just wash the skin (don't dry) and throw a couple in the bottom of the pot whole. You can also throw some small, peeled onions down there.

Stack your meat on top and season then cut that baby on. I like to cook for maybe 4 to 6 hours, then finish it with a couple hours on high. That will give the outside of the meat a nice crispy, well-done consistency while the inside will be nice and juicy and tender. I personally love this consistency for meat and this method pulls it off perfectly.

I did this with chicken drumsticks and it was so good. Just seasoned them with salt, pepper, Italian herbs, and some minced garlic and had perfect, rotisserie-styled baked chicken with some delicious baked potatoes to go with them. The meat closest to the walls of the pot gets that nice, dark brown skin, then I saved the rest for leftovers and gave them a light pan fry in a little olive oil to reheat and got some amazing skin that way also.

I was reading that you can just throw a whole chicken in there, but that's one of the cheap, local specialties here so I haven't bothered. Definitely could be a good choice for guys who can't pick up a whole rotisserie style chicken down the street for $4 though.

Also did it with the pulled pork recipe, minus the beer. It comes out a little drier and crispier (but still very tender), retains more of the seasoning, and actually shreds slightly better since it doesn't have that tendency to come off in chunks. Its definitely a nice change of pace (and overall easier to prepare/prep), but I still love the wet too.

 

[kosko]

I'll never boil eggs again.

Most annoying, yet simple thing to make is a good hard boild egg. I hate nothing more then a chalky grey yolk. My pops used to boil the shit out of eggs till the yolk was dead and like a ping pong ball, I used to hate hard boiled eggs until I had a proper creamy one at a hotel once time.

Hard cooked eggs, when done right, these things are the most portable of snacks and protien. Making them well to the yolk you like is no easy task and peeling them is a bitch. But, no more.

I seen some shit on 'hard baked eggs' which sounds like like me, a blunt, and a hot 19 year old broad in my sheets but its actually a way to cook eggs, mostly for painting or deviled eggs but it also just makes a simple and easy hard cooked egg which is much easier to peel, and is less sketch then being at the mercy of a egg timer.

You take a muffin pan and put as many eggs as you want. Tonight I made 8 of them as a test.

Hard Cooked Baked Eggs:


- You pre-heat the oven at 325 F

- Place your eggs in the muffin tin compartments

- Cook the eggs for 20-25 mins.
^^^
NOTE: [...This is the only step where you have to weak things. My oven I guess gets really hot so I cooked it under the suggested time of 25 mins and did 20 and my yolks were firmer then I like, but not dusty and dry like bad cooked water boiled yolks that are still yellow. They were still creamy, just more dry.. not my personal preference so next time I will do 15-17 mins only. ...]


-Set your phone timer as its not as serious as the water method were literally 30 secs can fuck up your yolks.

-After the timer is done take out the eggs and run them under very cold water to cool them down. You can crack them much harder to peel, and the skin peels off much better with less mess.

Now I can easily make 12 hard baked eggs and not worry about them, I can hop in the shower, cook them, then cold rinse them, while I dress and pack them up for a lunch.

Big game changer for me. Now to bring on the Egg farts in the gym.

 

[The Reactionary Tree]

I am going to try out this hard baked egg recipe. I have never eaten an egg cooked like that before. Sounds good though.

 

[RedPillUK]

Ah man, all of this looks just as complicated as any cook book. I hate being given instructions to how to cook. Just learn the basics of cooking common food and do it yourself.

Has anyone got any stupidly quick, easy and cheap meals?

Along the lines of this:

Raw Eggs: 6 or so raw eggs in a glass, maybe followed with some milk.

Porridge: Porridge oats and milk, mixed with dried fruits, nuts and protein powder.

Broccoli/Spinach and Cheese: Steam Broccoli/Spinach, add cheese.

Omeletes: scramble up and fry some eggs, chuck whatever stuff you want as well in there. easy. Fried and boiled eggs are also stupidly easy.

And being half Mexican I'll add my simple salsa recipe:

Boil a few tomatoes, chillies, a bit of garlic and onion, until they're soft enough to put into the blender. Blend.
You could also add some of your shop bought hot sauce to it if you want, to make it hotter. and if you then fry it all again it will become more like a longer lasting sauce.

I know those aren't completely balanced meals, but you can combine them.

Ok this ones extravagant for me I tried it out the other night:

Sweet potatoes cooked and baked in coconut oil, with potatoes, broccoli, spinach, cheese and eggs. Damn that was like a gourmet meal for me, sweet coconut flavour to everything.

 

[AntiTrace]

I regularly prepare a quick soup.

Put water in pot. Add broccolli. Boil 10 minutes. Add instant rice and prepared chicken. Put some sriracha in there for a spicy soup.

Normally I use a 50/50 bone broth to water mixture. Protein soup, love it.

 

[AntiTrace]

Ive started adding a half cup of egg whites to my daily broccoli and rice soup. that equates to about two eggs and it resemblances a egg drop soup. delicious and it adds some extra clean protein.

get it to boil and let the broccoli get soft in a half half mixture of water and bone broth. and the broccoli is soft enough, I add a half cup of 5 minute instant rice and the egg whites. 5 minutes later is done and am spilling this deliciousness all over my self.

 

[Hannibal]

After learning that my favorite brand of protein bars discretely changed their ingredients from whey protein to soy protein, I said fuck it and learned how to make my own protein bars.

I do not recommend using chocolate whey unless you want your coworkers/friends/relatives asking why you're eating compressed shit cubes.

Ingredients
5 scoops of vanilla whey powder (I haven't tried whey isolate but it would probably come out the same.
2 cups of coconut cream (the recipe I found called for one cup, but it was impossible to mix without adding a second cup). You can also use regular heavy cream, gonna try that next.
1 1/3 cup peanut butter, or 340 g peanut butter if you don't like measuring cups
4 1/2 cups quick oats.

Simply get a large mixing bowl and throw in the whey powder and the cups of cream.

Mix until fine.

Then add the peanut butter.

Mix until the consistency and color are uniform.

Now slowly add the quick oats, making sure you mix them in well before adding more. I highly recommend a good mixer or a butter knife and patience.

Once the blob is uniform, get a baking pan and some tin foil (or cling wrap, whatever) and press it into the baking pan. Let it sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours, if not overnight. Then cut it into uniform bars.

If you want to know the macros, simply add up all the calories from the ingredients and divide by the bars. Mine average about 420 calories / bar with 20 grams of protein a piece. Not bad.

Next time I'm pressing the dough into a cupcake pan so I don't have to cut anything.

 

[Jukes]

Baked Chicken:

1 pack chicken drums or thighs
Rub with olive oil
Put seasoning (salt & pepper OR seasoned salt OR montreal steak seasoning)
Bake at 350 for 1 hour

If you want to do chicken breast, bake for 450 for 20 minutes, it will come out perfect.

Prep time is almost 0, and is easily the cheapest possible, yet tasty meat dish.

Love this. Instead of butter, I dump some water to later make gravy with cabbage. Chicken is $5.86 & Cabbage is $1.50 - 66 at this West Indian/African super market.

 

[redbeard]

I've been a chili believer for a while, but after regimenting my diet more I put chili by the wayside because I was unsure of what the macros were.

So, I did some work and made an optimized chili for my diet. I do intermittent fasting and wanted to have something to eat post workout that kept the carbs low but pounded me with vegetables and protein. Most importantly I wanted something that was easy, so all of the vegetables come from cans.

The base was bought completely at Costco, so all of it is affordable and organic. It includes:

1 can black beans
1 can green beans
1 can julienned carrots
1 can tomato paste
2 cans diced tomatoes

The meat I use is 3 lbs 92% ground beef. It has similar macros to ground turkey and tastes infinitely better.

All ingredients together, it makes:

3 servings
930 cal
35g fat
58g carbs - 19 g fiber = 39g carbs
99g protein

Boom! This fills me up, gives me a ton of vegetable carbs and protein, and only takes 20-30 min max to prepare.

 

[Sigma]

Oatmeal Pancakes

Nothing new but quick, easy, and nutritious.

Ingredients;

Quick oats,
Protein powder (I use vanilla)
3 eggs
Handful of almonds
Few drops of honey

Just blend everything up in a blender and pour batter onto a hot skillet and you've got pancakes. Leave the left over in the fridge and you're golden for a few days.

You can add some berries for antioxidants, or pumpkin seeds for some zinc and magnesium. Either way it's a super simple recipe that is near impossible to screw up with lots of room for customization.

 

[Sigma]

Fish, vegetable stir fry

Chopped vegetables
(I like carrots, peas, onions, and corn)
Can of whatever fish you like
(Tuna for me)
Coconut oil
Brown rice
Cumin (optional)

Heat up coconut oil in a wok or pan.
Dump in rice, veggies, and fish and stir fry.
Season with cumin for a bit of spice and curry flavor. Cumin is a good source of magnesium and iron plus it tastes great.

 

[AntiTrace]

Basic American Chop Suey

1. 1-1.5lb ground beef
2. One - Two medium onions
3. One - Two green peppers
4. Cup or two of chopped carrots.
5. One can tomato soup
6. One can diced tomatoes
7. Shredded cheese (optional)

Mix diced onion(s) + pepper(s) + chopped carrots + ground beef in pan. Cook on med-high till beef is browned. Transfer everything to slow cooker. Add tomato soup + diced tomatoes. Cook low for 4 hours.

Eat as it is or mix some pasta in it.

I've never bothered to break down the macros, but everything in it is fat free except the beef. I go for 93% ground beef just to minimize fat but you can lower to save a buck or so.

Note: you don't need to slow cook this. You could mix it all up at once and eat right then if you choose. But there is a noticeable taste difference when you slow cook and all the flavors get to mix for 4ish hours.