A Chili For the Ages

So, I'll be the first to say that I'm not very good at this blog thing...only 5 posts in like a year.  I need to focus on my cooking more.  Anyways, over the last 6 months I've been bulking (adding mass through a caloric surplus) and have come up with a few really nice recipes to helping me meet my goals (4000 calories per day).  One of these recipes is relatively new...thanks to my investment in a 4 qt Crock-pot for 16 bucks...and it is a high protein chili with a great balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fats w/ the added benefit of VERY LOW sodium.

According to the recipe, as entered into myfitnesspal.com, here are the nutritional (macronutrient) facts of my recipe:

SERVINGS: 5

Calories: 418

Carbs: 46 g (12 g fiber, you'll be whistling dixie)

Fat: 12 g (1 g saturated fat)

Protein: 33 g

Sodium: dependent on the canned tomatos

So here is what you'll need:

MEAT:
1/2 lb - Ground Pork Sausage
1/2 lb - 93/7 Ground Beef or Ground Turkey

VEGGIES:
1 - Medium sized yellow onion
2 - Medium sized Bell Peppers (I used a green and orange one)
2 - Jalapenos
2 - Habaneros (OPTIONAL)
4 cloves - Fresh Garlic

CANNED GOODS:
2 - 15 oz cans of chili beans.  I USED "NO SALT" ADDED.  This recipe works best with them, and you just have to look at the "Beans" section of your local grocer to find something similar.
1 - 28 oz can of DICED tomatos. YOU COULD ALSO USE FRESH ROMA TOMATOS

SEASONINGS:
PINCH of sea salt or kosher salt
4 tbs - BROWN sugar
Chili Powder
Black Pepper (to taste)

TOOLS OF THE TRADE:
4 qt Crock-Pot (SLOW COOKER)
1 big plastic spoon
Cutting board
Frying pan
Spatula
1 Chef's Knife
1 Can opener

-DIRECTIONS-

1. Prep the slow cooker using a "slow cooker" bag.  You can find these in the storage section of the grocery store.  DO NOT TURN THE COOKER ON.

2. Open the Chili Beans and Diced tomatos

3. Drain the cans of a bit of their liquid, but not all (approximately a 1/4).  This will ensure the least amount of water will be entered into the equation from outside sources.

4. Pour the beans and tomatos into the slow cooker and mix until "well-mixed"

5.  Grab both bell peppers and onions.  Then cut the tops off the Bell Peppers and clean out the ribs and  seeds, as shown.  Also peel the onion for cutting.

6.  Chop the bell peppers and onions, into small bite size chunks (about a 1/4 inch or so).  See below.

7.  Clean the habaneros, jalapenos, and garlic cloves and mince them into tiny pieces.  WARNING: if you leave big pieces, you will find a spicy surprise at some point.

8.  Mix the bell, habanero, and jalapeno peppers as well as the onions and garlic into the slow cooker.  See below.

9.  BEFORE mixing with a spoon, it is time to season.  For chili powder, I eyeball it.  If you look below I use a dusting of chili powder to approximately cover the entire top of the slow cooker mixture. This is usually enough to give you a strong chili smell and taste!  Add as you see fit.

10.  Add a PINCH of salt (we want to minimize salt intake) as well as add the brown sugar and black pepper (to taste).  See below.

11.  Once the spices are added, mix the entire mixture WELL.  You can usually tell when the mixture is "well mixed" by a similar color all over the pot (onions and peppers sort of look red-ish).

12.  SINCE WE ARE USING A SLOW COOKER.  We will brown the meats.  Combine the 1/2 lb of pork sausage and 1/2 lb of ground beef/turkey (beef is shown) into a frying pan and brown it off on high.  Make sure you chop it into bite size pieces, like you would for say Hamburger Helper

13.  The browning should take about 5-10 minutes.  Once this is done, combine the still hot meat into the crock-pot with other ingredients.

14.  Mix the entire concoction until it is even throughout.

15.  Place the slow cooker on HIGH mode for 5-6 hours.  Stir every 1-3 hours to keep the flavors nice and even.

There you go!  A solid chili recipe for the baller on a budget.  I like to add a microwaved baked potato (1 russet potato w/ fork holes pokings placed in the microwave on high for 8-9 minutes) and pour this chili overtop.  It makes a VERY hearty meal that will keep you full for hours.

Bon appetite!
-NG

Potatoes O'Brien

As I have been searching for a great low glycemic (very slow digesting) nutrient rich meal to add to my usual higher protein diet, I looked no further than a version of homefries that you would typically have for breakfast.  This is none other than Potatoes O'Brien.

This is an incredibly simple recipe that has plenty of slow digesting carbs, vitamin C, and a host of other nutrients to help you pile-drive your body with energy.

So no futher here is the next recipe!

INGREDIENTS:
Russet Potatoes - 1/2 of a nice idaho spud
Onion - 1 thick slice of a yellow or red onion
Bell Peppers - 1/2 a bell pepper; yellow, red, or green (COLORS!!!)
Ground Black Pepper
Sea Salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 2 tablespoons

STEPS TO SUCCESS:

Traditional Way:
1.  Preheat a pan on medium (I use setting 5 on a 1-10 heat range)
2.  As the pan preheats, add the Extra Virgin Olive Oil to allow it to heat up (it'll add the crispiness)
2.  Cube the potato, peppers, and onion.  About as big as the width of one of your fingers (or to your liking)
3.  When you see a light smoke coming off the pan from the oil (this means the oil is to temperature), add the potatoes, onions, and peppers.
HERE IS A PICTURE OF THE MIX IN THE PAN:

4.  Add a pinch of sea salt, and crack as much black pepper as you would like onto those bad boys.
5.  Pan fry for about 10 minutes, for a soft potato inside and crunchy outside.  Flipping the mixture about every 2-3 minutes.
YOU SHOULD ACHIEVE O'BRIEN PERFECTION WHEN YOUR MIX LOOKS LIKE THIS:

OR:

A quicker way (frozen using a 3 pepper and onion blend!)
1.  Preheat a pan on medium (I use setting 5 on a 1-10 heat range)
2.  As the pan preheats, add the Extra Virgin Olive Oil to allow it to heat up (it'll add the crispiness)
3.  Open your bag of 3 veggies.  Here is a pic of the one I used:

4. Cube the potato.   About as big as the width of one of your fingers (or to your liking)

5.  FOLLOW STEPS 3-5 of the traditional way above!!!

My meal tonight consisted of 4 eggs (4 whites, 1 yolk), a big ol' seared portobella mushroom, and this dish above. 

 It was a fantastic meal for protein, slow digesting carbs, and high vitamin nutrition. The yolk may be high in saturated fats, but the nutritional benefit with 4 yolks was worth it.  ENJOY!!!

Playing with Fire

In the search of a thermogeneic food, that is, a food that will enhance your metabolism, I look no further than hot sauce. The capsaicin is spicy molecule that burns our throat, but it also happens to be the thermogenic to energize fat burn.  I love hot sauce and its multitude of flavors and combinations, so when it came to this evening I got the crazy idea in my head to make my own hot sauce!  This hot sauce I will aptly name as "Limeade" until I think of something better because it lasts you with a lime rush and as soon as you think its done, an explosion of fire engulfs your taste buds.

What you'll need:
1. A blender
2. White Distilled Vinegar - 1 cup
3. Lime - 1/2 lime
4. Amber Agave Nectar - about 3 tbsp
5. Garlic - 4 cloves
6. Thai Chili - 10 chilis
7. Jalapeno Pepper - 3 peppers
8. Habanero Pepper - 4 peppers

A picture for your troubles:












What to do:
1.  Put about 3/4 cup of the distilled vinegar into a pot and heat until you have a rolling boil.
2.  While waiting for a boil, clean and crush the 4 garlic cloves.  Place these into the blender.
3.  Remove the stems of the Thai, Habanero, and Jalapeno peppers.  Place them whole into blender.

           NOTE:  If you get the juice of any of these peppers on your finger, do not touch your eyes.  YOU CAN and WILL BURN.  Thats the lovely capsaicin in the pepper talking back.

5.  Once the peppers have been added, squeeze the half of the lime and add 3 tbsp of the agave nectar to the blender.  These will add a touch of natural sweetness and lime-ness to an otherwise unreal inferno.

6.  Once the vinegar boils, add this to the blender as well.  Now all of the ingredients are in the blender.  Blend the mixture until it is very very soupy

7.  Now empty the liquid/solid hot sauce back into the same pot you boiled the vinegar in.  Heat this mixture to a boil.

A picture of what the consistency should look like after it is blended.

8.   When the mixture has reached a boil.  Reduce the heat and let the mixture reduce to roughly half of its original volume.  This process is known as a "reduction."  This will remove the liquid like behavior of the mixture while INTENSIFYING the flavor of the lime and spice.

9.  Reduce the mixture for approximately 20 minutes.  Cool and serve or store.

Still looking for a name for this concoction.  Any suggestions?  Enjoy!

Recipe 2: The Bodybuilding Pancake

Eggs, Bacon/Sausage, Toast/Bagel, Jam/Preserves, and Coffee...these are foods that come to mind when thinking of breakfast.  It's the classic "American" style breakfast.  If you go to your classic Denny's/IHOP/diner, you'll find that the Eggs (scrambled/fried, yolks included) and meat are filled with sodium, cholesterol, trans-fat, and oils.  The Toast/Bagel are usually an enriched grain (which constitutes virtually 0 nutrients aside from Carbohydrates).  The jam/preserve are loaded with sugars.  I would almost go as far as saying the coffee may be the healthiest item on that menu, simply because of the caffine as a thermogeneic.  

To me, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  In my infinite yet limited wisdom, breakfast has to do 3 things.

1. Break the fast.  Your body is in a state of fasting from your last meal and sleep.  Energy is key: IE carbohydrate

2. Restore vital nutrients levels.  This includes both Macro- (like protein) and Micro- nutrients (Zinc, Vitamin C, A, B6, B12, Iron, etc).  It will be the thing to kick start your morning off right and your body will thank you with better support.

3. Kick start your metabolism.  This one is optional for most people.  I often find this is great place for a coffee or energy-type drink.  The caffine will supercharge your metabolism (via it's quality as a thermogenic, IE fat-burning!).

So, what do I like to make for breakfast that's great for all of this?  Pancakes/Waffles of course!  This is a version of a classic Bodybuilding-style Pancake.  It's got a thermogenic, protein, and carbohydrate.  Plus its simple, affordable, and takes about 15 minutes to make.  The following recipe has about these stats for a single serving of 4 pancakes.

Calories: 350 (Fat Calories: 35)

Fat: 4 g (Sat: 1 g; Poly-/Monounsaturated: 2 g)

Sodium: 190 mg (~8% RDA)

Carbs: 31 g

Protein: 57 g

Available Nutrients: Calcium, Iron, Thiamin, Riboflavin

What you'll need:

Blender (pretty important)

4 Extra Large Eggs or 4-5 Large Eggs (White or Brown, no nutritional difference)

Cinnamon (this is your thermogenic)

1/2 cup - Quaker Quick Oats or your generic bulk oats
1 scoop - Protein Powder (for this recipe I used Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey "Cookies and Cream")

Frying Pan

OPTIONAL:  Blueberries, Blackberries, Bananas, any really tasty healthy fruit fit for a pancake

Directions:

1.  Place about a 1/2 cup of your oats into the blender (a Magic Bullet blender works great for this).  You can use a bit more or a bit less, this is an imperfect measurement, but determines the carbohydrate content in your mixture.

2. Sprinkle a pinch of cinnamon overtop of the oats in the blender.

3. Add about 1 rounded scoop of your favorite protein powder.  I use Cookies and Cream flavor to make it taste like a chocolate chip pancake.  You could also use just straight chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry banana, chocolate peanut butter...your favorite.  This controls half of the protein content of this dish.

4. Crack 4 eggs and separate the whites from the yolks.  The yolks have all the cholesterol and fats of an egg, but also the BCAAs (Branch Chain Amino Acids) needed to break down and utilize the proteins of the whites.  DO NOT ADD THE YOLKS, it really screws up the taste of the pancake.  Even though the BCAAs are missing, any solid whey protein has a full assortment of BCAAs in their powder.

5.  Add optional fruits.  About a quarter cup of berries or a whole banana.

6. Put the lid on the blender and blend that SOB till it looks like this:

7. Now the batter is ready.  Heat your frying pan (preferably non-stick) to a medium-heat setting.  If your frying pan is non-stick use PAM spray to make it non-stick (PAM has 0 calories).

8. When the frying pan is hot.  You can tell this by putting a little bit of water in the pan and see it boil off or if you used PAM it will lightly smoke.  Put about a quarter of the batter in a circle shape or your favorite shape (dinosaurs work well) into the hot frying pan.   Making about a 5-6" pancake

9.  These pancakes "read" just like a normal pancake.   When the batter facing up at you begins to bubble on the sides and middle thats the perfect time to flip it, everytime.  This process takes about 1 minute or so.

10.  When it "reads" to flip, flip the pancake and cook for about another minute or less.  It will rise.

11.  When it is able to move around in the pan (IE the batter is cooked) remove the pancake from the pan and repeat steps 8-11 for the rest of the batter.  The pancake should look like this:

The blog and recipe 1.

Hey Everyone!

The name is Nick and I have two very passionate hobbies: cooking and the outdoors.

I'd say many people note how many times my status (on facebook.com) changes with regards to the recipes that I cook in my own kitchen.  I would for one like to share the development with the world.  These recipes that I will be making are healthy, in most respects to the word.

So here goes...

Sweet Potato Fries for the healthier man.  This recipe takes about 25 minutes to complete.
About 8-10 for prep
17 for baking

The idea here is to deliver a healthy favorite among our all American french fry.  Sweet Potatoes are high in carbohydrates, vitamin A, C, B6, B5, B3, fiber, maganese, and potassium.  They truly blow the old idaho spud out of the water, from a nutrition standpoint.  PLUS if you cook it right, they become sweet (IE sweet potato).

What you'll need per serving:
1 - Large sweet potato
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea-salt
Chili Powder
Garlic Powder
Cayenne Pepper
Black Pepper

Hardware:
Baking Sheet
Large Kitchen Knife
Carrot Peeler (of sorts)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Please not Celsius, the world needs less catastrophes.
2. Peel your sweet potato.  You can get a solid "finger" peeler at a place like Target or Walmart.  They are quite excellent and less hassle than a traditional carrot peeler.  You can also use your knife if you do not have a peeler, just be careful.
3. Cut your peeled sweet potato in half and remove the ends.  This will ensure that your edges to not burn.  After all burned sugars are disgusting.
4. With one half of the sweet potato, cut it into 1/4th in chunks long ways.  That is, make them look like typical french fries.  THEN, do it again with the other half.
5. Place the fries on the baking sheet and drizzle the Extra Virgin Olive Oil onto them.  Make sure you cover them, but do not over do it, otherwise more calories.  The reason we are covering the fries in this healthy oil is so they crisp up.  Sweet potatoes will breakdown and unless they have some crispin' oil, they will become mushy.  Figure about 3 tablespoons.
6. Sprinkle the pinch of salt, chili powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and garlic powder over the oiled fries to taste.
5.  Bake for 10 minutes, then flip and bake for 7 more.  17 minutes in total.