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.