Category: Food

Chicken breast meat is packed with protein and very little fat. But, it often comes out dry after baking. Here’s a recipe that is quick to cook and results in a more tasty, tender meat.

Ingredients

• Chicken breast
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbs canola oil or olive oil

Instructions

1. Mix all spices in a single spice dispenser
2. Cut up the chicken breast into 1 inch wide strips
3. In a bowl, rub olive oil over the chicken strips and sprinkle on the seasoning. Mix with hands to ensure complete coverage. 
4. Set air fryer to a target thermometer temperature of 165 F.
5. Insert thermometer such that tip is at center of thickest part of one chicken strips
6. When air fryer has preheated, put all strips in
7. When half way done, turn strips over
8. When target temperature reached, remove legs and let stand for 5 minutes
9. Eat

Here’s another high protein, easy-to-cook, delicious meal for you.

Ingredients

• 2 cups frozen broccoli
• 1.5 cups chicken breast (for simplicity, I get precooked grilled chicken strips at Costco)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup firm tofu (available at Costco)
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Salt n pepper to taste
• 10 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

1. Put olive oil in 10″ pan on medium-high heat
2. Add tofu to pan and cook
3. Defrost broccoli in microwave and add to pan
4. Heat up grilled chicken in microwave then add to pan
5. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper
6. Add 4 eggs
7. Sprinkle on some shredded mozzarella cheese
8. Scramble
9. Eat

This recipe is also good without the chicken.

Get > 40 grams of protein in a yummy smoothie drink.

Ingredients

• Silk Unsweetened soy milk (7 g protein per cup)
  You can also use unsweetened almond milk but that has only 1 g protein per cup.
• Ratio KETO Friendly Dairy Yogurt (15 g protein. 2 carbs)
  or any Vanilla greek yoghurt with no or very little added sugar
  or Two Good vanilla greek yogurt (only 3 g of carbs but 12 g of protein)
• 1 scoop of 100% whey protein (25 g protein, 0 carbs)
  Nutricost Whey Protein Concentrate (Unflavored) 2LBS
• 3 frozen strawberries
  (low carb, 3.58 millimoles anti-oxidants per 100g)
• 1 tbsp of Navitas Acai Powder
  Acai has way more anti-oxidants than any other food. 15,405 mmol compared to 4,669 mmol in blueberries per 100 grams.
• 1 tbsp of Chia seeds
  (low carbs, lot of anti-oxidants)
• 1 tbsp peanut butter powder
• 1 tbsp flaxseeds
• Half a handful of walnuts (optional)
  3.72 millimoles anti-oxidants per 100g)
• 1 tablespoon of Matcha green tea powder (optional)
• 1 scoop (5 g) of Creatine Monohydrate (optional – if weightlifting)

Instructions

Blend everything

So, the other day I went to Quizno’s and had this Chipotle Steak and Cheddar sandwich. It was mighty delicious so I had to try to recreate it.

Here’s how it came out.

It was actually really good so here’s the recipe. Note: I substituted steak with pastrami. You can also use roast beef.

Ingredients

• Pastrami (from Costco) – may substitute with roast beef
• sliced green bell pepper
• sliced onion
• cheddar cheese
• Chipotle mayonnaise (substitute with hummus for healthier alternative)
• Francisco Gourmet Sesame Seed Rolls

Instructions

1. Slice the bell pepper and onions into slivers.

2. Heat up some pastrami in a microwave at 50% power for 2 minutes. If the bell pepper and onion are cold from being in the fridge, heat them up along with the pastrami.
3. Spread some Chipotle mayo on both sides of the bread

4. Spread pepper and onion evenly on bread, add pastrami, add cheddar cheese and toast in over until cheese has melted

Remove from oven and enjoy!

Ingredients

• 6 chicken legs
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbs canola oil or olive oil

Instructions

1. Mix all spices in a single spice dispenser
2. Using a clean rag, grab part of the chicken skin with the rag and pull the skin off
3. In a bowl, rub olive oil over each chicken leg and sprinkle on the seasoning. Mix with hands to ensure complete coverage.
4. Let chicken marinate in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. The longer the better. Overnight is best!
5. Set air fryer to a target thermometer temperature of 160 F.
6. Insert thermometer such that tip is at center of thickest part of one chicken leg
7. When air fryer has preheated, put all legs in the air fryer
8. When half way done, turn legs over
9. When target temperature reached, remove legs and let stand for 5 minutes
10. Eat

Ingredients

• 1 container (150 grams) Dannon Oikos Triple Zero Vanilla Greek Yogurt (15 g protein, 0 g added sugar, 100 calories) – Target
• A little bit of Kefir (Lifeway Kefir cultured lowfat milk 1% milkfat plain unsweetened) (1 cup / 240 ml / 110 calories, 0 g added sugar, 11 g protein) – Smart n Final
• Handful of mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)
• ½ cup granola (Kirkland Signature Organic Ancient Grain Granola) – Costco
• 1 tbsp crushed mixed nut topping

Instructions

Mixed everything

Moroccan Shakshouka and Turkish Menemen are very similar. Here’s my version of these dishes.

Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• 1 8oz can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes (Target / FoodMaxx / Smart n Final)
• 2 handfuls of frozen diced onions (Smart n Final)
• 1/4 lb of ground beef
• 2 tbsp wet minced garlic
• 10 tbsp olive oil
• Smoked paprika (not regular paprika)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 jalapeno pepper, sliced (optional – remove seeds so you don’t sweat)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste (optional)
• Sourdough bread
• 1/8 cup cilantro for garnish (you can also use Lightly Dried Cilantro)
• Shredded parmesan or cheddar cheese (optional)

Instructions

1. Pour olive oil in large 12″ pan on high heat
2. Fry ground beef, onions, jalapeno pepper and garlic until slightly brown
3. Pour in diced tomatoes and sprinkle in smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste (optionally, add tomato paste) and cook for 5 minutes. Optionally add cheese.
4. Put 5 slices of sour dough bread in toaster and toast until slightly hard
5. Add eggs being careful not to break the yolk
6. Cover and poach on medium heat until egg white changes from translucent to white. Turn off heat so that egg yolk is still runny.
7. Garnish with cilantro
8. Eat by scooping up Shakshouka with spoon and chase it with a bite of the bread

There are many stir fry vegetables recipes online but they seem more complicated than they need to be (unless I’m just not picky enough about how stir fry vegetables is supposed to taste). The main thing the be concerned with is sodium / salt. You typically add soy sauce to the vegetables but unless you get low sodium soy sauce, the sauce will be already salty so you don’t need to add salt to the vegetables.

For the ingredients, all you need is a stir fry vegetable blend (I get mine from Costco) and soy sauce.

I sometimes add chicken to if I want to add protein.

To make the dish look colorful, I like to add one red bell pepper chopped into bite-size pieces.

You don’t need to defrost the vegetables. Just get a wok, put in some olive oil, wait a bit for the wok to heat up, throw on some frozen veggies, and toss periodically.

Once the veggies are soft, pour on some soy sauce and toss periodically again. the picture below shows it with chicken. If you want a darker look, add dark soy sauce. Dark soy sauce is less salty than regular soy sauce. After a while, give it a taste to see if it needs more soy sauce or not. If not, you’re done.

The soy sauce is only 15 calories / tbsp.

UPDATE: I tried some other recipes that call for a mix of various sauces and I think it did taste better BUT it come with a lot more calories to the all the sugar in Hoisin sauce. If you don’t care about calories, then try this recipe for the sauce instead:

• 1 tbsp Hoisin sauce (90 calories)
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp black vinegar splash of toasted sesame oil

If you do care about calories, omit the Hoisin sauce.

Beef Instead of Chicken

If you prefer beef, you can add precooked, pre-sliced beef sirloin (available at Costco).

Or, to get more for your money, you can buy pre-marinated tri-top (available at Costco).

I tried this out and it came out great. Just preheat an over to 375 (convection bake), stick in a thermometer and set the target temperature to 135. When it’s done, your oven will (should) beep. Take it out and leave for 10 minutes.

Then just add to your veggies.

Fire-Roasted Vegetables

Costco also sells frozen fire-roasted vegetables as well.

This was good but the vegetables were smaller and I didn’t care for some of the vegetables. Nevertheless, it was still very good. In the pic below, I added yellow bell pepper.

KETO UPDATE

If you are on the Keto diet and want to limit carb intake, then here’s a modification of the recipe above.

For the vegetables, use Kirkland Normandy vegetables.

Since this vegetable medley isn’t carb free, you can mix it with Shirataki / Konjac rice (0 net carbs) or riced cauliflower (low carbs) to add bulk to your meal.

For the soy sauce, all you need is Lee Kum Kee Supreme Soy Sauce. It’s got 0 carbs.

For protein, I prefer pre-grilled chicken breast from Costco.

Below is a picture with riced cauliflower.

To simplify cooking, mix the frozen vegetables and refrigerated chicken breast in a covered microwaveable bowl (leaving a small opening in the cover) and heat for 4 minutes. Then transfer to a pan and cook with olive oil. When almost done, add the soy sauce.