Fitness

Lentils in a hundred ways, in pasta sauces, as an alternative for rice, black lentils for burgers, black or green lentils simply boiled, salted (halfway through cooking) and seasoned well. Your gut will thank you and its iron and protein is very high, and super cheap.

Just get tons of different veggie + meat (or meat alternative) combos (potatoes are also a high satiating index if you are trying to cut. 400g of boiled potatoes is a fuck ton of food for 350 calories)

• Salmon + any light, roasted veggie (asparagus, carrots and parsley, broccolini, etc..)

• roasted veggies in general: beets, filled courgette boats, filled peppers, carrots, cauliflower (harissa paste and smoked paprika marinades are amazing on cauliflower), etc..

• mushroom pasta: sauteed mushrooms (first sweating them on high heat) with your choice of other protein, take out when ready and make a white wine, cream, and shallot/red onion sauce with some chickpea pasta or other higher protein alternative

• shakshuka: essentially egg, tomato, and onions that can be used as a sauce for meat or supplemented with chickpeas and used with bread as a dip

• legume meal dips: e.g. red lentil dip: cook onion in olive oil, add garlic, add spices: cumin, coriander, chili powder, paprika, turmeric, bay leaves, pepper, tomato paste and cook for a minute, then add a can of tomato pieces, 250g red lentils, a can of chickpeas, and half a liter of your choice of stock, simmer for 15-20 minutes and add 30-50g of nutritional yeast. This is insanely good and has tons of protein, fiber, and minerals and you can supplement with additional proteins like chicken and dip with bread, tortillas, naan, or just rawdog it with a fork. There are also tons of variations with different veggies and spice combinations ) like a spinach variant that is great) Soph's Plant Kitchen on Instagram has a bunch of these type of recipes, you can always supplement with meat if that's your thing.

• Spanakopita: easy, filling, and goes with a lot of red meats like lamb, beef, etc... Phyllo dough then add leafy veggies like spinich and arugula and leek cooked down in a pot for 10 minutes or so with feta and boiled quinoa or boiled bulgur added and then lay out the dough in a baking dish in alternating directions: 4 layers, filling mix, 4 layers, brush with oil on top, trim edges, bake, done and you have a side dish for a week.

You can honestly take a ton of recipes and just tweak them to make them healthier. Learning to cook and learning to use spices is like the #1 life skill and makes fitness diets a lot more interesting and tasty.

I like stir frying for the versatility in playing around with different ratios of vegetables to meat as your macros allow (and can be paired with rice as macros allow). Yes, sometimes that's broccoli, but often it's something like snap peas, onions, carrots, bell peppers, celery, even peanuts or cashews. And you can rotate through chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, tofu, seitan, etc. It's basically a formula that takes away a lot of the thinking while giving the versatility to make full use of the ingredients you have on hand, and doesn't get tedious or repetitive.

Similarly, I use a lot of vegetables for pasta, and do some kind of pasta primavera pretty often: blanch some combination of broccoli, broccolini, peas, snow peas, snap peas, asparagus, fiddleheads, etc., and then put in with your cooked pasta and cover in freshly grated parm, maybe some cream or butter. Add chicken or shrimp if you'd like to take it in that direction. Use high protein or whole grain pasta if you'd like.

Or even a traditional tomato based pasta sauce has a ton of room for other vegetables, meats. And it doesn't even have to top pasta, if your macros don't have room for those carbs. A red sauce can be put on eggplant or zucchini and still tastes great.

What? Why only chicken and broccoli?

In practice I try to eat at least one good meal a day.

Big hunk of pork in the slow cooker makes a couple days of beans, rice, and pork, another day of tacos, then enchiladas.

Big pot of beans makes a day of beans, rice and veg; then a day of burritos then a day of chili.

If you are aggressively carbohydrate avoidant then big hunk of pork still works. Pork & veg then carnitas lettuce wraps (better than they sound, put a little chipotle sauce on them) then stuffed cabbage.

Salmon is good too, also chicken thighs with salt & vinegar roasted cabbage, cabbage is so delicious. Eggs. Sardines. Olives.

I don't avoid any particular food or drink though (obviously, if you look at my posts) just rely on moderation, exercise, and occasional short fasts (sometimes if not hungry at suppertime I skip supper then wait till lunch or teatime the next day to eat).

Whole wheat pasta or quinoa cooked in broth with tomato sauce with lentils, bell peppers, onion, herbs and garlic. Sometimes I add tofu for extra protein and cheese when it fits in my macros for the day (you can also add chicken I guess, but I'm vegetarian)

It really does not help that I'm incredibly lazy but I do have a couple 'staples' that i use

• pancakes
• pizza
• Mac and cheese
• a queso that I often have used as a saled dressing

All are protein oriented and come from youtube or cook book and have been 'manipulated' by me After that yea it's always vegies, chicken, 'some carb' in most cases rice or potatoes, and an egg lol

Edit: Completely forgot about the ninja cremi that thing is great (I used to make that other ice cream in a blender thing). I can send you the recipes for above if you want

For veggies, I usually get frozen mixed veggies, it's more varied and some even have mushrooms mixed in there making them very tasty. Or I cook some tomato-based sauce.

For protein, I mostly eat Skyr and Tofu. Eggs, nuts and lentils also have good protein content, but they have other macros as well.

Unless you're doing some aggressive 1000kcal deficit every day, there's also plenty of space for "normal" meals in each day. Just do the math for the macros you need to eat for your goal. I don't think eating only veggies + protein is a good idea long term.

I just kind of mix it up to be honest. I'm not cutting so I don't need to watch my macros that badly.

Back when I was cutting, I leaned into cottage cheese and chicken salad, mostly because it was easy, consistent and tasty enough.