This Thai dish has a rich flavor profile served over jasmine rice and pairs fantastic with shrimp.
5 servings
Macros: 636 Calories 82C 16F 41P 6Fib
Ingredients:
28g coconut oil
30g red curry paste
1g yellow curry powder
32g fish sauce
20g raw spinach
1 large lime (juice)
700g cubed butternut squash
100g minced shallot
180g bone broth
1 can lite coconut milk
6g sugar
30g minced ginger
70g crushed cashews (or nut of choice)
cilantro to garnish
180g dry jasmine rice
112 medium shrimp
Instructions:
In a medium sauce pan heat 1/2 coconut oil and saute shallots. Once cooked through, add bone broth, yellow and red curry, ginger, coconut milk, fish sauce, lime juice and butternut squash.
Bring the mixture to a simmer, cover and cook until the squash is easily pierced with a knife. (About 20 minutes).
Cook rice as instructed.
In a separate sauce pan, use remaining coconut oil to cook shrimp.
When curry butternut mixture is complete, allow spinach to wilt and mix into sauce.
Layer rice, butternut sauce, shrimp then garnish with of crushed cashews and fresh cilantro.
A lot of clients ask how I handle food on the go. I leave my house every day around 7 AM and don’t return until after 8 PM most days of the week. Even though I am always on the go I want to stay on track. If I plan on being successful with performance, mental clarity and body composition then having the right nutrition with me needs to be a priority.
I preach meal prep and it is the habitual tool that creates consistency and focus in my life. Many days of the week I eat the same things during the day and then mix it up for my last meal of the day. Once I get home, I know that I have one more meal after my workout or late night in the office. I save about 22g of fat and 50g of carbs so I have the flexibility to eat or even possibily have a scotch.
I typically also practice intermittent fasting. I do this so I can stack as many calories as I can until after lunch. I lift in the evenings, by stacking or saving my food until after lunch this allows me to have the most energy for my lift.
My current macro split for the entire day it is 180g carbohydrates, 55g fats and 170g protein. Below is the food I take with me to work.
This is all the food that I will take with me for the day
12 PM fajita salad with, turkey taco meat, black beans and a mini avocado
55c 13f 52p
2 PM steamed broccoli with venison and black beans
28c 2f 34p
4 PM pre-workout snack, strawberries with chicken breast
18c 2f 28p
6:30 PM or after workout: sautéed vegetables with ground turkey and red sauce
15c 10f 28p
8 PM last meal of the day: a cherry smoothie with chocolate protein and sunflower butter
51c 19f 26p
I make all of this food on Sunday and have the containers ready to go in the refrigerator or freezer. In the morning, all I have to do is load containers into my cooler and then head off to work. If you’re curious of how I manage all of my protein follow this link to the Meal Prep Meat Production post.
At the end of each day before I go to bed I track the next day’s macronutrient plan in MyFitnessPal. I do not track the last meal of the day because I like the flexibility of doing something sporadic during the day or being creative when I get home from the gym. I save 20g of fat and 60g of fat and 30g of protein for my last meal. This way if I want some chicken and a glass of scotch I can.
Want to see exactly what im eating? Follow me at UserName: RMBiagioli at MyFitnessPal.
The macronutrient I struggled the most to get enough of was protein. I decided find the most organized AF way to hit my minimums.
Below is the mass production of turkey taco meat. I will make 30 or more servings of a single protein. I make 1 type of protein each weekend. This allows me to rotating the meat, I don’t get bored and have variety to choose from.
Step 1: Invest in Tupperware. For protein I have about 60, 1 cup containers (I like the rectangle so they stack nice in the freezer) and I also have about 60, 1/2 cup containers (also a square so they stack on the door and in the freezer).
Step 2: Measure /Weigh ALL of the raw meat.
Step 3: Enter these into you fitness tracker as a recipe; I use MyFitnessPal.
Step 4: Add seasoning to the meat and add these to your recipe.
Step 5: Cook all of the protein.
Step 5a: My trick to get finely shredded ground turkey is while and after you are cooking each batch, mash it up with a whisk. That 99% ground turkey is stubborn and this helps a ton.
Step 6: Re-weigh all of the protein. Divide this number by the number of servings or containers you have available
Step 7: Portion and let cool.
Step 8: Freeze
Step 9: Pull them out of the freezer as needed. I use the ice cold meat as the ice pack in my cooler for work.
Leftover thanksgiving turkey that you’re getting sick of? Here is a way to mix things up for a zesty open faced sandwich.
Macros
127cal (makes 2 servings)
3.5C | 8F | 17P | 1Fib
Bread & Cheese not included
Ingredients:
85g raw coleslaw mix
10g Horseradish brown mustard
15g Primal Kitchen, chipotle lime mayo
5g white wine vinegar
Celery salt – to taste
Black pepper – to taste
140g roasted thanksgiving turkey
1. In a bowl mix together coleslaw, brown mustard, white wine vinegar, chipotle lime mayo, celery salt and pepper.
2. Layer coleslaw over turkey on top of your choice of bread. Open faced sandwiches cut your carbs but still allow you to enjoy the flavor of your favorite bread. Add Swiss cheese to make it an official “Rachel” sandwich. I am trying dairy free right now so I skipped that add-on.
Flexible dieting is a style of dieting that is based around counting the three main macro-nutrients that you consume daily (carbohydrates, protein and fat). This style of diet can lead to long term success because of its ability to be less strict. You are able to choose the foods you want to eat and when you want to eat them.
The word gets a bad reputation because 95% of them fail. The reason they fail is because they are a short term solution, are unrealistic and unsustainable. Most dieters attempt to lose weight and reach goals by making radical changes and completely restrict themselves from eating a certain foods or entire groups all together. Going between the extremes often results in a failed diet attempt. Flexible dieting allows you to find balance.
For this style of calorie restriction these are a few of my recommendations:
Body Weight Scale: I recommend that you weight yourself daily. Weigh yourself naked, every morning when you wake up and after using the restroom. Your weight will fluctuate week to week and using the same scale every day over the week you can see you average change over weeks’ time. Many things will fluctuate your weight: water intake, hormone levels, exercise intensity, travel, salt, large meals etc.
Food Scale: a food scale will allow you to be as precise as possible. The size of cups can be deceiving and 1 table spoon could turn into 2 very quickly. The most accurate way to work flexible dieting is to weigh everything.
Calorie Tracking App: this will be essential so you can track what you are eating each day. I recommend MyFitnessPal, MyMacros, and LifeSum. For the foods without labels, a helpful website to find accurate macro-nutrient is: www.calorieking.com .
Weekly progress photos: this will help you monitor changes in your body composition that will help me make custom macro-nutrient breakdowns.
Info:
Carbohydrates – 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate
The primary role of carbohydrates is to provide energy for the body. We store energy from carbohydrates in the form of glycogen in our liver and muscles.
Protein – 4 calories per gram of protein
Protein is a well-known macronutrient for it’s role in muscle recovery from exercise. Protein is are the ‘the building blocks of life’. Unlike carbohydrate and fat, there is no way for our bodies to store excess protein for further use, so it is important to have an adequate amount of protein on a daily basis for health and recovery.
Fat – 9 calories per gram of fat
Dietary fat plays a crucial role in hormone balance.
Alcohol – 7 calories per gram
Does not provide any nutritional value other than calories.
Here is how you can calculate it:
Take the total amount of calories in your alcoholic beverage and divide it by 4 if you would like to track your beverage as carbohydrates. Take the total amount of calories in your alcoholic beverage and divide it by 9 if you would like to track your beverage as fats. You can do a mix between carbohydrates and fat if you prefer.
Meal frequency:
Feel free to eat as many or few meals as you desire. The most important factor is total daily calories. As long as you hit your target macro-nutrients goal for the day, it doesn’t matter if you have 2 meals or 10 meals.
Meal Timing:
To optimize performance and recovery around exercise, I recommend a higher amount of quick digesting carbs before and after a workout with a lower amount of protein and low fat.
Other Terms or things to know:
RFFYM – real food fits your macros, this will be used in different recipes
Macros – short term for flexible dieting macronutrients
IIFYM- if it fits your macros, commonly referred to when looking at different recipes because a lot of things will fit your macros
Cook in bulk, it makes life easy
Carbs – a “5 point variance” once you determine the number of carbs you are eating try to stay within 5 above or 5 below.
Fats- a “2 point variance” once you determine the number of fats you are eating try to stay within 2 above or 2 below.
Fiber – try to remain above 25 grams.
Water: half your body weigh in ounces, +4 oz or every 15 mins you workout and +8 for every cup of coffee you consume.
This recipe takes under 15 minutes and it’s fantastic. The extra broth gives it a Pho-flare.
Macros
388 cal /serving
12C | 18F | 46P | 3Fib
Ingredients (2 servings):
15g minced garlic
1/3 cup bone broth
1/2 lemon juice yield
525g zucchini sliced/ spiraled into zoodles
375g shrimp raw
2tbsp coconut oil
Old Bay seasoning 1/2 tsp
Black pepper 1/4 tsp
Seafood seasoning of personal preference
Start by making your zoodles. My mom bought me this contraption for my birthday and it makes straight spaghetti out of my zucchini. I peel as much as I can to make zoodles and then I shred the middle with a grater and use it in my pancakes.
I then sauté the shrimp in garlic until they are pink/cooked.
I then add my zoodles.
As soon as the zoodles are on the heat, I add my liquids and seasonings (bone broth, lemon juice, and coconut oil, Old Bay, black pepper and seafood seasoning). Stir occasionally until the zoodles are the right texture. There will be extra liquid, which makes it pho-like.
Anyone that knows me, knows that I love Pancakes!!! When I was growing up EVERY Saturday my dad would make pancakes from scratch.
Now, I still love pancakes but have found ways to expand the volume and fill them with protein.
Macros
340cal
34C | 3F | 40P | 6Fib
Ingredients (per serving):
53g Kodiak Cakes, protein packed buttermilk flapjack and waffle mix
100g shredded zucchini
1g stevia
138g egg whites
1 second spray oil
Toppings of choice
I use the shredded zucchini to double the volume but it still keeps the same flavor of the pancakes. I also use the egg whites instead of water as my mixing agent. This increases the protein. I like a sweeter pancake so the stevia takes it from a waffle flavor to a pancake.
Costco carries these giant boxes of pancake mix! It’s the best price I have found!!!
Step 1: Shred zucchini
Step 2: Add stevia to zucchini. I put the zucchini in first so that the pancake mix doesn’t stick to my bowl. I also love this 4 cup mixing cup. It allows me to just pour right into the pan.
Step 3: Add pancake mix
Step 4: Add egg whites
Step 5: mix with a fork
Step 6: Spray pan and cook pancakes, I find that I have to use a rubber scraper to get them to flatten out and become round… that pesky zucchini makes them weird shapes
Step 7: Stack and enjoy
I get pretty creative with my toppings, this particular day I used the Walden Farms chocolate syrup and raw unsweetened coconut to make “German Chocolate Cake – Pancakes”
