Muscle Food Monday – Chocolate Protein Overnight Oats

August 17, 2015 Robert Osborn Leave a comment

its been a few weeks i kinda took a break then kinda got lazy. but I’m back and i want to introduce to you a concept i have recently discovered ( so I’m more than likely behind with this trend). so over night oats very similar concept to the salad jars i made early in the year. You pre make a load of a set recipe and store them in the fridge for up to 4 days in the air tight sealed jars this works out amazing cheep when you look at it from a financial stand point and these things taste amazing. Before we get to the recipe i ha e a few things to mention and a few confessions of changes i had to make.

I have half a litre jar size for these and had to add some stuff to pack this out to make 3 servings which the original recipe said it made my jars might be a bit small or it actually is suppose to serve 2 jars.

I had no chocolate coco powder so i used chocolate protein powder in mine. i think it was a fine choice it will certainly bulk up the protein levels. but maybe this tastes better with a dark coco powder.

I also bulked this out with greek yogurt just so it could serve 3 days. this is optional and i won’t add it to the recipe but if your looking for a thicker mix this works wonders.

The Recipe

2 cups rolled oats
2 tbs. cocoa powder
1½ cups coconut milk (or other milk)
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbs. finely diced dates or 1 tbs. date paste
1 tbs. maple syrup (or to taste)
Chocolate chips and cherries for garnish (optional)

Method

In a medium bowl, stir together the oats and cocoa powder. In a measuring cup, combine the coconut milk, vanilla extract, dates, and maple syrup. Pour the ingredients from the measuring cup over the oats, and stir to coat evenly. Taste the mixture to see if it needs more maple syrup, and adjust as needed.
Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and refrigerate overnight.
Serve warm, cold, or at room temperature. Garnish with fruit.
These chocolate overnight oats will keep for several days in the refrigerator.

next week another recipe

Many Thanks

Robert

Muscle Food Monday- Healthy Full English

July 6, 2015July 5, 2015 Robert Osborn Leave a comment

Hi All

keeping running with the Healthy Breakfast theme of the next few weeks. i decided to do my version of a full English which is a beloved dish by most in the uk. now i found the ket to this is not so much what you cook its how its cooked that is key. But firstly i like to point out that i ran out of muscle foods chicken sausages which i more than likely would have used so i used conventional sausages. i really do enjoy this and its most commonly featured on my Sunday morning routine as my little treat before i go golf.

Ingredients

Egg x2
Sausages x2
Bacon x2
Tomatos x2 for Big or 5-6 small
Salt
Pepper
Oil

Method

pre heat oven to 180 degrees C
place Sausages on Oven and let cook for 10 min and rotate them
prep your Eggs in a bowel and whisk together the salt and pepper and get in a pan ready to cook.
Dice up the tomatoes
Place Bacon in the oven with the sausages and leave for a further 10 min
cook the scrambled egg and dry fry the tomatoes when there is 5 min remaining on the oven timer.
(optional) Slice sausages down the middle and place under grill for 3-5 min
Serve with a nice cup of tea!!!

Other things to note

you can swap the bacon for turkey rashes.
you can have mushrooms dry fried( I’m not a fan of them).
you can add sweet potato hash browns (i didn’t make any)
you can cook in Coconut Oil (may taste odd)

hope you like this dish

Many thanks

Robert

Muscle food Monday- scrambled egg and steak

June 29, 2015June 29, 2015 Robert Osborn Leave a comment

Hi All

This month I’m going to give a run down of some breakfast meals you may not consider or have forgot that are good for you. this week we are starting with Steak and eggs. This is possibly a meal that i would like to put in 2 times a week if i have allot of white meats planned during the week for dinner. Red meat will provide you with Iron and other essential B vitamins as well as essential Amino acids that the body cannot produce. The egg will back this up with essential fats and more protein. this meal is very filling and will set you right for the day ahead.

i am actually going to talk about how to best cook a steak and i might add that in at the end of the week i will see how i get on but for now lets cover the basics with the scrambled egg as that comes up a few times this series.

Ingredients

3 eggs
salt
pepper
oil

Method

Heat he pan and place a oil, butter in there for a layer of Greece which will prevent burning and sticking
crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk
add salt and pepper
pour in to the pan and leave for 10 seconds and wait for the egg to form
stir gently and often to create your scrambled egg.

Give this a go in the mornings and see your energy levels rise and stay high throughout the day.

hope you enjoy

Robert

Muscle food Monday- Vegetable and Halloumi Skewers

June 22, 2015 Robert Osborn Leave a comment

for the last and final blog on my BBQ series i will be doing a vegetarian choice this Skewer was actually a last min swap from my original plan and to be honest i think its a better option. What i found was these held there shape surprisingly well. This will work really well for those non meat eaters and it will act as a wicked side dish for the meat lovers around the table.

Ingredients

200g Halloumi
2 red peppers
2 courgettes
chillies
Fresh Mint
1 lemon
2 table spoon of Olive Oil
sea salt and black pepper
Cherry Tomatos

Method

Place Skewers in a tray of cold water to soak
dice the cheese in to 2cm chunks, slice the peppers into the came 2cm chunks
place into a bowl with the cherry tomatoes
Speed peel the the courgette into strips
finely chop and de seed the chillies and add them with the Mints into the bowl
finely grate zest of lemon
add olive oil and mix the bowl well
skewer the halloumi, tomatoes, chillies, peppers alternating, Divided by the courgette slices
place on the hot side of the BBQ for 5-6 min each side.

I truely enjoyed these i hope you do to

Next week I’m going to start looking at breakfast. I’m going to cover my favourite food to have in the morning hours. So the next 4-5 weeks i will be covering that. I have a few cool blog post coming up i hope you will read them

Many thanks

Robert

Muscle Food Mondays- Burgers

June 8, 2015 Robert Osborn Leave a comment

Hi everyone

Today i wanted to go through some things about burgers because this is a BBQ series and they are a key part to the traditional BBQ. so this post will be everything you need to know about burgers. To keep burgers on the Healthy side i would suggest you drop the bun and just have the patties. filling up with side salads or grilled vegetables will be better.

Types of burger

Beef
Crocodile
Wagu Steak
Reindeer
Chicken
Llama
Kangaroo
Ostrich
Horse
Buffalo

Cooking Burgers

Preheat grill to a high temperature.
Quickly place all the patties on the hot grill and close the lid.
Wait about 2 to 3 minutes.
With a metal spatula test to see if the burger easily lifts from the grate. If not continue grilling, until it does.
Flip all the patties provided they lift easily.
Close lid and continue grilling for another 2 to 3 minutes.
Once again check the patties to make sure they have released from the grate and flip one more time.
Continue grilling until juices from the burgers run clear and the patties have a solid feel.
Remove from grill and check to make sure they are cooked through by using a fork to pierce through the center.
If burgers are too pink in the middle return to grill for another minute or so. Otherwise serve as desired.

next week we do vegetable Skewers

Robert

Muscle Food Mondays- Pulled Pork for BBQ

June 1, 2015June 16, 2015 Robert Osborn Leave a comment

So this week we will be looking at Pulled Pork as part of the BBQ series sadly Muscle food don’t seek these joints but they taste great so I’m making it part of the blog. This meat can be eaten on its own or can be added to things link Burgers and Hot dogs. However Pork can be quite a fatty meat so having too much may not be good for your overall diet when you look at macros and calories by the numbers.

Today we are going to cover the very simple way of cooking one of these, so I’m going to tell you now this was marinated in a plane BBQ sauce and left for a day in the fridge. I will mess around with marinades and combinations of how to use these in meals another time on the blog.

Method

1 Small sized pork cooking method.

2 Heat fan oven to 220 degrees to warm up.

3 place pre marinated pork on lowest tray in the oven cover with foil.

4 bring heat down t0 180-200 degrees.

5 cook for 60min

6 at 50 min remove the foil and let the top cook over

7 shred

This makes a bread addition to BBQ and can be the meat that bulks out other foods. so i hope this week brings good weather so you can start using some of these dishes for BBQ dinners

many thanks

Robert

Muscle Food Mondays- BBQ Tuna Steaks

May 18, 2015June 16, 2015 Robert Osborn Leave a comment

So i had a manic weekend with a massive mud run over the Nuclear races in Ongar it was super fun and i will probably make a blog on it over the week at some point. But i wanted to post something for my BBQ series and was raiding the fridge as i hadn’t really accounted for how busy i would be over the past 2 day. now my BBQ has a pan frying option on the side so i am going to quickly show you a way to do a tuna steak for those who enjoy foods other than your traditional meats. With the weather in mind its not exactly BBQ time of writing so i will do this inside but the method is the same. lastly when i was considering how to flavour this the rest of the BBQ range has made me consider that this dish does not need to pack a whole bunch of flavour as there is allot of strong flavours in the pallet already so i have kept it simple

Ingredents

1 Tuna Steaks
1 Lemons
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Pepper

Method

Pre heat pans to a medium to high heat
Rub salt and pepper into the tuna steaks
Glaze with a tiny bit of oil on all sides
Cook fast no more than 90 seconds per side
slice up a lemon and pour over the juice when done and serve

This works well with a salad to balance out some of that rest meat your going to consume in vast quantities it also give you a cooking option for this that are not red or white meat eaters. and it will make them still part of the BBQ experience.

Hopefully the weather this weekend is better than today and you can get the BBQ out

Muscle food Mondays- Home made BBQ sauce

May 4, 2015May 10, 2015 Robert Osborn Leave a comment

Hi this week i didn’t get my order from muscle food so i could not cook what i wanted in time. but i hope you all had a lovely bank holiday. and this is what i whiped up for this week. BBQ sauce can be used as a marinade or as a dip for the table. this was super simple just a bit time consuming, i hope you

Ingredients:
– 16 oz tomato sauce
– 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
– 1 cup water
– 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
– 5 Tbsp. raw honey
– 1/2 Tbsp. ground black pepper
– 1/2 Tbsp. onion powder
– 1/2 Tbsp. ground mustard
– 1 tsp. paprika
– 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Equipment:
– Can openener
– Medium saucepan
– Stirring spoon
– Measuring cups
– Measuring spoons

Directions:
1. Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. Bring just to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 1 hour or until thickened to your liking.

Muscle Food Monday- Bacon Wrapped Chicken Skewers

April 27, 2015May 10, 2015 Robert Osborn Leave a comment

Its the start of my BBQ series this is quite a fun one and i might have this run 6 or 7 weeks. now the key to a good BBQ is diversity. you want to give everyone the chance to enjoy something to eat. this will also show off how awesome you are as a chef and a hoast. There will be some themes that run in this series

1. Preparation the day before is key

2. Everything will be made from scratch or show you how to make an item you can buy from scratch.

3. These will be dishes you may not consider either in meats selection, flavours, sauces.

So we are starting off with chicken one of 2 Poultry meats I’m using in this series. for me i find chicken to be your foundation food there are very few people that won’t eat chicken if they eat meat.

Ingredients

1 lb chicken breasts, cut into strips
8 oz of uncooked bacon
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut aminos
2 tbs of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Green onions chopped for garnish

Yield

Makes about 9 skewers

Instructions

Soak wooden skewers in water for about 20 minutes
In a small bowl, whisk together honey, coconut aminos and Sriracha
Remove 1/4 cup of the mixture and set aside for basting
Season chicken with salt and pepper
Place the chicken strips in the sauce mixture and marinade for 30-60 minutes in refrigerator
Preheat your grill – set to medium or medium-low heat
Thread the marinated chicken firmly on the skewers
Wrap each skewer with one piece of uncooked bacon
Grill 5 minutes or so per side. Avoid excessive heat; you want the chicken to cook through without burning the bacon wrap. Baste often while grilling with the sauce you set aside.
Serve hot and enjoy

i hope you enjoy these and have a go before next weeks Muscle Food Monday

Muscle Food Mondays- Roast Veggtable, Goat Cheese and Chicken salad Jar

April 20, 2015June 16, 2015 Robert Osborn Leave a comment

i don’t know about you but this week has been great allot of my clients are getting some good results in training and allot of them are hitting personal bests in some of the majors lifts. weather the british sun has anything to do with these happy determined people I can’t say, but i will confirm the nice weather has improved my mood a fair bit. I will add I’m not a miserable person by any stretch of the imagination but i am starting to think the sun and summer does effect me in a more positive way. I’m certainly happier and I’m able to get up in the mornings allot easier.

So this is the final week of my salad series and this week i wanted to add some new thing, mix in some old stuff while maintaining the basics of the jar theme. i have learned a fair amour over the past 5 weeks doing these salads and it has improved my range of ingredients when using salads. i was using Muscle foods Chicken Brest’s that i had stored in the freezer make sure you give a day to defrost them before cooking.I will come back to this maybe after august because there are so many variations of salads you can make and it would be kinda cool to look at there exotics meet range and see how you can mix that up into a salad, i have heard kangaroo is an interesting meat.

Ingredients

This will make 5 jars

5 wide mouth quart size mason jar salads
10 tablespoons of olive oil and vinegar dressing
1 quart cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cucumber diced
3 sticks of celery
5 bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 ¼ cup cooked whole grain spiral pasta
5 ounces crumbled goat cheese
1 ¼ cup diced chicken
10 ounce package of Spinach, watercress, lettice

Method

1 Chop up all the peppers and tomatoes and place on a oven tray, do the same with 2 pieces of chicken fillets, place the pasta on boil

2 Cook for 20-30 min at 200 degrees C for chicken and veg, 5-10 min for the pasta

3 Once cooked leave to cool down till cold again

4 Dice up chicken, cucumber, celery

5 Pour olive oil and vinegar dressing in the jars

6 Place in Cucumeber, and celery’s as your first base buffer layer

7 Place in the roasted peppers and tomatoes as buffer layer 2

8 Place on the Pasta (this will also add as an absorber of any moisture that works up or down the jars)

9 Place your Proteins which is the Chicken and diced up goats cheese

10 Place on the spinach, watercress, and Lettuce ready to serve

So with the Sun shining and summer coming round the corner i thought i would get ahead of the curve and start doing some BBQ style food for social events or to make your food lives more interesting. so I’m more than likely going to do a 4-6 week mini series on BBQ food using Muscle Food product lines

i really home this mini series has helped you as it has done me.

Many thanks

Robert