Iโve spent the last 12 years showing you the how, now I want to teach you the why. Learn more about macro-friendly cooking, get recipes not seen anywhere else, and so much more when you join 141,557+ others by entering your email below!
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๐จโ๐ณ The MF Kitchen #101 - baby food calorie hack?
Published 2 days agoย โขย 3 min read
Read Time: 4 minutes 01 seconds
Hey Reader!
In the 101st issue of The MF Kitchen, you'll slice into the details of:
Recipes for my Beef & Broccoli Ramen Stir Fryand 3 Minute Air Fryer Apple Crumble!
Track your meal prep macros better with this trick!
The macro friendly food that's hidden in the baby aisle...
Preheat your ovensโฆ
Weekly Recipe Roundup ๐ฝ๏ธ
One Savory:
Beef & Broccoli Ramen Stir Fry
A great twist on my usual ramen recipes to mix things up!
This one has gotten a lot of great reviews so I'm happy sharing it with you today ๐
Question of the Week:โ โโโโI want to track my multi-day meal preps better. Since portions may be split differently each day, how can I track accurately? Like if I cook three chicken breasts that are different sizes, should I measure each before baking, remember the size, and then create an entry in a food tracking app after?"
Answer: This is a great question (and it's a very common one).
I'll cut to the chase... weighing your food raw is always going to be the most accurate way.
Because when you do cook something, the cooking method will change the weight but the nutritional profile will remain pretty much the same.
Letโs do an example with chicken breast.
When you cook chicken breast, it gets smaller.
Why? Because it loses mostly water.
The ratio I have found to work great with meat when I cook it by itself is:
4oz raw = 3oz cooked
So if you prepped 16oz worth of chicken breast then the cooked weight would be around 12oz.
You can do this yourself also to be super exact.
Just weigh your meat raw. Then weigh it again cooked. And now you have the exact ratio.
Super simple. No need to overcomplicate it.
And now you might be thinking,
โOk Zach, this sounds all great and dandy but what if I am making a whole recipe with a ton of ingredients!? How do I know what a serving size is?โ
Let me show you...
So first you are going to track the whole recipe in your macro tracking app.
Once you've tracked the whole recipe, now you need to weigh out the full recipe once it's done.
So let's say you make the Beef & Broccoli Ramen Stir Fry I have as one of the two recipes in today's email.
It makes 4 servings.
But what is an actual serving in grams instead of just 1/4th of the recipe?
You'd take the whole recipe once done and weigh it to get the total weight amount.
Let's say for a nice round number it was 2000 grams.
You'd then know 2000/4 servings = 500g a serving.
So now you'll take each 500g serving and add it to your meal prep containers or however you're serving it.
If thatโs the FDL Pizza, then thatโs a perfect meal prep ๐
But now how do you track this?
What I like to do is write down the total macros of the whole meal aka the full 2000 grams from our example above.
Total Macros for Egg Roll in a Bowl Ramen: โ160g Carbs, 48g Fat, 124g Protein โ
Now we divide each by 4 servings to get the macros for each serving:โ 160/4 = 40g Carbs 48/4 = 12g Fat 124/4 = 31g Protein โ
So now you can figure out the calories too:โ 40g carbs x 4 calories per gram = 160 calories from carbs 12g fat x 9 calories per gram = 108 calories from fat 31g protein x 4 calories per gram = 124 calories from protein Total calories per serving = 392 calories โ
Total per serving (500g) calories and macros:โ 392 calories, 40g carbs, 12g fat, 31g protein
I hope that all makes sense!
Serving Surprise ๐ฎ
I am about to put you on to some macro friendly secret sauce.
Itโs hidden in a secret aisle in the grocery store.
And unless you are a parent of a new born, you would have no idea it exists...
GERBER PUFFS
Think puffed cereal but with flavor.
Light, airy, crunchy.
And a whole tub is only 150 calories!
These are the perfect addition to a yogurt bowl, cookie dough bowl and anything you want to add a nice crunch on top without much extra calories.
Donโt think of it like normal cereal where it will provide a strong flavor addition.
Think of it more as a supporting actor.
A nice airy crunch with a subtle flavor boost!
All I ask is, for my own conscience, donโt go buying out the whole stock lol.
I donโt want to be the reason parents are not able to get these for their kiddos ๐คฃ
Hope you're doing well Reader!
I've talked a lot about how preparing your own meals really can change your life.
But the biggest problem with that is figuring out WHAT to eat.
Iโve spent the last 12 years showing you the how, now I want to teach you the why. Learn more about macro-friendly cooking, get recipes not seen anywhere else, and so much more when you join 141,557+ others by entering your email below!
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