I’ve 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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👨🍳 The MF Kitchen #150 - busy? do this
Published 3 days ago • 5 min read
Read Time: 5 minutes 42 seconds
Hey Reader!
In the 150th issue of The MF Kitchen, you'll slice into the details of:
Recipes for my Meatball Sub Slidersand Crispy Protein Pumpkin Pie Turnovers!
Halloween candy IS NOT bad (so long as you follow this one trick)...
Baby carrots aren't actually... babies?!
Double the size of any meal without doubling the calories...
Preheat your ovens…
Weekly Recipe Roundup 🍽️
One Savory:
Meatball Sub Sliders
These Meatball Sub Sliders are perfect for gameday parties! Only 233 calories per huge slider!
If you're looking for a nostalgic low calorie snack/dessert for Fall, these crispy protein pumpkin pie turnovers are it! Only 93 calories per turnover!
Everyone's liking it so much, I'm putting it here twice! It's great because at Five Guys, this would be over 1100 calories! Mine has HALF the calories and MORE protein 😎
“My work schedule has been crazy lately, and I’m finding it hard to fit in my workouts. I used to go to the gym 5-6 times a week, but now I barely have time for 3. I feel like I’m not doing enough and might be losing the progress I’ve made. How can I still make progress or maintain what I’ve built when my schedule is this hectic?”
Answer: First, take a deep breath.
You’re not losing your progress!
Three days a week is NOT “barely doing anything.”
That’s honestly a really solid amount.
Not 100% sure if you're worried about gaining weight or losing muscle, so let's talk about both.
For muscle, it actually takes way less work to keep muscle than it took to build it.
As long as you’re still lifting with some intensity, three good sessions a week is plenty to hold onto what you’ve worked for.
I’m living proof.
A few months ago, I went almost a month without a single workout because life got busy.
And I came out the other side looking pretty much the same.
First day back be like...
Most of it had to do with my nutrition staying consistent.
And that’s where I’d put your focus right now.
For avoiding weight gain or losing muscle, i would focus on these 5 things:
1.) Make your 3 workouts count.
If you’re only getting in three, go full body and prioritize the big stuff: squats, presses, rows, etc.
As long as you're being really intentional with your sets, you'll be golden.
2.) Get your steps in wherever you can.
This is the most underrated tool for a busy schedule because you don’t need a gym for it.
Take calls on a walk
Park farther away
Go for a 15-minute walk after lunch or dinner
Those little chunks add up fast, and they make a real difference in your daily calorie burn!
3.) Prep ingredients, not full meals.
When your schedule is slammed, food is usually what slips first.
So make it easy on yourself by ingredient prepping.
Whenever you’re already cooking chicken, rice, or ground beef, make double.
Then on busy days, dinner is just heating something up and throwing it together in 10 minutes instead of starting from scratch (my chalupa recipes are great for this).
4.) Hit your protein every single day.
This is the big one.
Protein is what protects your muscle when your training volume drops.
It's also the thing that keeps you full throughout the day.
If you only nail one thing during this busy stretch, make it this.
5.) Protect your sleep.
Easier said than done during a crazy work season, I know from experience lol.
But poor sleep makes you hungrier, more tired, and way less likely to want to work out.
Even an extra 30 minutes helps.
All this to say...
This is a season, not forever.
Your goal right now isn’t to crush personal records.
It’s to hold the line until things calm down.
And you can absolutely do that with three workouts, some extra steps, and dialed-in nutrition.
Best of luck my friend 🙌
Weird Food Fact 🤓
It’s 1986 in Bakersfield, California.
You’re a carrot farmer named Mike Yurosek, and you’re standing at the end of your packing line watching something that drives you absolutely crazy.
Perfectly good carrots (tons of them!), going straight in the trash.
All because they’re ugly.
Too twisted, too bent, too knobby, or broken.
Grocery stores didn’t want them.
And we’re not talking about a few.
Mike was tossing around 400 tons of carrots a day.
On some loads, up to 70% of the crop.
He fed what he could to livestock.
But there’s only so many carrots you can feed a pig.
So he got creative...
He found a frozen food company going out of business and bought their industrial green bean cutter.
It just so happened to chop things into perfect 2-inch pieces.
Then he tossed those pieces into an industrial potato peeler, which peeled them and rounded off the edges.
And just like that… the “baby carrot” was born!
Could you imagine 🤣
Yup, those little carrots in your fridge aren’t baby carrots at all.
They’re regular, full-grown carrots that were just too ugly to sell, cut down and polished up.
He sent a bag to a local grocery chain to see what they thought.
They loved them so much they told him, “...only send us these from now on.”
They took off!
Today, roughly half of all the carrots California grows end up as baby-cut carrots.
So a guy trying not to waste ugly carrots accidentally created one of America’s favorite snacks.
Serving Surprise 😮
If you've been here for a bit, you'll remember me saying that the more bites you can get for the least amount of calories,the better.
But something I've never really mentioned was a REALLY easy way to do this.
On pretty much any savory meal.
To legit double the size of any meal without doubling the calories...
You can just add shredded lettuce.
That’s the hack lol.
But hear me out (because it still tastes amazing and i'll prove it with some recipes!).
I know my salad haters out there are scrolling away 😅
A full cup of shredded lettuce is only around 5-10 calories.
So when you take the exact same meal and pile on some lettuce, you’ve basically doubled your bites for free.
Same flavor, same meal, way more food on your plate.
AND, you get that cold, crunchy contrast with something hot and saucy, and every bite soaks up a little of the flavor.
Some of my favorite ways to use it:
And you can find them all by searching "lettuce" in the app!
And one last thing:
Make sure to add your lettuce at the end so it stays crisp.
But all in all, when you’re trying to lose weight (or just eat as much as possible without gaining it lol), volume is your best friend.
And this is about the easiest, cheapest volume there is.
That’s it for this week.
Hope you had an awesome Halloween 🎃
If you went a little overboard on the candy last night, no stress.
One fun night doesn’t undo anything.
Just eat your next normal meal, hit your protein, and keep it moving.
And if you’ve got leftovers sitting around, have a piece after a solid meal instead of when you’re starving.
You’ll enjoy it more and actually stop at one (or two lol).
I’ve 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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