Hey Reader!

In the 50th issue of The MF Kitchen, you'll slice into the details of:

• Recipes for Turkey, Avocado & Cheese Hot Pockets and my Triple Chocolate Brownie Protein Pizookie!
• This cheese storage system might surprise you...
• My honest thoughts on fasting (and exactly what I do)...
• Thanksgiving macros may surprise you...

Preheat your ovens…

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Weekly Recipe Roundup 🍽️

Turkey, Avocado & Cheese Hot Pockets These Hot Pockets are one of my favorite way to take a boring sandwich and take it to the next level! Only 303 calories with 35g protein! Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself: ​​​Turkey, Avocado & Cheese Hot Pockets.pdf​

Triple Chocolate Brownie Protein Pizookie If you are looking to hit 40g+ of protein while also eating a DECADENT brownie pizookie, this is the recipe for you! ​​Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself: ​​​Triple Chocolate Brownie Protein Pizookie.pdf​

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Recipe Recreations Of The Week 🤌

Just wanted to shout out Jacqueline for crushing these recipes!

If you are like her and have made a TON, please shoot me a dm on IG with all your recreations!

Just title it “MF Newsletter” so I know to open it 🙌🏻 My dm’s get crazy so I don’t open all of them lol. But I’ll for sure open them for my newsletter FAM.

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Zach's Beats 🎧

another one of my Duolingo recommendations 🤣 ​Degenere - Myke Towers​

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Weird Food Fact 🤓

Idk about you…

But I couldn’t live without cheese.

But now we are going to be ADHD and talk about caves.

Stay with me!

When you think about caves, what do you think of?

I think of this meme 🤣

Ok so here is where this all starts to make sense haha.

Cheese meets caves!

Yes, cheese caves. And not just a little bit of cheese... millions of pounds of it.

Here’s the story:

Missouri is home to a massive underground warehouse system called Springfield Underground.

Originally mined for limestone, these caves were later transformed into climate-controlled storage spaces.

With consistent cool temperatures and humidity, they’re basically a natural cheese fridge.

But why is there so much cheese stored there?

It all comes down to the U.S. dairy surplus.

Back in the 1980s, the government started buying up excess cheese and other dairy products from farmers to stabilize the market.

The result? A ridiculous stockpile of cheese (enough to put even the biggest charcuterie board dreams to shame).

For perspective, if you stacked all the cheese stored in these caves, it would likely outsize some skyscrapers 🧀 🏙

The cheese surplus became so infamous that it earned the nickname “The Cheese Reserve.”

And while some of it ended up in school lunches and government food programs.

Lol I am sure this cheese reserve fueled Lunchables as well.

Idk how these were such a hit but man was I the shit when I showed up to elementary lunch with these 😎

Anyways, fast forward to today, these underground cheese bunkers are still in use.

But it’s not just government cheese anymore, many private companies now store their dairy products there, too.

I thought that it was wild we still use caves like this in the modern day so I wanted to share!

Hope you learned something new like I did. If you knew this already, I respect your rare cheese-aficionado knowledge!

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One FAQ ❓

Answer: I’ll be straight up and spill the answer to this question right away.

Fasting isn’t magical. It isn’t going to “boost your metabolism.”

But can it actually help you lose body fat?

Yes and no.

Let me explain.

I’ve experimented with intermittent fasting for many many years.

I mostly did the 16:8 method which is 16 hours fasting and an 8-hour eating window.

So pretty much eat my first meal at 12pm and be done eating by 8pm.

I did this for a few years.

It worked great!

But then I decided to start eating breakfast again and realized something.

My hunger needs me to be proactive, not reactive.

It builds. And once it hits a certain level of hunger, it takes a disproportionate amount of calories to bring that hunger down.

But when I am proactive with my hunger, my hunger in return acts rational (aka I am full/satisfied with the right amount of calories).

So when I was skipping breakfast, I ended up so hungry by lunchtime that it was nearly impossible to feel satisfied without eating an ABSURD amount of food.

It becomes a slippery slope that by the time I start eating, I need WAY more food to tackle that hunger than if I’d just had a balanced breakfast in the first place.

And this raises another point. Intermittent fasting isn’t magical.

It’s a misdirection.

By giving someone a smaller eating window, they have less time to eat.

So because they have less time to eat, they eat less calories.

That’s why they lose weight.

But anyways, do I think you need to eat breakfast RIGHT AWAY when you wake up?

Nope. Let me walk you through how I do it.

I wake up and the first thing I do is chug at least 20oz water.

No food yet.

Then I go a little 10-15 minute walk to get some fresh air and movement.

I also drink another 20oz of water with my electrolytes on this walk.

I am about 90 minutes into my day and still no food yet.

Then I make some coffee.

I love coffee on an empty stomach.

Sits better and the caffeine hits me better for productivity.

The caffeine from the coffee also acts as an appetite suppressant aka it blunts my hunger.

I finish my coffee.

It is now about 8:30am-9am and 2.5 hours into my morning.

Now it’s time for breakfast.

I am moderately hungry. About a 6.5/10 on the hunger score.

Not a mountain of hunger that would be impossible to climb.

I keep my breakfast around 500 calories with 50g of protein.

And then each meal throughout the day is a bit bigger.

I am not going to go into a massive guide on my full day of eating.

I could do that in a future email if you guys want me to. Just let me know.

But back on topic. Am I an intermittent fasting hater?

Absolutely not.

I just think skipping breakfast doesn’t need to have a name lol.

So this is the punchline of all my nutrition stances.

Nothing is magical. If you really enjoy it and it.

I know so many people who skip breakfast and do just fine! They love it and don’t get a mountain of hunger.

And I sometimes skip breakfast by accident. But when by accident, my hunger wasn’t taking over my mind.

It was an, “oh shoot, it’s already 11am and I haven’t eaten anything 😅”

So my answer to your question is, eat that breakfast!

And it’s ok to not eat that breakfast sometimes as well.

Just be proactive with your hunger.

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Serving Surprise 😮

Thanksgiving was this past Thursday so thought I’d share a few valuable takeaways I came across from the day.

1.) 2 Ingredient Skinny Margs

• Ice
• 2 Shots Tequila (one shot of tequila is 98 calories)
• Half Bottle of the Zero Cal Sparkling

Optional lime if it matches the flavor!

I had Cherry Limeade flavor as well so it worked perfectly with the lime.

This big bucket of a drink is only 200 calories and is delicious!

2.) I ate GOOOOOOOD!

But even though I ate good, look at my plate structure.

My biggest servings are the protein sources.

Then just filled the outsides with sides I wanted.

The sweet potato casserole was out of this world 😭🤌🏻

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I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving!

This year was one of my all time favorites.

I know the new year isn’t here for another month.

You have some more holiday parties ahead.

So just remember, one holiday party doesn’t wreck your progress.

Shoot, even going hard at all the holiday parties doesn’t.

It’s the lack of motivation that comes during the non-party days.

The mental aspect of feeling like you failed if you actually enjoy yourself during the holidays.

It’s not the case. Enjoy the parties. Crush the non-party days.

And most importantly, make memories!

Much love and happy cooking.

Your friend,
​Zach

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