Hey Reader!
In the 87th issue of The MF Kitchen, you'll slice into the details of:
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Recipes for my Chicken Tenders & Fries Meal and Hard Shell Protein Brownie Batter Bowl!
- Not too good to be true, 44 calorie cookies!
- 3 weird ingredients that make total sense (trust me)...
- INSANE macros and very easy to make...
Preheat your ovens…
Weekly Recipe Roundup 🍽️
Chicken Tenders & Fries Meal
One of my favorite fat loss meals that I eat ALL the time!
So much food for only 518 calories with 71g protein!
Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself:
Chicken Tenders & Fries Meal.pdf
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Hard Shell Protein Brownie Batter Bowl
Dense. Delicious. And super easy to make.
With a hard shell and gooey inside, you can enjoy the whole bowl and not feel guilty!
Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself:
Hard Shell Protein Brownie Batter Bowl.pdf
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Recipe Recreations Of The Week 🤌
🍫🍰 Dessert Pizza
👉 Click here for the video with a bunch of my new dessert pizza recipes
Zach's Beats 🎧
This Week’s Flavor 🎥
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It’s not too good to be true, 44 calorie cookies!
Even though these are high protein, this chocolate chip cookies recipe is just as good as the “real thing.”
Click here to get the recipe.
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One FAQ ❓
Question of the Week:
“You have a lot of weird ingredients in your recipes (pumpkin, nutritional yeast, cottage cheese, etc.). Can you explain why you use each of those things? I’m always hesitant to use them."
Answer: If there is one single promise I can make you about my recipes…
It's that if I use a specific ingredient, it's for a reason.
What we are trying to do is find the best of both worlds.
Delicious AND Macro Friendly.
That's a rare outcome.
So I have to utilize ingredients in specific amounts to help achieve that outcome.
I know they might seem weird lol.
But you gotta trust me that they are 100% worth it!
Here are 7 of my most weird ingredients that are magic to use in my recipes:
1.) Pumpkin
YES, I am a basic B who loves pumpkin lol.
But no, I’m not trying to turn you into a basic little pumpkin-loving B like me 🤣
Pumpkin is actually a calorie-saving hero that you WON’T TASTE if used right.
It’s one of my favorite butter substitutes.
Let me give some more context.
Butter/oil are HUGE contributors to the overall calories of our favorite sweet treats.
On average, they contribute 40% to 60% of the total calories. Wild.
So based on rational thinking, if we can substitute the butter/oil for a lower calorie ingredient WITHOUT sacrificing the taste and texture of the end product, that’ll be the best of both worlds.
We will now have a sweet treat for a fraction of the calories.
So why is pumpkin such a great butter substitute? And how should you use it?
- It is dense
- High water content
- Fiber helps with it being a binding agent
- Texture similarity (richness/mouthfeel) to butter when used in the right proportions
- Mild flavor that doesn’t overpower chocolate
So how do I recommend using it?
My ratio for substituting butter/oil for pumpkin is about a 1:1 ratio.
This is not a perfect ratio but it’s very close.
Here are a few of my favorite recipes I use pumpkin in!
Spoiler, the chocolate ones, you won’t taste the pumpkin at all 🫡
2.) Nutritional Yeast
This ingredient is a game-changer but it needs a name change lol.
So many people will get dry active yeast and use it in a recipe thinking it's the same thing lol.
Most common mixup happens with my FDL Pizza dough which is one of my most popular recipes of all time.
I totally get it though. It seems like it would be the same thing if you've never seen “nutritional yeast” before.
But nutritional yeast is a seasoning and not the dry active yeast used to add “rise” to your doughs.
It adds a nice cheesy flavor with very little extra calories. And it's high in protein.
It's also dairy-free and is a great way to add that cheesy flavor without dairy.
Here are a few other recipes I use nutritional yeast in:
3.) Cottage Cheese
Okay, hear me out...
It took me A LONG TIME to hop on the cottage cheese train.
My really good buddy Tom (Stealth Health Life) has been preaching to me the cottage cheese gospel for years lol.
I finally gave in and wish I had done it earlier.
It’s a game-changer for high-protein recipes.
When blended, it loses that lumpy texture and turns into a creamy base for things like mac & cheese or even desserts.
You won’t taste it either. Trust me, that was my biggest worry.
It’s a mild flavor (compared to another ingredient I use a lot aka plain non-fat Greek yogurt) so it’s easy to mask.
Plus it has insane macros.
Once you see how versatile it is, you’ll start finding excuses to sneak it into all kinds of recipes.
Here are a few of my favorite cottage cheese recipes you can play around with:
I have more, but this is already long enough lol.
Hope that all makes sense!
Serving Surprise 😮
Here’s the thing about chicken tenderloins: the macros are insane.
4oz serving = 110 calories, 0g Carbs, 1g Fat, 24g Protein.
But here’s the paradox of macro friendly food:
When the macros are that good, it’s also that easy to screw it up. Dry, rubbery, jaw workout chicken? Been there.
That’s why I keep this method in my back pocket and use it at least once per week.
Takes zero thought, zero risk of messing it up:
- Grab chicken tenderloins.
- Season with your favorite blend (I go Cajun or blackened).
- Toss them in the air fryer. Spray the tops with non-stick cooking spray.
- Air fry at 400°F for 9–10 minutes.
- Let them rest 5–10 minutes so the juices stay locked in.
That’s it.
You will be BAFFLED by how good these are 🔥
Been trying to get into my dm’s more and have convos like this with you guys.
And had this really cool conversation yesterday.
Grateful you put your trust in me to help sort through all the nutrition BS out there.
And also to teach the beautiful life changing ways of macro friendly cooking!
Much love and happy cooking,
Zach