Hey Reader!

In the 93rd issue of The MF Kitchen, you'll slice into the details of:

• Recipes for my Crispy Taco Pockets and Pumpkin Pie Protein Ice Cream!
• 8 desserts you can eat for under 100 calories...
• 3 ways to add a ton of flavor to one of the most underrated breakfast items...
• Say one magic word and unlock a secret menu...

Preheat your ovens…

---

Weekly Recipe Roundup 🍽️

Crispy Taco Pockets Being able to make a crunch wrap with half a tortilla thus keeping the calories much lower! These taco pockets for example are only 121 calories with 12.5g protein! Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself: ​​​Crispy Taco Pockets.pdf​

Pumpkin Pie Protein Ice Cream This one is for all my basic B’s out there! Literally a pumpkin pie in ice cream form for only 290 calories with 38g protein! ​​Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself: ​​​Pumpkin Pie Protein Ice Cream.pdf​

---

Recipe Recreations Of The Week 🤌

🧀 🥖Cheesy Garlic Breadsticks!

Macros for All 12 Cheesy Garlic Breadsticks:
​397 Cals, 43g Carbs, 9g Fat, 36g Protein

Here's the video & recipe:​
👉 https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cy1D3wAOnLs/​

---

Zach's Beats 🎧

​AHORA - John Casey​

---

This Week’s Flavor 🎥

Craving something sweet while trying to lose fat? These 8 snacks are under 100 calories and taste like they shouldn’t be allowed on a diet. They're high volume, meal prep-friendly, and so good you'll forget they’re low calorie. ​Click here to get the recipes.​

---

One FAQ ❓

Answer: My name is Zach and I love oatmeal.

Why?

It checks out so many of the boxes I love for my meals.

1. Volume ✅
2. Taste ✅
3. Texture ✅
4. Satiety ✅
5. Easy to make ✅
6. Versatility ✅

But here's the thing.

It only checks off these boxes when done right.

So I am going to show you how to do it right.

The Basics of Oats for Cooking

• Steel-Cut Oats: Thicker cuts of oats that take the longest to cook. They are annoying to work with and I don’t have the patience haha.
• Rolled Oats: The ones I use the most which take a moderate out of time to cook but yield a happy medium of texture.
• Instant Oats: These are made to be the fastest to cook but that’s their downfall. The smaller oats lead to a more mushier texture. Not my favorite but you might like it.

So how do I use oatmeal the most?

3 main ways:

1. The classic bowl of Protein Oatmeal
2. Protein Overnight Oats (but way better than the boring/weird overnight oat recipes)
3. Overnight Oats Protein Cookie Dough

Let’s walk through each one of these:

First, how to not have your bowl of oatmeal overflow...

LITERALLY the worst 😭

So how does this never EVER happen again?

Get a bowl like this:

Due to the open-face edges of the bowl, the air is able to escape while cooking thus leading to it never overflowing over the edges!

Pretty damn cool. I tested my theory and microwaved my oats like a psychopath for 10 minutes…

And they still didn't overflow!

So what's the perfect Protein Oatmeal Recipe that is filling is delicious?

This is how I do it:

• Step 1: 60g of rolled oats with about an inch of water above the oats.
• Step 2: Add to microwave for 3 minutes.
• Step 3: MOST IMPORTANT part to be honest. If your mix in ingredients suck then none of this matters. Your oatmeal will taste like boring porridge lol.

Add your dry powdered ingredients. I go with:

• 30g FLEX Brands Whey/Casein Blend Protein Powder. This is the only protein powder made for recipes on the market (aka it will thrive not just survive when heated up).
• 15g of any flavor Protein Cookie Butter Powder. This will help really thicken up the oatmeal and give it a boost of flavor customization and protein.
• 8g Sugar-Free/Fat-Free Pudding Mix. This will give another boost of taste and texture with very few extra calories.
• 5g Zero Cal Sweetener. This will sweeten the oatmeal with zero calories added to the recipe.
• Pinch of Sea Salt. This will help enhance the flavor of the protein oatmeal!

Mix up and then add any extra toppings you like!

Now here are a few other quick ways to maximize your oats!

Protein Overnight Oats:

Think about this whole process I just outlined above for the normal protein oatmeal BUT let it sit in the fridge overnight to really thicken up!

Most overnight oat recipes are uncooked which is thus missing out on a huge benefit!

By cooking the oats, you are actually adding 30%-50% more volume to the recipe due to the oats being more absorbent when cooked.

And not only that, but by cooling them in the fridge overnight, you are also making them even more absorbent!

So by cooking and then cooling your overnight oats, you are getting more bites for the same amount of calories!

And as we know, more bites = more happiness 🙂

Lastly, Protein Overnight Oats Cookie Dough.

So here is a little bit of a contradiction 😅

Don't cook your oats for this one haha.

Just blend them into an oat flour.

Oats are super absorbent so using them as a flour substitute for cookie dough is a pro move.

Just follow this recipe and you'll see what I mean!

Hope this helps! Let me know if you want the full oatmeal guide and also, if you have any more questions!

​

---

Serving Surprise 😮

I have been eating out A LOT lately.

A bit more than I’d like to be honest 😅

But I want to share one cheat code to unlock a macro friendly secret menu (kind of lol).

On pretty much every single menu, there are no great options.

But we found one magic word that unlocks a secret menu...

“Grilled.”

I utilized this secret word to save me a bunch of calories on my chicken sandwich!

I was eating lunch at a place called The Pearl in downtown, Tampa.

On the menu, there was no grilled option. But by asking for it, they had that option for me.

This will save you 250 calories AT LEAST.

And I used those extra calories to eat ALL those delicious fries.

Been a minute since I ate out and the fries were on point. These were incredible!

Highly recommend checking out The Pearl. Was really damn good.

But moral of the story, ask for grilled even if it’s not on the menu!

Eating out can be super tricky to not blow through your macros and stay on track.

Especially if you don’t want to eat boring ass salads every time you eat out.

Going to talk more on this topic in the future. Let me know any pro tips you follow when eating out!

---

I'll be honest, I'm the basic b.

I love having pumpkin stuff around this time of year.

Just whipped up pumpkin pie protein ice cream bars this week!

​Check out the recipe here.​

So I hope you're enjoying pumpkin flavored things as well (or avoiding them like the plague 🤣).

Whatever floats your boat!

Your fellow basic b,
​Zach

​

​