{365} Days A Path towards Elite Powerlifting

Healthy and Simple Strawberry Milk Shake Recipe

Basically I have some milk (6 days past expiration) I needed to get rid of, and a bag of frozen strawberries that I've had for 5 months in my freezer I needed to clean out... I hate throwing things away, so might as well make a strawberry milk shake . It tasted really good with the minimalistic ingredients I did have, but I'll let you know how I would make it with a more extensive amount of supplies. With the frozen strawberries, you do not need ice and it has a very nice crystalline crunch that makes it a very enjoyable drink during the hot summer or post workout.

INGREDIENTS

1. 2.5 Standard Glasses of Frozen Strawberries (I used my Pepsi drinking glass as a measure)
   
2. 1 Glass of Milk (I used fat free)
3. 2 Packets of Artificial Sweetener (I would personally use HONEY if I had it, raw organic... mmm)
   
4. Optional: Whip Cream

NUTRITION FACTS

I don't even need to calculate it out, it is healthy, it is delicious, and you can drink/eat it with zero guilt.

STEPS

1. First put 1 glass of milk in the blender.
2. Next put 2.5 glasses of frozen strawberries (no need to pound it down, just roughly) into the blender.
   
3. Blend it up, when it is done, throw in honey or artificial sweetener.
   
4. Blend it for a few more seconds, and pour yourself a glass.
5. It makes about 2-2.5 glasses so put the rest in the freezer as you finish up your first glass or share with your friends.
   

Tomato Fish Fillet Recipe

One of the favorite dishes that my mom makes is a tomato fish type dish. Here is my health rendition using some leftover Spaghetti sauce from my Simple Left Over Spaghetti Recipe. I personally used too much spaghetti sauce and I feel if you used 1/2 of how much I used, it would look and taste even better. But if you used too much spaghetti sauce like me, just take bread and dip it in the dish like a bread stick!

INGREDIENTS

1. 1 Bag of Tilapia Fillet
   
2. 1/4 to 1/2 Can of Spaghetti Sauce (I used 1/2 Can, but I think 1/4 would be better)... I just used the leftovers from a previous recipe.
   
3. 1 TBSP of Olive Oil
4. 2-3 Spoonful of Corn Starch
5. Shake of Salt (Optional)
6. Shake of Black Pepper (Optional)
7. Shake of Garlic Powder (Optional)
8. 2 Eggs (Optional)

NUTRITION FACTS

Tomato Fish Fillet Nutrition Caloric Facts Excel Spreadsheet

STEPS

1. Heat up your skillet to medium heat.
2. Cut your fish fillet into small chunks.
   
3. Mix up the corn starch and the optional ingredients.
   
4. Optional: Beat up two eggs to use as a binding agent and to seal juices for the fish (recommended, I just don't have any eggs)
5. Optional: Throw the beat up eggs into the bowl with the cut up fish. Mix this up with your hand.
6. Once the fish is all lubricated, throw in your dry rub, and rub it around the fish until everything is nice and sticky.
7. Throw a tbsp of olive oil onto the skillet, let this heat for a minute and then throw the fish in.
   
8. After 5-6 minutes, the fish should lose the pinkness and turn flaky, at this point throw the spaghetti sauce on it.
   

   

9. Mix this together and let the spaghetti sauce bubble for a few minutes.
   
10. Take it out and enjoy! I highly recommend for you to eat this with some high quality bread, dip the bread in the mix and it tastes like bread sticks. Delicious!
    

Oatmeal Cereal Protein Bar Recipe for Dieters

I first ventured into protein bar territory with my highly successful protein bar for bulkers. It works well as a meal replacement or a bar for a long trip. I made 4-6 of these bulking bars for my powerlifting competition and they sustained me and my friends VERY well.

Feel free to look at the protein bar recipe if you are BULKING and not CUTTING.

http://yanyanxu.com/2008/05/28/meal-replacement-bar-protein-bar/

http://yanyanxu.com/2008/07/02/meal-replacement-bar-video-recipe/

But for those of us who are CUTTING. I have the perfect solution with my newest protein bar recipe. I call it the Oatmeal Cereal Protein Bar! It tastes absolutely heavenly and holds me over very well to my next meal.

INGREDIENTS

1. 1/2 Cup of Oat Flour (Blend this up using normal Quaker Oatmeal, I usually make a lot to use for various cooking applications)
2. 1/2 Cup of Cereal of Choice (I chose my favorite, Reese's Puff Cereal)
3. 1.5 Scoops of Protein of Choice (I used Nitrocore 24, I would prefer a leaner cereal such as ON's 100% Whey)
4. Optional: Hersey's Extra Dark Chocolate Square (I always like a bit of chocolate in my bars!)
   

NUTRITION FACTS

Oatmeal Cereal Protein Bar Nutrition Caloric Facts Excel Spreadsheet

STEPS

1. Pre-heat oven to 350.
2. Blend 1/4 cup of oatmeal into oat flour.
   
3. I typically make two batches at one time on a cookie pan. Put two pieces of tin foil in a cookie pan and form it into a box to hold your oatmeal.
   
4. Put the oatmeal in the tin foil and pop these into the oven.
5. Stir every 3-5 minutes.
6. Take these out after 8-10 minutes.
7. In a separate bowl, put in 1.5 scoops of protein powder of choice.
8. Put in a little bit of water, you want this to be THICK and hard to mix, this should NOT be the consistency of sludge. There should be very little water use. Please play around with this, it may take a few tries to get it perfect. The wetter it is, the less crunchy your cereal will be as well. Here is a picture of how my consistency looked.
   
9. Throw in the oatmeal flour slowly and mix at the same time. If you put it in all at once, it will be a pain to mix it together. (Picture shows what happened when I threw it in all at the same time)
   
10. When this is all mixed, measure out 1/2 a cup of cereal, I used a scale to be precise.
    
11. Take out a piece of aluminum foil, and rip off a sheet half the size of a 6 x 11 piece of paper.
12. Do the same for syran wrap (the syran wrap acts as a wrapper to prevent the bar sticking to the aluminum foil, very important step here)
13. Throw the mix onto the alumnimum/syran wrap and break off pieces of chocolate on the top if you want.
    
14. Wrap these together into a rectangle and pound the material together using the table.
    
15. Throw it in the freezer, and grab these when you run to class or work. I do NOT suggest eating them right out the freezer, you need to give it time to defrost.

EXTRA

I also tried a "wetter" consistency, but the cereal lost the crunch.

Fried Oatmeal Chicken Recipe

Who doesn't like fried chicken? What if there was a healthier and easy way to cook it? In this recipe, we will explore the possibilities of creating healthy fried chicken!

INGREDIENTS

1. 10 OZ of Chicken Tenderloin (I like this better than Chicken Breast, check local Sam's Club or Wal-Mart)
   
2. 1/4 Cup of Oatmeal Flour (I use normal Quaker Oat's Oatmeal and turn it into a fine powder with my trusty blender. I typically make 4-5 cups of this stuff at a time so I can use it easily in the future. This is also great to throw into random protein bars and shakes!)
   
3. 1 TSP of Corn Starch (Optional, keep the juices in the chicken)
4. 1-2 Eggs (Optional, as binding agent, make it taste 10000% better)
5. Nonstick Spray
6. Dry Rub (Salt/Pepper, optional)

NUTRITION FACTS

Yanyan's Fried Oatmeal Chicken Nutrition Caloric Facts Excel Spreadsheet

STEPS

1. Heat up your skillet.
2. Mix 1/4 cup of your oatmeal flour with 1 TSP of corn starch. Feel free to add your dry rub in here too. People typically use salt and pepper.
3. Optional: Take 2 eggs and beat them into a bowl.
4. Wash your chicken breast.
5. Optional: Dip chicken into the bowl of eggs. (If eggs are used)
6. Dip the chicken in the oatmeal/corn starch mix.
7. Coat these nicely.
8. Your skillet should be nice and hot now, throw on a generous helping of non-stick spray.
9. Now throw the chicken on the skillet.
   
10. Throw the rest of the flour/corn starch mixture onto the chicken.
11. Flip these every few minutes.
    
12. After about 3-5 minutes, the oatmeal flour should be burning up, just take the chicken out really quickly and dump this stuff in the sink.
    
13. Use the non-stick spray again and throw the chicken back on until all the pink is gone.
14. Typically when it "looks" like all the pink is gone externally, I cut it in half with the skillet to see if it is cooked all the way through.
    
15. When there is no more pink, you are done! Enjoy!
    

Simple Leftover Pasta Recipe

So if you remember from Yanyan's Mansta Chili Bomb Recipe we had 1/4 box of Whole Wheat pasta that we refrigerated for future use. Here is how to utilize it in a quick and easy manner.

INGREDIENTS

1. Left Over Healthy Harvest Thin Spaghetti (Whole Wheat Blend Pasta)
   
2. Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce with Meat
   

NUTRITION FACTS

Spaghetti Nutrition Caloric Facts Excel Spreadsheet

STEPS

1. Heat up 3-4 spoonful of spaghetti sauce in a skillet for about a minute.
2. Throw in pasta and mix it around with the pasta.
3. Throw in rest of the 1/2 can of spaghetti sauce.
4. Mix these together and let it heat up for 4-5 minutes.
   
5. Enjoy!
6. Don't forget to refrigerate the other half of the can of spaghetti sauce.
   

Yanyan’s Mansta Chili Bomb (WW Pasta, Chili, Beef, and Chicken)

It has been a long week and I wanted something hearty and filling to end my Sunday. I wanted to create something full with flavor and protein. So I did a variation of the pasta dish I used to make in the past. I call it the Mansta Chili Bomb.

NUTRITION FACTS

Nutrition Facts for Yanyan's Mansta Chili Bomb (Excel File to Manipulate Yourself)

INGREDIENTS

1. Healthy Harvest Thin Spaghetti (Whole Wheat Pasta Blend)
   
2. Bush's Homestyle Chili (Chunky with Beans) - I use the Hunt's Tomato Sauce for the 1/4 of unused pasta.
   
3. Boneless Skinless Chicken Tenderloins (Raw) - I like the tenderloins because they fall apart very easily and are very tender as the name suggests, much better than regular chicken breast. I buy these from Sam's Club.
   
4. Beef, Top Round Steak (Raw)
   
5. Salt
6. Olive Oil

TOOLS

1. Large Skillet
2. Large Pot

STEPS

1. Start boiling a pot of water.
2. Preheat the skillet using medium to high heat.
3. Cut the chicken into small pieces.
4. Throw some olive oil in the skillet and throw the chicken on.
5. Once the chicken is done, throw it into a bowl temporarily.
   
6. Start cutting the beef into small pieces.
7. By now the water should be boiling.
8. Throw the entire box of noodles into the pot.
   
9. Start cooking the beef, throw a tiny bit of olive in in the skillet and throw the beef in.
   
10. Cook this till most of the red is gone.
11. At this point, throw in the entire can of chili.
12. Let this heat for a minute, then throw the chicken back in.
    
13. At this point, the pasta should be about done (6-8 minutes). Turn off the pot.
14. Start mixing the stuff currently in the skillet together.
15. After 1-2 more minutes, throw in 3/4 of the noodles in the pot right on top of the current mix.
    
16. Let this heat for 1-2 minutes, and then mix everything together.
    
17. Load up a big bowl with your new creation and enjoy! Put the rest in a big tupperware!
    
18. Take out the rest of the pasta in the pot and put it in a tupperware, you can throw some tomato sauce on this later and throw some random meat in it at a later date.