Hey Reader!

In the 11th edition of The MF Kitchen, you'll slice into the details of:

• Recipes for Turkey Avocado & Cheese Hot Pockets and Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Muffins!
• The history of calories ft. Wilbur (aka The Calorie God)...
• My top 5 macro-friendly ingredients that you probably don’t have in your kitchen...
• The jaw-dropping difference between 300 calories of Skittles vs Strawberries… and why you should have both!

Preheat your ovens…

Weekly Recipe Roundup 🍽️

Turkey Avocado & Cheese Hot Pockets! Idk about you but Hot Pockets were a big part of my childhood. Would be hungry as hell, pop it in the microwave, and not wait for it to cool down. So sure enough, when I would bite into it, the molten lava would burn every single taste bud I had... And I knew it was going to happen but I kept on doing it lol. Anyways, these Turkey, Avocado & Cheese Hot Pockets are such a cool technique to learn! Only 303 calories with 35g protein! And crazy customizable as well. Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself: ​Turkey, Avocado, Cheese Pockets.pdf​

Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Muffins! I love me a super easy meal prep breakfast or snack to have on hand during the week! These Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Muffins are it! Only 87 calories with 8.5g protein per! And most importantly, are so easy to make. Just pop in the oven a bunch of them (makes 15) and they are done in less than 20 minutes! Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself: ​Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Muffins.pdf​

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Zach's Beats 🎧

You ever have those songs that you just vibe to now and again? That's what this is for me. ​Memories - 347aiden​

Weird Food Fact 🤓

This History of the Calorie

Calories were not a thing until the early 1800s.

Well… they were a thing, but we didn't know they actually existed lol.

Kinda like those people who don't want to admit why eating excess calories is the reason why they are gaining weight 🙄

The initial term “calorie” wasn't necessarily tied to food.

French chemist Nicolas Clément introduced the term as purely a concept of energy transfer used to quantify the heat produced by burning substances.

I know this sounds boring lol. Stay with me!

In the latter half of the 19th century, Wilbur Olin Atwater (the calorie God as I call him), figured out that the body's metabolism could effectively convert food into energy, much like the combustion of fuel.

Side note: It's wild that it took over 100 years for calories to be put on food labels! Didn't happen till 1990 with the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. Anyways back to this new science of calories. Wilbur aka Calorie God, created the technique called “Calorimetry” aka the measuring of the calorie content of food.

Would've used this more than the damn trigonometry that I learned in school…

So how are the calories measured?

CALORIE BOMBS.

Lol you and I know calorie bombs as those calorically dense foods that don't fit so well into our macros.

But the calorie bombs refer to Bomb Calorimetry, which is a popular way (to this day) of measuring the calorie contents of the food.

In summary of how this works:

Anyways, without calories being discovered, man what a different life we'd be living.

Without calories, there wouldn't be macros!

And thus we'd be guessing our way through our nutrition instead of having all the foods in the world at our disposal to fit into those macros.

We are in control of our outcome which is amazing.

So one last moment of silence for the Calorie God (Wilbur Atwater). RIP to the legend.

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One FAQ ❓

Question from Steve Sam (from Boulder, Colorado) - “What are your top 5 macro-friendly ingredients that I probably don't have in my kitchen but I most definitely should? I have been following you for a while so I have the obvious ones! Excited to see your answer.”

Answer: When making this list, I ended up with 15 lol. I could turn this into a full-fledged guide so let me know if you want the full list with super practical breakdowns of how I use each one after reading through these.

Here's my top 5:

1) Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth/Stock:

This is an absolute GOAT for keeping leaner protein sources nice and juicy.

I used it recently in my Chicken Tenders and Fries meal to cook the chicken tenders perfectly.

I also just used it in my Bang Bang Egg Roll in a Bowl to make sure the 96/4 lean ground beef didn't try out.

Another favorite way is to use it to reheat food in a stovetop pan. Add the leftovers to the pan on medium/high heat and add a splash of the chicken broth to bring it back to life.

2) Black (Onyx) Cocoa Powder

Ever wondered about the exact cocoa powder that OREO uses to achieve that unique chocolate outside cookie? This is it.

Funny story, my first order for this was 6 years ago. There was this one little Amazon storefront that had it for sale.

I remember posting about it in my private Facebook group and then it was sold out for months haha. The person from the shop must've been like, “What the hell just happened!?”

Anyways, I love using this ingredient to give anything that OREO flare.

It's really bitter so remember, a little bit goes a long ways.

Anything OREO on my page, you'll see I used this in a minimum effective dose type way.

3) Nutritional Yeast

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.

I love to use it in anything I want to give a nice cheesy undertone flavor.

4) Birthday Cake Batter Flavor Extract

LOVE this ingredient as a simple way to give a birthday cake flavor to anything you want.

A tiny bit goes a long ways!

It's hard to find many things that have this flavor profile so this gives you a ton of flexibility with making anything birthday cake.

In your oats, cakes, creamis, etc.

5) Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce

These are AMAZING to give anything a Chipotle vibe.

I have made some incredible salad dressings or dipping sauces with these.

I made a Chipotle Honey Mustard in this recipe.​

And I made a Chipotle Ranch Dressing for this salad!​

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Serving Surprise 😮

300 calories of Skittles vs 300 calories of Strawberries

If you're new here, this section of the newsletter is not meant to demonize one food and glorify another.

I am of the “and” camp instead of “or.”

You can have Skittles AND strawberries and still be healthy AF and reach your fat loss goals.

BUT... you must have the perspective of what the goal of each should be.

The Skittles are not meant to keep you full.

They are high taste potency, high calories per gram, not going to keep you full, and are incredibly easy to overeat on.

The strawberries are low to moderate taste potency, low calorie per gram, will keep you full, and are really hard to overeat on.

So have Skittles when you are not hungry and just want a few for the taste.

And have strawberries when you are hungry as a nice filling, low-calorie snack you don't have to worry too much about overeating on.

Perspective on food choices is key.

Becoming “nutritional wise” is what I like to call it.

Putting yourself in the best position to succeed with your nutrition no matter what life throws at you!
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Thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed this edition you'll REALLY like what I have coming up for you.

Inside the emails, new recipe books, and so much more that I can't mention yet...

Just know it's coming and I'm working hard to make it happen!

Much love and happy cooking,
​Zach

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P.S. Shoutout again to our boy Wilbur aka the calorie God. He died in 1907 way before his research and findings got the recognition it deserved.

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