Hey Reader!

In the 40th issue of The MF Kitchen, you'll slice into the details of:

• Recipes for Mango Salsa Fish Tacos and No Bake Protein Chocolate Chip Cookies!
• This famous drink once had cocaine in it...
• What to do if you're craving junk food (and why you're not alone)...
• The newest food and soda collab between two industry GIANTS...

Preheat your ovens…

---

Weekly Recipe Roundup 🍽️

Mango Salsa Fish Tacos Soo much deliciousness in this recipe! From the easy low-calorie mango salsa to the even more low-calorie avocado lime dressing to the super easy air fryer blackened cod! Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself: ​Mango Salsa Blackened Fish Tacos.pdf​

No Bake Protein Chocolate Chip Cookies These no-bake protein chocolate chip cookies are the perfect low-calorie meal prep snack for the week to keep that sweet tooth satisfied! Only 82 calories with 8g protein! Click below to download the recipe and make it easy yourself: ​No Bake Protein Chocolate Chip Cookies.pdf​

---

Recipe Recreations Of The Week 🤌

Biscoff Protein Lava Brownies!

Macros for each Lava Brownie (makes 2):
​272 Cals, 30g Carbs, 8g Fat, 20g Protein

Here's the recipe and video:
👉 https://www.instagram.com/p/C92lS8ruVIx/​​​

---

Zach's Beats 🎧

Been on repeat since I found it earlier this week. Such a banger. ​Childish Gambino - Lithonia​

---

Weird Food Fact 🤓

SPOILER ALERT: in the Serving Surprise section, I’ll be reviewing the new OREO x Coke collab (yep wild times to be alive lol).

But before then, I wanted to take a trip down memory lane to issue #3 of the MF Kitchen.

If you've been here since then, please reply to this email because I want to personally say thank you!

In that issue, I covered the crazy history of OREO. Fun fact—OREO didn’t actually invent their famous cookie.

Nope! They swiped it before the company who created them could say, “Swiper no swiping!”

I won’t ruin the details, but trust me, it’s a good one. You can check that out here if you missed it. But today, it’s all about Coke. Coca-Cola has one of the wildest origin stories of any food or drink. Secret recipes and illegal substances...

Let’s kick things off with the fact that Coke was invented by a pharmacist, John Stith Pemberton, way back in 1886.

He originally marketed it as a medicinal tonic, and get this—it had actual cocaine in it!

Coca-Cola even got its name from the coca leaf, one of its original ingredients (hence, the cocaine). The “cola” comes from the kola nut, which provided the caffeine. But here’s the thing, when Pemberton first concocted this drink, it was more about making a medicine than a soda. He was hoping to create something to help people with headaches, exhaustion, and maybe even addiction (ironically, given the whole cocaine bit). The drink started out as a syrup that people mixed with water.

But when a soda fountain worker accidentally mixed it with carbonated water, the fizzy, refreshing Coke we know today was born.

So, Coca-Cola started taking off, but Pemberton wasn’t the businessman type.

He ended up selling portions of his rights to the formula to different people, including a guy named Asa Candler, who’s the real reason Coke exploded into the global giant it is today.

Candler was a marketing genius.

He plastered Coca-Cola ads everywhere, gave out free samples, and basically made sure everyone in America knew the name.

I just imagine the people drinking Coke for the first time back then and being like, “HOLY SHIT I feel ALIVE!” 🤣

By the early 1900s, Coca-Cola was EVERYWHERE, but they had to take the cocaine out of the recipe in 1904 due to growing concerns about safety (duh). But here’s the kicker: they kept the coca leaf in the formula. The version they use now has been "de-cocainized," but it’s still part of that ultra-secret recipe. Yep, there’s only one place in the U.S. that’s even legally allowed to import coca leaves, and it’s for Coca-Cola.

I'm skeptical lol. I think Diet Coke def has some cocaine still in it 😅

So there you have it—a drink that started out as a medicine, packed with cocaine, and “accidentally” turned into the world’s most famous soda. I told you this story was pretty wild! So you can see that a Coke and OREO collab is the perfect toxic relationship 😜

---

One FAQ ❓

Answer: Here’s the reality of living in America...

We live in a free market.

Companies compete for our tastebuds.

So because of this competition, companies spend billions upon billions of dollars researching how to make their foods as delicious as humanly possible.

And as a result of these delicious efforts, the companies want their hard work to result in the consumer eating more of their brand's foods at a higher frequency. Thus the company will make more money. This is a blessing and a curse. We get the widest array of insanely delicious food options. BUT we also get the WIDEST ARRAY of insanely delicious food options that are INSANELY dense in calories. So are we the victims? Does this need to be outlawed?

I don’t think so.

This is a topic for another day on how I think the system can change to incentivize eating healthier (aka making healthier foods SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper).

As much as I want to take the tangent to discuss that topic, let’s get back to the question at hand.

You are now eating healthier (aka more whole, minimally processed, micronutrient dense, correctly calorie proportioned foods).

BUT you are craving all the “junk” foods aka the complete opposite as above (aka foods that are created with the sole goal in mind to make you eat as much of them as possible).

So that leads to my first piece of actionable advice.

1.) If you have these cravings, it doesn’t mean you are broken.

It actually means your body is working EXACTLY how it should be.

The food response you get from “healthy” foods is not the same as you get from “junk” foods.

Having this understanding is the first step to taking control of these cravings.

It’s not a loss. It’s a win. Your body is working as it should.

So that brings us to point number two.

2.) Food is not good nor bad.

“But Zach, healthy foods are definitely better than junk foods right?”

It depends.

Think of the situation you're in right now.

You have cravings.

These cravings are perfectly normal.

And by ignoring them over and over again, the dose at which you’d need to solve these cravings gets higher and higher and higher.

It’s built with each 'no' you say.

And this leads to point number three...

3.) Avoid the “getting it out of your system” mindset.

The dose makes the poison.

One OREO vs Fifty OREOs is not the same.

But yet we treat it the same in our minds.

Eating “healthy” doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Because when we make anything all or nothing, we ruin what made it healthy in the first place.

The balance.

Just like we’ve seen when a healthy hobby becomes a destructive obsession.

If eating 100% healthy leads to you being stressed about eating healthy all the time...

That stress is way worse for you than eating the occasional junk food.

And that mindset also takes away from your ability to moderate around these “junk” foods.

The 80/20 mindset (aka the low-stress 'good enough' is a good enough diet).

4.) Don’t fu*k yourself from the jump.

I consider myself to be an all-time GOAT when it comes to the 80/20 rule with my diet.

BUT even I need to be aware of if I am putting myself in a position to succeed when eating “junk” food.

I will NEVER eat it when I am hungry.

That’s a slippery SLIPPERY slope.

I always have it after a meal that was high in protein which left me full and satisfied.

So then the “treat” per se will be the icing on top and won’t have the expectations of leaving me satiated.

Food perspective/expectations are soo underrated.

Because let’s say you had that OREO when you were starving.

The chances of you having just one OREO are literally impossible.

Because you are hungry which means your tastebuds are heightened. And thus this perfect storm of food engineering meeting hungry AF will lead to your body reacting AS IT SHOULD to this: You eating a shit ton of OREOs lol. So that leads to my last point in this probably entirely tooooo long answer to this FAQ section of the newsletter but oh well. It’s as long as it needs to be.

5.) Think toppings, not base.

That’s how I use all my sweet treats or cereal in my house.

I make a high-protein/macro-friendly dessert.

And then use the high-calorie sweets/cereal as toppings.

So I get the flavor and happiness.

But I also get the food volume and protein with the dessert!

So as a result, I get the best of both worlds.

Really hope this helped. You are not broken. You are 1000% human.

And we humans have a gift.

We GET to really enjoy food.

Cheers to that!

---

Serving Surprise 😮

The OREO X Coke Collab. Worth the hype or nah?

I was able to snag the soda version for this collab pretty easily at HEB.

But damn was it annoying trying to find the actual OREO cookies lol.

I thought I'd finally found them and put in an Instacart order because I didn't have time to go snag them myself.

$25 later and they are delivered.

F8ckin Tiramisu OREO Thins 😭

Anyways, finally found them at a random Walgreens so I hope you enjoy my review after all this haha.

Let’s start with the Soda.

I can’t lie, I didn’t go into this unbiased.

I did see a good bit of reviews on the interwebs.

The consensus seemed clear.

The soda was rated higher than the actual OREO cookies across the board.

So I took a sip of the soda expecting some strong but not overpowering OREO cookie vibes. Nothing stood out. Maybe it’ll come with the second sip? So I took another sip. And then one last sip hoping for more than just a speck of an OREO taste. Nope just a speck. It just tasted like a normal Diet Coke for me with maybe the teeny tiniest taste of OREO. I didn’t hate it! But was expecting more. So now onto the actual OREO x Coke cookies.

These have been destroyed with bad reviews.

But right when I open the pack, I smell Coke!

I take a bite and am met with a unique experience of about 75% OREO and 25% Coke.

The cream has some popping rocks that give it that fizzy soda vibe.

Most people sh*t on this one but I honestly liked it MUCH more than the soda.

Just feels like more effort and creativity was put into this one.

The soda just felt like 97% Diet Coke with 3% OREO.

---

I went to my first MLS game last night.

And sitting in the chanting section was a WORKOUT.

It was like a Zumba class and musical at the same time.

I needed the entertainment considering the score ended 0-1 😅

I need more action! But All-in-all, it was a good time 🙌🏻

Hope you are having an amazing weekend!

Your friend and OREO connoisseur,
Zach

​

​

​