A Tasty Burger with a Healthy Twist! - Meat & Grain Burgers

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
• Salt for water
• 1 pound fresh Spinach Leaves
• 1 pound Beef Chuck (can also use ground sirloin, boneless chicken or turkey thighs, pork or lamb shoulder with excess fat removed)
• 1 small Onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
• Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground Cumin, or 1 tablespoon Chili Powder
• 1⁄4 teaspoon Salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground Black Pepper
• 1 Egg
• 2 cups soaked and drained Bulgur (or other cooked grains like cracked wheat, steel cut oats, or whole wheat)
• 6 Whole Wheat Burger Buns (approx. 120 calories per bun)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a rimmed baking sheet or large roasting pan with the oil.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Fill a large bowl with ice water. Wilt the spinach in the boiling water for about 30 seconds. Drain and immediately plunge into the ice water. Drain, squeeze tightly to dry thoroughly, and coarsely chop. Put the spinach in a bowl. If you’re using ground meat, add it to the spinach and skip the next step.

If you’re using whole pieces of meat, cut them into large chunks and put them in a food processor. Pulse several times to process until ground but not pureed, stopping the machine and scraping down the sides, if necessary. Transfer to the bowl with the spinach.

Add the onion, garlic, cayenne, and cumin or chili powder. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper, and stir. Add the egg and grains and mix until thoroughly combined using a rubber spatula or your hands. Shape into 6 burgers and put on the baking sheet or in the roasting pan. Transfer to the oven and roast for 20 to 30 minutes, or until firm and browned all over. (Carefully turn them once or twice for even cooking.) Since the burgers are pretty sturdy, they can also be cooked on a preheated grill over medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes per side.

Place the burgers in the buns and top with salsa or any of your favorite burger toppings.

Nutrition Information

Serves: 6  |  Serving Size: 1 Burger

Per serving: Calories: 381; Total Fat: 15g; Saturated Fat: 4g; Monounsaturated Fat: 6g; Cholesterol: 85mg; Sodium: 497mg; Carbohydrate: 39g; Dietary Fiber: 8g; Sugar: 5g; Protein: 27g

Nutrition Bonus: Potassium: 752mg; Vitamin A: 245%: Vitamin C: 26%; Iron: 23%; Calcium: 13%

- See more at: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/2014/06/meat-grain-burgers/?utm_source=mfp&utm_medium=email&utm_content=4481&utm_campaign=ROD5%3E&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonuazPZKXonjHpfsX56OskW6Ozg4kz2EFye%2BLIHETpodcMTcZjNq%2BTFAwTG5toziV8R7DBLM153N8QXRTg#sthash.7k5ZCKJE.dpuf

Found a Tasty & Health Recipe: Saucy Chicken and Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Saucy Chicken and Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

Garlic Soy Marinade:

• 1 teaspoon crushed Garlic
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• 2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil

Chicken:

• 4 raw 6-ounce Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (about 24 ounces total)
• Garlic Soy Marinade (see above)
• 2 tablespoons chopped Parsley
• 2 teaspoons Corn Starch
• 2 tablespoons Cooking Oil
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• 1/4 cup White Wine
• 1 1/4 cups Chicken Broth
• 2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
• Juice from 1/2 a Lemon

Sweet Potatoes:

• 1 1/2 pounds Sweet Potatoes, peeled & chopped into 1″ cubes
• 1/4 cup Greek Yogurt

Directions

Prepare the garlic soy marinade by mixing all ingredients together. Tenderize chicken with a fork and marinate in the garlic soy marinade for at least 30 min, ideally overnight.

Place peeled and chopped sweet potatoes into a pot and cover with cold water by about an inch. Bring to a boil and simmer until you can easily insert a knife through the potatoes, about 6 to 10 minutes.

While the sweet potatoes are boiling, heat a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add cooking oil. Once oil is heated, add chicken. Sear on both sides for 3 minutes.

Lower heat to medium, add the thyme, white wine and chicken stock, scraping up any brown bits that may have formed on the pan. There will be some steaming, so be careful!

Cover and cook the chicken for another 4 to 6 minutes, until chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

Drain the sweet potatoes in a colander and let them steam for about 5 minutes to allow some moisture to evaporate. Mash sweet potatoes with Greek yogurt, starting with less and adding more as needed. Season to taste with salt.

Remove cooked chicken from pan. Prepare corn starch mixture by mixing 2 teaspoons corn starch with 2 tablespoons cold water. Add mustard and corn starch mixture to the pan, bring to a simmer and let sauce cook until it’s thickened. Turn off heat, add lemon juice and chopped parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and pour sauce over the chicken.

Notes: Garlic soy marinade can be prepared up to 5 days in advance. Sweet potatoes can be peeled and chopped up to 3 days in advance.  Marinating the chicken can be done up to 2 days in advance.

Nutrition Information

Serves: 4  |  Serving Size: 2 1/2 cups

Per serving: Calories: 522 ; Total Fat: 18g; Saturated Fat: 2g; Monounsaturated Fat: 10g; Cholesterol: 124mg; Sodium: 881mg; Carbohydrate: 40g; Dietary Fiber: 6g; Sugar: 13g; Protein: 44g

Nutrition Bonus: Potassium: 626mg; Vitamin A: 481%; Vitamin C: 73%; Iron: 14%; Calcium: 9%

- See more at: MyFitnessPal

Monday 23rd Sept - Lunch

Monday Lunch

Lean Steak, Carrots, Peas, Peppers, Sweet Corn, Broccoli & Cashew Nuts

MY SIX PACK HAS ARRIVED!!!

So after waiting 8 day on what was meant to be a 24 hour dispatch from www.bodybuilding-supplements.co.uk  my ‘Six Pack Meal Management System’ has finally arrived and I have to say that what I have seen/touched/felt of it at the moment (admittedly is not a lot) its brilliant! I'm looking forward to loading up my lunch and taking it in with me to the office tomorrow.

Here she is…

As you can see I have already loaded some stuff in there ready for the morning and I have the meal trays in my kitchen ready to load up with turkey. The only down point that I have to say is that one of the meal trays are cracked… L I think this might have been from transit as this was the tray that was on the bottom of the system. I have emailed www.bodybuilding-supplements.co.uk and I’m just waiting for those guys to come back to me and let me know what the situation is. Normally I wouldn't have said anything but it did cost a fair bit and im not being funny but if I’m going to pay that for it I want it to be perfect! – That’s not too much to ask is it?!

Succeeding to Fail!?

Ok so today we tried something a little different down the gym. After chatting through with my good friend JW (ex semi professional body builder) about my work out I wanted a way of getting a bit more out of it as I felt that my muscles were getting used to the work and not reaping the full benefits – so I decided to cut my sets from 6 to 4 (with a initial set of 20 reps as a warm up) and then ‘go to failure’ before pyramiding the weight up for the next set - I’d heard of the concept before but never really given it much thought.

So anyway… me and Gaz (my gym buddy) got ourselves down the gym with the aim of succeeding to fail! As with all our workouts we started with 15 minutes interval training on the treadmill and then 15 minutes interval training on the rower – get the blood pumping and the heart nice and warm. Then onto the main work out that consisted of:

Chest, Biceps and Triceps

• ·         Hammer curls
• ·         Zootman curls
• ·         Triceps cable/rope pull downs
• ·         Flat bench
• ·         Inclined bench
• ·         Decline bench
• ·         Cable crucifix
• ·         Triceps extension with a dumbbell

After that moved onto the mat and finished off with 15 minutes of core work (crunches, Russian twists, sit ups, obliques crunches, abdominal roll outs with a ball, leg raises and plank)

Going to failure is definitely the way forward. I felt like I got so much more out of the work out although after the work out my energy (and blood sugar) was very low and I had to reach for the JB (jelly babies!)

Time to continue to fail!?