Gordon Ramsay’s Muscle Building Pork Chops

Once, I found out Gordon Ramsay’s YouTube channel and I ended up spending the entire Sunday morning watching is cooking videos.

I was drooling over my keyboard.

The guy is a whizz and he’s incredibly passionate about cooking. You can see his heart is in there when he seasons the meat, chops up the onions, or sears a steak.

Given that pork chops is relatively high in protein and I’m bulking, I decided to give Gordon Ramsay’s pork chops recipe a try.

The recipe itself is rather simple though I never basted meat before so that was sort of tricky for me though I managed at the end. It’s a nice technique to bring more flavors and speed up the cooking so that the meat doesn’t dry up and you can give it a try with this recipe.

I wouldn’t recommend this recipe to someone who never cooked before. There are easier recipes that can provide you great taste as well.

The taste was great: rich, full of aromas from the herbs and butter, sweet and sour from the vinegar and the peppers. Some sour cream or crème fraîche would make a great topping for this one or even just some quality extra-virgin olive oil.

Despite being high in fat, it doesn’t have a high amount of calories: only 590kcal/serving. Since I am bulking, I ate 2 😄

How Can All That Fat Help Your Muscle Gains?

Olive oil and pork meat are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids which can increase anabolic hormone levels.

Pork and butter are also a source of saturated fatty acids which, as well, can increase levels of anabolic hormones such as testosterone and growth hormones.

This will contribute to gaining muscle mass faster by increasing your testosterone levels in the long term.

Be sure to include polyunsaturated fatty acids in your diet as well such as omega-3s which you get from eating fatty fishes or by taking fish oil supplements for a proper balance.

Each serving will also provide 35g of protein which is a good high amount for people who want to build muscle and strength (you still need to train though 😜 ).

Reference

http://jap.physiology.org/content/82/1/49

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High-Protein Sweet Mango Chicken

I had never tried a sweet&sour recipe before and if they all taste as good as this one I’m completely sold on the idea.

Quite frankly I wasn’t expecting the taste to turn out SO good.

You have the sweetness of the mango that is counterbalanced by the savoriness and umami of the soy sauce and chicken, ending with the crunchiness and aroma of the almonds.

This recipe is a true melting pot of flavors at each bite.

It was so good that I made it again a couple of days later.

As a sweetener I used erythritol but you can use whatever you want. Its purpose is to help to develop a glaze and add extra sweetness. It’s not mandatory but a very nice addition.

Feel free to omit the almonds if you are cutting. You can also replace almonds with sesame seeds.

This is a high-protein recipe. With 62g of protein per serving, this chicken recipe it’s great for bodybuilding,(especially during a bulking phase) or for those looking to put on muscle mass in general.

You can serve it with a salad on the side or with some mashed potatoes or oven baked fries.

This recipe is recommended for the following diets: primal, paleo, iifym.

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Chicken Drumsticks with Cherry Tomatoes

You know when you open your fridge and you can find just a couple of ingredients and get discouraged?

That’s what happened to me before making this recipe.

I opened my fridge and I just had chicken and cherry tomatoes.

On top of that, I wanted to make something quickly.

That inspired me to create this one-pot very simple and easy recipe which also takes 10-15 min to make.
This recipe is great for a meal-prep too since you can make it in advance, store in the fridge, and reheat before eating.

It’s very high in protein and so low-carb that even people on the ketogenic diet can make it.

The taste is completely unexpected: sweet from the cherry tomatoes, sour from the wine and garlic, and great savoriness from the chicken blend together to give you a unique mouth-watering experience.

This makes a great post-workout or dinner when you are looking to pack some muscle mass with an high-protein meal.

Besides being Keto, this recipe is also Paleo, Primal, LCHF, and ofc IIFYM.

If you want to add more carbs, pair this with some rice or (oven baked) potatoes fries.

About the wine: it doesn’t to be the expensive stuff. I truly buy the cheapest there is and, once opened, it can last in the fridge basically forever. You can use wine for a lot of recipes to make them even more delicious so it’s not a waste!

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Keto Caprese

If you are short on time and don’t have enough time to cook this keto lunch recipe can be a lifesaver.

This dish is called Caprese. and I’ve been eating it when I was in Italy very often and it was one of my most favorite meals!

Especially if you use buffalo mozzarella and very fresh cherry tomatoes, this can turn easily into a foodgasmic experience 🙂

You don’t need fancy recipes to eat well. This is what south Italian cuisine is all about: few ingredients, simple to make, tastebuds ecstasy guaranteed.

This dish is very low carb, therefore, it can be eaten on a ketogenic diet.

It’s also dirty cheap and very quick to prepare since no cooking is involved!

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Italian Cabbage Dumplings

You know, well, everybody knows that cabbage is good for you.

Right. But that taste…

I wanted to include some green cabbage in my diet and tried to think of how can I make this enjoyable and not a dread.

I thought: Chinese have been using green cabbage since forever and they make delicious stuff out of them!

Since I am not Chinese and I wouldn’t dare mess around with such a complex, rich, and ancient culinary art, I decided to give Chinese cabbage rolls an Italian spin so nobody gets offended. Though if you are Chinese and want to teach me how to make high-protein healthy cabbage rolls, please write me 🙂

So, what makes this dish “Italian”?

Besides the usual aromatics (onion, carrots, leek) I used red wine and fennel seeds. Fennel seeds really give a twist to this dish!

This has only 19g of carbs per serving which makes it ideal for someone on a LCHF diet or keto (when carbs are kept below 50g).

It’s also fairly high-protein. But if you want to increase the amount of protein without increasing calories, go for lean beef (here I used a fatty cut).

This dish can easily be boosted in protein to have 30-40g per serving just by using lean beef.

This dish has less than 500kcal per serving so it can be used for cutting as well (use lean beef in this case which will also increase the amount of protein per serving!)

If I had a broiler, I would have put some Parmesan cheese on top and gave them a couple of mins to become crunchy and even more delicious!

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Stuffed Eggplants

My grandma (and mom) used to make this all the time: a big tradition in southern Italian cuisine.

The flavors are incredible and the way they combine makes you feel in Italy after a first mouthful.

Little that I realized, how high-protein and low-carb high-fat this dish can be!

Therefore, whenever I have some time and can find cheap eggplants, this dish is a must do for my post-workouts.
This is very filling too so if you are cutting you can make it as well.

So, there you have it, the authentic south Italian stuffed eggplants recipe adapted for muscle mass gains!

(I’m sure my grandma would kill me if she knew I posted her recipe hahah)

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Sausage and Beans (Rural Italian Classic)

Have you ever heard of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill? They are famous Italian actors, famous for action-comedy movies such as “They Call Me Trinity”.

In this movie, there is an epic scene of almost 3 minutes in which the main character is eating a delicious beans course straight from the pan.

The scene is so well done that you start drooling right away.

Your brain goes: “MUST. HAVE. NOW.”

I tried to imagine how that recipe would be like and went about to re-create it. t was as delicious as in the movie.

It was as delicious as in the movie it seems to be.

This is a healthy, high-protein, low-carb recipe which is great for building muscles!

If you want to be as strong as Bud Spencer, you should try this recipe. It’s super easy!

This recipe is also gluten-free.

Note: the carbs indicated on the nutrition label are already net carbs (as in the style of European nutrition labels)

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Pork Sausage with Lentils (Very Filling High-Protein Lunch/Dinner)

How to make a cheap, (fairly) healthy, and high-protein dinner?

Well, you use pork, legumes (lentils in this case), and veggies!

This recipe is a great high-protein lunch/dinner idea since it packs a lot of proteins and a ton of fibers (for those of you struggling with fiber intake!). It delivers an incredible 38g of fibers per serving. If I remember correctly that’s the recommended intake for an adult male!

While being all good for your intestinal health, it’s also very delicious as the aroma of the pork meat perfectly combines with the texture and taste of lentils and tomato sauce. Then, the added spices add a touch of unexpected flavor that blends delightfully with the whole dish.

It’s not a quick recipe (it might require up to 50 min), mind you, since you have to cook the lentils but if you have a slow cooker than it’s perfect!

Since this is a high-calories recipe, it’s ideal if you struggle to gain weight and muscle mass.

This recipe is good also for people on the slow-carb diet!

The amount of carbs in the label is net carbs (as in European nutrition labels’ style).

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Smoothie Recipe for Strength: Creamy Avocado Pre-Workout

I always wondered: why do people love avocados?

They taste like nothing to me (and this could very well be that the ones we get here in the Netherlands are probably the worst).

Sure, the usual olive oil, salt, and pepper thing. I heard about that already. But, but…where’s mah protein?!?

So, one day, I thought: “what if I put an avocado in my pre-workout smoothie?

Honestly, I was doing just for the calories, I wasn’t expecting much of it.

WARNING: the following recipe will make you want more and more and more and more of it.

As I opened the blender to scoop the whole thing out, I was bewildered to see the consistency, thickness, and texture of this smoothie.

Never would I have predicted what I was going to experience as tasting a spoonful of this recipe.

My mouth watered, my brain starting shouting “holy moly what’s happening here? are we having sex?!”.

Yes my friend, what I was having was not your average foodgasm. This was a real thing.

After that, none of my smoothies lacked this fundamental ingredient, the avocado.

I would strongly suggest you try it as well, next time you make yourself a smoothie and be ready to experience pleasure.

Here you have it, a smoothie recipe for strength!

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Simple Yet Tasty Pork Sausage Risotto

Today we go for something rather sophisticated but actually incredibly easy to make.

On top of that, it is gluten-free and perfect if you are coeliac and doing bodybuilding.

The recipe is not the quickest but it’s simple and straightforward. This would make you look like a master chef even if your biggest culinary achievement so far has been scrambled eggs.

I would recommend this recipe to whoever has never tried making risotto since it’s very basic and simple and can help you getting started.

Once you can master this high-protein risotto, every other risotto recipe is going to be a no-brainer and will add endless possibilities to your cooking repertoire. For instance, you could try this foodgasmic risotto with pumpkin and pork sausage.

I love to have risotto as my post-workout because I can get in one package carbs, proteins, and fat with benefits of an incredible creamy taste.

Great for when you are bulking and want to eat a lot of calories in a single meal!