Too much protein is not healthy. That’s hard to convince a guy bench pressing 400 pounds surrounded by muscle. But ten years from today you will be glad that your focus was on health and not bulk. Think youthful fitness, hard cuts, and a youthful, radiant face.
The following clean burning, high protein meals are excellent for successful muscle strengthening or demanding aerobics, and pregnant or breast feeding mothers. Replacing one meal each day with one of these supplementary high-protein meals will effectively meet your body’s increased demand for protein.
Protein Breakfast Meals
Ideally, breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day.
Whole-grain Pancakes – I use is a variety of organic stone-ground flours, like spelt, buckwheat, and Ezekiel flour for pancakes. Here’s my secret recipe, which can be cut in half. Only make enough mix for one morning—it will not taste good the next day. Also, we use maple syrup mixed with equal parts water to reduce sugar. Mix together:
2 cups whole-grain spelt flour* (or any type of whole-grain flour)
1 cup soy milk*
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons sea salt
3 large eggs*
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
4 tablespoons Sucanat
2 teaspoons baking powder
*organic
For each pancake, pour about a quarter cup of the batter on to a heated iron skillet lightly sprayed with olive oil. Then sprinkle on blueberries or thinly sliced strawberries before turning.
Organic eggs and whole-grain toast – Try to buy free-range eggs or get them from a reputable farmer, which can cost less than at the grocery store. Just make sure the chickens are fed natural foods free from growth hormones, antibiotics and animal byproducts. Again, use an iron skillet lightly sprayed with olive oil to cook the eggs.
Fruit smoothie with whey protein – Whey protein is one of my rare recommendations of processed food. Choose a protein with natural sweeteners.
Cottage cheese and fresh pineapple – Just like it sounds. I love the taste. Full-fat cottage cheese is the only way to go, and not a problem when included within a diet full of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Protein Lunch Meals
Salmon Sandwich – Of course, use stone-ground, whole-grain bread, and add a little low-fat mayonnaise and canned wild sockeye salmon, bones and all (for the calcium), and a leaf or three of romaine lettuce. A Tip: I replace mayonnaise with horseradish sauce. There is hardly any oil, and just a little rocks my salmon into overdrive flavor.
Peas and cottage cheese – A tin of warmed peas with a dab of butter, and a cup of full-fat cottage cheese on the side. Fast and easy.
Protein Supper Meals
Salad and chicken breast – I use the George Foreman grill. No need to add fat, and even from frozen, it cooks in 7 minutes. Slice into thin strips, pile on salad, and bathe in homemade dressing. Filling and tasty.
Steamed veggies and salmon – We buy our wild Pacific salmon frozen, individually portioned in vacuum-sealed bags. Eight minutes in the George Forman grill, and done. Our salmon comes in its own flavored sauce but check ingredients to ensure they are not defiling healthy salmon with nasty fat. Steamed veggies can be replaced with a generous salad.
Pasta with organic ground beef – Use pasta dish in Maintenance Meals with the addition of browned organic lean ground beef. Rinse cooked meat well under hot water in a sieve. I add about a pound of meat to a large pot of sauce.
Wendy’s chili with baked potato – You are going to find yourself drive-through dining from time to time. This is a good choice considering your options. Wendy’s rinses their beef well before adding it to their chili. (As a teen I worked at Wendy’s on chili duty.) For your tater, sour cream is lower in fat than butter. This is a superior choice to a hamburger, fries and coke.
Homemade healthy pizza – A fun supper if done right and can be very healthy. Use whole-grain pita shells as crust. Add a generous amount of fat-free or olive oil-based pizza sauce. Top will loads of chopped veggies like red peppers, sliced red onion, broccoli, tomatoes, etc., and sprinkle on goat’s cheese. Place pitas on cookie sheet, bake at 450 Fahrenheit for about 10 to 15 minutes or until outside of pizza turns light brown. Put out toppings so kids can build their own personal pizza.
Tofu on Salad – If you have not been introduced to the multifunctional tofu, allow me to be the first. Remember, tofu is 56 percent complete protein. Anything this unassuming food is added to turns into a high-protein meal. Much like mushrooms, tofu takes on any flavor you add to it.
Here is a recipe to get you started. Cut extra-firm tofu into little cubes. Marinate cubes in soy sauce in refrigerator for one hour. Remove and stir in good-tasting yeast (or flaked yeast, can find in health store) until all cubes are coated. Lightly brown in a frying pan that has been sprayed with olive oil. Add to salad, then pour on some homemade dressing and eat up. This is just one example of what you can do with this versatile food.
Additional Protein Snacks
Two tablespoons of cottage cheese – a little trick I have learned to curb bedtime hunger. A nut butter and honey sandwich would be my go-to bedtime food in the past, dropping about 500 calories of carbs into an awaiting bed, then I was up half the night zinging on a carb high. A couple of generous spoonfuls of cottage cheese works much better, reducing hunger without interrupting sleep.
A handful of raw nuts – also a great way to curb nighttime hunger. Before you reach for that second handful, give it a few minutes to work. There is a bit of a delay for the stomach to send a message to the brain to shut down hunger. Eat slowly and chew the nuts well.
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