The Badass Body Diet: The Breakthrough Diet and Workout for a Tight Booty, Sexy Abs, and Lean Legs (24 page)

The Badass Body Diet Recipes

I LOVE TO COOK,
but like you, I’m busy, life happens. My workouts are grueling enough, so I sure don’t like torturing myself with recipes that take too long and result in a sink loaded with dirty dishes. Preparing and cooking six meals a day can take up a lot of your precious time. At the same time, I want you to enjoy delicious food while following my Badass plan. So I’ve designed some amazing recipes that don’t take a lot of time to make, which means minimal preparation but maximum flavor, from breakfasts to lunches to dinners, and snacks in between.

My recipes make from one to four servings. If you’re living solo and not feeding a family, you can save the three extra servings as leftovers so you have meals prepared for several days. And most of my snacks, such as the Recovery Shakes, take seconds to whip up.

Some other timesaving tips for the time-crunched among us:

Plan ahead.
Check my meal plans or the ones you devised for yourself. One day each week, make a grocery list based on your meal plan and head to the supermarket. Get all the foods you need for a week and stock your fridge and pantry. Trade plans with other Badass Bodies!

Have enough plastic bags and containers on hand.
I use glass containers instead of plastic, but fall back on plastic bags when I need to. I use both of these to prepare and package my individual serving sizes for my bricks. I place my carb bricks on the top shelf of my fridge, the protein bricks on the middle shelf, and the rest of my food in the lower compartments. This level of organization may not be for you, but it can help make life less complicated and saves lots of time in the long run. Give it a TRY! You will be surprised at how easy this task makes this process.

Shop strategically.
Purchase single-portion cuts of meat and fish, or ask the butcher to cut proteins into brick-sizes portions for you. Also, have the deli cut meat into slices to make measuring easy. If you buy prepackaged deli meat, determine how many slices make 7 grams of protein and divvy it up accordingly. I’ll let you in on a secret: The 7-gram measurement usually turns out to be 1½ to 2 slices of turkey or ham.

Freeze any extras.
Select fruits and vegetables by pieces instead of bagged produce that could go to waste. Frozen fruits and vegetables are handy; you can use them as needed.

Check out your local farmer’s market. It offers the freshest, most seasonal food you can buy, and thus the highest in nutrients.

Regarding veggies: Buy frozen veggies and fruit over canned versions. Frozen veggies are often flash-frozen near the farm, meaning they were as ripe as possible before packaging. Their nutrient content is thus higher than canned foods or even veggies and fruit in the grocery store that are out of season and trucked long distances to get to your community. Veggies and fruit in the grocery store out of season (and sometimes in season) are often picked too early and have not yet ripened. That’s a problem, since the produce may lack some major important nutrients.

Cook in bulk.
Once you return home from the grocery store or the farmer’s market, it’s time to cook and measure your food. This is less daunting than you think. Here’s how I do it:

Bulk-cook oven items together: chicken, sweet potatoes, veggies, and so forth. You can bake all the items together that run on the same temperature. Keep it simple.

Be a multitasker.
While your chicken, sweet potatoes, and veggies are in the oven, cook up some other foods on the stovetop. For example, brown some ground turkey or hard-boil a batch of eggs. Also, start portioning out your fruit and sliced deli meat. Measure them into single bricks and separate them by bricks. Place them in containers and mark them, along with the number of bricks they contain. I do this for all my protein and carb foods that I’ll be eating for the week, with the exception of meals I plan to cook fresh for dinner. The result is that the fridge is full of individual serving sizes of bricks to help me pick and choose the foods I want that day without having the hassle of measuring it when I’m on a tight schedule.

Once the food in the oven and on the stovetop is done, you can measure it out and put it into individually marked brick containers too, or freeze food for meals later in the week. At mealtimes, just reheat desired portion or portions and enjoy—while you lose weight.

From making out my grocery list to shopping to food prepping and cooking, this entire process takes me less than two hours.

Carry a ready-to-drink Recovery Shake with you to the gym.
That way, you get your shake in within that 10-minute window of working out. This makes it easier for the body to get nutrients for muscle building and fat burning. Meal Replacement Shakes also help you avoid feeling hungry throughout the day and therefore overeating.

Spice it up.
Cut back on salt and experiment with different herbs, spices, and seasonings to enhance flavor. Some of my favorites: sautéing garlic in a very small amount of oil or squeezing lemon juice over fish or veggies. Find other ways to add flavor, such as marinating meats in tomato juice or chicken broth before you cook them.

Employ healthy cooking techniques.
Try methods like oven frying over deep frying using gallons of oil. You can oven-fry fish, poultry, shellfish, and meatballs by coating them with a pulverized nut coating, spritzing them with vegetable oil cooking spray, and then baking. The dish will come out tasty and crispy. I love to use nonstick cookware too. It makes it easier to use less oil and keeps food from sticking (which helps cut down on cleanup time). I also love to steam my food, especially veggies, because it seals moisture in food. I use a steaming basket over the stovetop or a specialty steamer appliance. Grilling is another of my favorite ways to cook; it doesn’t require a lot of added fat and adds a nice smoky flavor.

I encourage you to try as many of these recipes as you can—even if you think you hate cooking or don’t know how to cook (if you can read and follow instructions, you can cook!).

See you in the kitchen!

Breakfast Recipes

MEXICAN OMELET

1 serving

Olive oil cooking spray

½ cup chopped green pepper

¼ jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced

¼ cup chopped onion

2 eggs

1 teaspoon olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Spray a small skillet with olive oil cooking spray. Sauté the peppers and onion over medium heat until just tender. Remove the vegetables to a small plate.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs and olive oil with 2 tablespoons of water and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Respray the skillet you used to sauté the vegetables. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and heat over medium heat. Cook the eggs, using a spatula to allow uncooked egg to run underneath cooked egg. When the omelet is set, spoon the vegetable mixture over half of it. Fold the omelet in half over the vegetable mixture. Cover and cook for 1 minute.

Nutrition:
2 bricks. To create a 3-brick omelet, increase to ¾ cup green pepper, ½ jalapeño, ½ cup onion, 3 eggs, and ½ teaspoon olive oil.

MINI QUICHE

1 serving

Olive oil cooking spray

½ cup chopped onion

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

2 eggs

2 teaspoons olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a small skillet with olive oil cooking spray. Sauté the onion and spinach over medium heat until just tender. Remove the vegetables to a small plate.

Whisk the eggs in a bowl with the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the vegetable mixture and mix well.

Spray a small ramekin with cooking spray. Pour the egg and vegetable mixture into the ramekin. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the quiche is set.

Nutrition:
2 bricks. To create a 3-brick quiche, increase to ¾ cup onion, 3 cups spinach, 3 eggs, and 1 teaspoon olive oil.

GRAIN-FREE GRANOLA

1 serving

6 crushed almonds

2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut

1 teaspoon chia seeds

1 tablespoon dried cranberries

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Coconut water or almond milk

Mix all the ingredients except the coconut water or almond milk to a cereal bowl and mix well. Moisten with coconut water or almond milk to taste.

Nutrition:
2 bricks. To create a 3-brick cereal, increase recipe to 9 crushed almonds, 2 tablespoons cranberries, and 3 tablespoons shredded coconut.

Lunch Recipes

CHICKEN VEGETABLE SOUP

2 servings

¼ cup chopped onion

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

¼ head of cabbage, shredded

½ cup canned tomato puree

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock, plus more as needed

2 teaspoons olive oil

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup diced baked chicken breast

Place all the ingredients except the chopped chicken in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add more broth if needed as you cook. Add the chicken and heat it through. Adjust seasonings if necessary.