Protein Supreme

Working in a restaurant can be a dangerous job: Slip and fall on a freshly mopped floor, get stood up by a masked man and be demanded of all the money in the register, or a gas leak......BOOM! These are all possibilities. Though the most commonly feared situation is being bored due to the lack of customers, which leads to eating everything in sight. (Food industry people, you know what Im talking about) 

I've fallen into this path a few too many times. It's hard to keep health and fitness goals insight with binge eating readily at your finger tips. You have to be strong with your eating habits in order to get the results you desire. Unfortunately the restaurant I work, the food choices aren't the healthiest, especially the pizzas; but should there be such a pie dubbed "The Healthy Pizza"?

Today, I went on limb with little knowledge of how to to make one, but I challenged myself with a carb-free zza and thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you are guilty of falling into this slump, You can read on to see the steps I took to make this simple, delicious, healthy, protein packed pizza:

Ingredients:(serving size for 1)

-1/2 lbs 80% lean ground beef

-1/2 cup chopped mushroom

-1/2 cup chopped white onions

-1/2 cup chopped bell peppers

-1 Tbs tomato sauce

-1 Tbs olive oil

-1/4 cup flour

Tools:

-12"X12" piece of wax paper

-cooking tray

-oven

With the wax paper lightly floured, pound out the 1/2 pound of ground beef into a shape of a circle to about 1/4 thick. When the patty has reached your desire shape and size, take the cooking tray and lightly coat with olive. You will then peel the patty from the wax paper, and lay on the spread of oil on the cooking tray. Preheat oven to 450; when oven is ready slide the zza, and let cook for 10 min. When 10 mins have reached, remove the patty from the oven and then top the pizza with the chopped veggies. Throw back in the oven for another 10-15 mins till cooked to you desired finish: medium rare, medium, well done, etc.

Cut and enjoy.

Sriracha Tilapia with Quinoa

For the first recipe, I tried this tonight out of the blue. It worked out incredibly.

  Seasoned quinoa
1cup red quinoa
A splash of olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1tsp cayenne pepper
Sprinkle of spicy carribee herbed sea salt to taste

Pour the quinoa into a wire strainer, and rinse thoroughly under warm water. Pour into the pot and add the water. If the quinoa sticks in the wire strainer, you can either tap the strainer or use one of the cups of water to get the extra quinoa out of the strainer. Add the olive oil and seasonings to the water, this will help the quinoa to absorb the seasoning and taste significantly better. Bring the water to a boil and reduce to medium heat. Cover the pot and allow to simmer. Once the water has all been absorbed or evaporated taste the quinoa to ensure that it is not too dry. I tend to use more water than recommended by the package to give the quinoa more of a rice feel.

 Sriracha tilapia
2tbsp sriracha
2tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
3/4tbsp dijon mustard
1tbsp organic raw honey
1/4 tsp basil
1/3 cup of olive oil
2 tilapia fillets

Coconut oil

Combine all dry ingredients into a gallon plastic bag or container, add sriracha, mustard, and honey. Mix together with a wire wisk, or massage the ingredients together in the plastic bag. Add the olive oil and the defrosted tilapia. Massage the tilapia with the ingredients and ensure full coverage. Let sit and marinate for an hour. You can do it over night for maximum absorption if you have the time. It is still very flavorful after an hour. 

Warm your frying pan and add the coconut oil, place the tilapia in the pan. Reduce the heat to medium. The tilapia will sauté for about ten minutes at most if fully defrosted. You can check the center of the tilapia, if the fish is flakey it is finished. 

Serve over the quinoa and enjoy. 

A new lease

Hello and welcome to the Fit and Tasty blog.

It was only a year ago that my girlfriend purchased me a gym membership for my birthday. Knowing this was a hint as to the fact that I had gained a significant amount of weight, I realized I wanted to make a change. Since I started working in an office and commuting 70 miles a day I had gained over 40lbs and transitioned a large percentage of my body weight to fat.

I weighed in a 235lbs at 25 years old with over 20% body fat. Now at 26 I weigh in at 207lbs with 9% body fat. I work out 3-4 days a week at the gym and I ride bmx. Nowadays I work out for two big reasons.

1. Reaching and maintaining my fitness goals
2. Injury prevention

The other big thing about me is that I love to cook and experiment with flavors. I created this blog to display not only fun work outs but to show my recipes along with some of my friends' recipes.

Their are three total contributors to this blog.
1. Myself: Patrick
2. My good friend: Tony
3. My Sister: Gretchen

Tony is a great friend and constant inspiration to push my workouts harder and my runs farther. I will let him tell you more about himself in his introduction post.

Gretchen is my sister who was the person who inspired me to cook clean and healthy and is a constant source of support in my life. She can also tell you more about herself in her introduction.

Please take your time to read this. Blog and try these recipes. I wouldn't post something I wouldn't eat.