A lot of people know me as a guy with incredible willpower when it comes to eating; I'm not a guy who eats pizza, desserts, or really anything kind of junk. However, a lot of people take that to mean that I don't enjoy food – but that couldn't be further from the truth. I love to eat – but I prefer it to be healthy food options; give me a good steak and some fresh vegetables and I'll be much happier than if I'd just spent some quality time with Ben and Jerry.
That's why I'm always psyched when I get healthy recipes thrown my way. As much as I like healthy food, it's easy to get stuck in ruts with the same things over and over again. Taking it a step further, now that I'm living with a wife, I have to keep in mind that she doesn't tolerate a bland diet as easily as I could – and since she likes to cook, new recipes are pretty clutch for my marriage!
As such, I was really fired up when I read through Dave Ruel's Metabolic Cooking, a resource consisting of over 250 awesome recipes for eating healthy. If you like John Berardi's stuff in this regard, you'll also love Dave's.
Metabolic Cooking is a really expansive product, as it provides recipes for breakfasts, chicken/poultry, fish/seafood, red meat, pork, sides, smoothies, snacks, and vegetarian options. There were several things that really stood out for me about this fantastic resource.
The first thing I really took away from this resource was how to use different spices in cooking. You'll get a kick out of this, but the ONLY thing I added to our wedding registry last year was a spice rack, as I wanted to use more herbs and spices in our cooking. I received it – but it's been sitting idle in our kitchen since October simply because I didn't know when to use things like thyme, sage, and rosemary. Sure enough, Dave includes a lot of these in his recipes – and they've been delicious additions to meat and vegetables. Check out the herbed green beans I made the other night.
He does some equally creative stuff with healthy salad dressings, too.
Second, Dave "convinced" me to start eating some pork again. I never really resisted including pork in my diet like a lot of people do nowadays (because they think it's unhealthy), but I didn't really have any good recipes that made me want to go out and buy some. That changed last week when I made some slow cooker chili pork the other night.
Fourth, my wife and I eat a fair amount of ground turkey, which almost always comes in one-pound packages. The problem is that 16 oz of meat cooks up to 12oz of meat – and I'll eat 7-8oz and my wife will eat 4-5oz. In other words, there are zero leftovers after we have dinner – and I get "hangry" (a combination of hungry and angry) when there's nothing kicking around the next day for me to take to work. Dave's got a great recipe called "Mexi Turkey-Eggs Skillet" that adds eggs (and some vegetables) to the ground turkey, which thickens it up and ensures that you'll have some leftovers.
When all was said and done, my wife and I both had our dinners – and then had enough for lunch for both of us to take to work the next day. And I wasn't hangry at all.
Fifth, on the logistical side of things, Dave has a cool feature in his e-book that allows you to easily navigate back and forth from the individual recipes to the table of contents (and vice versa). I hadn't seen this before in an e-book and I absolutely love it (so much, in fact, that I plan to incorporate something similar where appropriate in my future products).
For those looking to lean out (or gain muscle, for that matter), Dave provides nutritional facts for each recipe and advice on whether to include it as a protein and fat, protein and carb, or "mixed" meal. So, it's not just recipes; it's very useful advice as well.
In case you couldn't tell by now, I give this product about 47 thumbs up, as evidenced by the fact that all I've been doing is eating healthy food (and a lot of it) ever since it arrived. I mean, can you argue with this Lemon Herb Mustard Chicken? Not bad for a meathead strength coach, huh?
Trust me: this is a resource you will use for years to come. Pick up a copy and you won't be disappointed: Metabolic Cooking. As an added bonus, it's on sale for 67% off this week - along with its "sister resource," Anabolic Cooking, which is also awesome. You can get them both for just $20 right now...pretty sweet deal.
You actually have me excited about cooking. That's a feat, if ever there was one. Like you, my eating is "clean" but has become hyper-stale.
I'm ordering this book. Absolutely.
Fantasic post, I cannot wait to try some of these out for myself. I will have to recommend them to my clients on our Inspired Boot Camps!
Thanks so much for passing on this information and special price offer Eric. Money is tight and I'm just learning to cook healthy…I don't know if I'd have invested the full amount but at half off it's a wise investment that I just can't pass up. I'll call it an early birthday present to myself; which will be of great assistance in my goal of seeing my abs by my next birthday…the big 40.
Quick question…Do we get the books they show on their website, or just the electronic downloads? I never saw it addressed anywhere on the site, but if we only get the E-copy, I think it's misleading that it's never mentioned when they show all those nice spiral bound books.
Without your comments, Eric, this was just another health/food product on sale. With your word behind it, it sounds like the real thing. It's so hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Now it's on my list of must haves. You da man! Thanks, Eric.
The pictures look great but I advise a bit more lighting!
Metabolic Cooking will help you burn fat faster by boosting your metabolism in many ways.
But now, what's more important, is that our recipes taste great.
They aren't those tasteless meals that you actually start to avoid just because you can't stand the smell of them.
They're meals you will look forward to, probably even start to crave.