In The Kitchen

Quinoa (Keen-Wah) has become one of my favorite dishes at home!  Often thought to be a grain, it’s actually a seed and is a great source of protein.  It’s very simple to make and as you’ll see on this In The Kitchen segment on Fox you can use it for breakfast lunch or dinner.  Watch below to learn more! Know The Goal Chris Bryan

How many times have you heard, Breakfast Is The Most Important Meal Of The Day? Let’s round down and say 1 million times!  Do you know Why it’s SO important? The biggest reason is metabolism and how we get our metabolism started in the morning.  If one of your health goals is reduce your body fat percentage, eating the best possible foods to jump start your metabolism is the single most important thing you have to do! Here’s what happens if you don’t.  Your body wakes up from sleep, so you haven’t eaten anything in at least 6 to 8, maybe more hours.  When we wake, the body turns on the power, look at it as a manufacturing plant, the lights go on, the computers are turned on, the machines and all working parts are on and now ready to operate.  If you don’t have power to run all your machines, what happens? They shut down, or strain to work properly, and this puts a tremendous amount of unnecessary pressure on the body! Now, what you’ve forced the body to do is conserve all its energy for the upcoming day, and to do that, it has turned down the rate your metabolism will work.  This is especially worse is you go 2 or more hours not eating from the time you woke up because whatever you eat next will be broken down at a molecular level and the body will try to turn it into fat, because fat is our slowest burning sustainable source for energy.  If you’re like a lot of people out there and live a very busy life, and go a few hours without eating, there’s a good chance the first thing you eat will the first thing you can get your hands on, a donut, pastry, something fast processed, and probably from a vending machine.  Your body is now turning already fatty foods into fat and storing them.  An absolute internal catastrophe if your goal is lose body fat! It doesn’t have to be like that.  If you’ve been following my blogs you know I am a HUGE fan of preparing meals on Sunday.  I cook, portion and store every meal, so I have nothing to worry about during the week.  My day personally is crazy, I am up everyday at 3:45am, I start work at 4:45am, and I don’t get home until past 5pm or 6 pm every night! So its very important that I have all my meals ready to go before I leave in the morning, and if you’re serious about fat loss, this should be a priority for you.  It may seem like a lot at first, but it literally takes a couple hours or less at most to get everything ready for your week! Here are 2 of my favorite Pre-Made breakfasts, both are delicious, easy to make, can be prepared many ways and only take 20 minutes to make from start to finish! Cupcake Pan Eggs Get a cupcake pan, crack either full eggs, or egg whites, 1 or 2, whatever your meal plan calls for and drop them into the pan!  I put a little refined coconut oil around the pan spaces to keep the eggs from sticking!  Then add whatever you like to the eggs, veggies, meat, cheese, put them in the oven at 375 for 15 minutes, and you’re ready to go! You can store them in a plastic sealed container for the next 5 days, so they’re ready to go every morning!  You can eat them cold, or put them in your toaster oven and heat them up! Cupcake pan Oatmeal If oats or grains is more your thing in the morning, you’ll love this!  Take 2 cups of oatmeal and two cups of organic almond milk and stir in a big bowl.  Fill the cupcake pan with paper holders, then fill them with oatmeal.  You can add hemp seeds for more protein if you want.  Put them into the oven at 375 for 15 minutes, and you’ll have basically oatmeal cookies ready to go!  You can top these with Almond Butter, Berries, Apples, Banana, Seeds, just about anything you can think of!  Also you can stick these in the freezer and pull them out to thaw the night before! If you want them warm, same thing, stick them in the toaster oven, and boom, breakfast is served! Whatever you do, MAKE SURE YOU EAT BREAKFAST!!! I can’t emphasize enough how important it is!  I hope you enjoy these great tricks to breakfast on the go!

When trying to create your healthy meal plan one of the most important parts to consider is our snacks. A good routine to get into is consuming food every 2 to 3 hours, this is going to keep your metabolism running high, breaking down your foods, using them as energy and ultimately when combined with proper exercise, you will be forcing the body to use body fat as source of energy! Watch this quick video on how to make healthy homemade Protein Energy Bites, which are a convenient way to get your snacks in!   Here’s the recipe and Macro Nutrient breakdown. In a heavy duty blender, such as a Vitamix or Blendtec, first add 1 Cup of Organic Almonds 1 Cup of Organic Pecans Mix the nuts on a low speed, so that they do not become too fine. Next add 3 TBS Hemp Seeds 1 Cup of Organic Dates 1 Serving of Protein Powder (20 grams minimum protein) 1 TBS Organic Almond Butter 1 TBS Coconut Oil Blend all together until consistency is moist. Next spoon out all ingredients into a bowl. Make each serving 1 TBS which will be around 30 bites and your Macro Nutrients Per Energy Bite will be: Calories 67 Fat 5 grams Carbs 4.5 grams Protein 3 grams And each Energy Bite will only contain around 3 grams or less of sugar.   Enjoy!        

Healthy comfort food made easy!  That’s what I think of when I think about using my slow cooker! As part of my mission to make living your healthiest life easy as possible I’ve created this free E-Book with 15 great recipes for you to try!  Through out the next few “cold” months I’ll be sure to post many more great healthy recipes for you! Know The Goal Click Here to Download Slow Cooker Ebook

Tis the season for squash!   All sorts we’ll find at the grocery right now, and this recipe is a quick, easy and creative way to make Acorn Squash with very little mess! Give it a shot! Watch us make Acorn Squash on FOX “Good Day Charlotte” and remember to tune in to the Daily Special on FOX every Monday to see what I’ll be cooking in the kitchen!

• 2 medium acorn squash
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 onion
• 1 apple, any variety
• 3 slices nitrate free turkey bacon (optional)
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp ground sage
• 1 tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp sea salt
• ¼ tsp nutmeg

I love pasta!  There I said it, if I could only have one more meal, it would have to be pasta. However, I am also on a life long mission of “6 pack abs perfection” and pasta and abs are not always the best of friends!  Until now!!  Look at that picture and tell me those noodles don’t look like the real deal.  I’m telling you  now, if you haven’t tried these noodles you’ve got to soon, they really are amazing!  Get a Spiralizer and follow this delicious recipe!

When it comes to living your most healthy life you will always hear me say, “Food Comes First”. What we eat determines how healthy our body can be and it’s important that we feed ourselves in an effort to be our best.  Food is medicine, there are key nutrients in every single healthy bite and one of the most important food groups comes from our veggies and in particular our greens!  Studies show that certain greens can help protect us from diabetes, heart disease and even cancer while providing us a great source of fiber, minerals and important vitamins! I personally have greens in 3 of my meals everyday, and one of those meals is always a salad!  Below are my Top 4 Greens for your salads! It’s important to point out that all of these greens can actually also be more healthy providing more nutrients when cooked, so they are not just for your salad. 1. Kale: Once considered the greatest wedding plate garnish the world over, we now know that this green is as nutrient powerhouse!  Not only green, but any color kale will offer high amounts of vitamin A, C, and K as well as a great source of calcium and potassium. 2. Spinach: This has been a long time favorite for many people and the most common healthy green added to salads after your common lettuces.  Spinach is high in vitamin A and C as well as folate.  This green is also high in calcium and studies show that when you heat spinach it actually becomes a healthier green. 3. Broccoli:  Not often considered a green for your salad, I personally like to chop it up fine and use it when mixing dressing and veggies all up together.  I usually have broccoli twice a day as I believe it to be one the best fat burning greens of all time!  It’s also a great source of vitamin A, C and Potassium 4. Parsley:  Yup, parsley is going to make my Top 4 list.  Considered an herb, often only used as a garnish, but if you haven’t tried it in a salad, you definitely should.  Very high in vitamin A, C and potassium like most greens, but unlike most greens high in volatile oils and flavonoids which are high in antioxidants and have a ton of medicinal properties! Give these greens a try when cooking and always try to think of your food as the medicine that will help you to live your very best life!! Know The Goal

If we fail to plan, we are planning to fail – Benjamin Franklin When it comes to food, this is absolutely the case, mostly because we all become so busy throughout the day that we have to grab something quick.  This is the single biggest obstacle we face when trying to achieve our health goals. So let’s head it off at the pass, let’s be ready by taking an hour a week to prepare certain meals.  For me, I prepare enough to last me 4 days, and I portion enough to have 4 of my meals per day ready.  Below I’ll take you through two of my most important meals, my post workout meal around that I have around 1:30pm and my dinner which I have around 7:00pm.  Theses dishes have all the veggies, carbs, protein and fat that my body needs to be at its best.  To change them up I’ll often substitute a different veggie mix, but I stay consistent with the Free Range Organic Chicken.  I’ll also change sauces up to help from getting bored with the same thing.  Many times for my post workout 1:30pm meal, I’ll use homemade BBQ sauce.  If you’re looking for a BBQ recipe here’s a link to 3 options! Most of what I’ll show now, takes literally less than 45 minutes from start to finish and if you live the Charlotte NC area and want me to come to your house and show you in person be sure to click here for all services! If I were to bake my chicken, everything would take less than 45 minutes, buy I like to cook my chicken in a slow roaster.  I feel it helps to keep it moist over the 4 day period. Give this is a shot! Start by taking 4 days worth of Cage Free Chicken and placing in a slow cooker for 4 hours Add only 2 Cups of Organic Vegetable Broth.  Once cooked you’ll be able to pull chicken apart with a fork like shown below.  Place the chicken in a container with one cup of broth to keep moist and refrigerate.       For the vegetables I’ll always change it up, but am very consistent about having 5oz of Broccoli with both meals and 3oz of Sweet Potato with each afternoon Post Workout meal.  Sweet potato is a great source of healthy muscle building carbohydrate. Chop all of your veggies up, place on sheet pans. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Place in the oven for 12 to 20 minutes monitoring your veggies for browning.  I try to separate the veggies accordingly, onions and garlic are always by themselves. Here I have Eggplant, Roasted Red Pepper, Zucchini, and Summer Squash on the right and all of these cook at about the same speed, being done around the 12 minute mark. The Broccoli and Sweet Potato are always together as well.  The brocc will take about 10 minutes to cook, I then remove it and spread the Sweet Potato evenly in the pan and put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes to finish.     When everything is cooked and re ady I measure out evenly in containers at 5oz for mixed veggies, 5oz of broccoli, 3 oz of sweet potato in 4 of the containers only and 4oz of chicken in each container.         Once everything is portioned out I add on clove of roasted garlic to each to ensure I have 2 cloves per day.  Garlic has amazing health benefits and is great for the skin, I highly recommend adding it to your meal plans. I always cook 4 days out which means I invest 2 hours per week to be sure I am getting two of my most important meals everyday. One of my third meals is my mason jar salad which I eat around 3:30pm each day.  If you’re looking for more information on how to make these click this link Food is by far the most important factor in how we live our most fit and our best life.  Plan each week, make it simple and in a short time it will become your routine.  You will start to see the results you were looking for and you will be so happy that you did! Enjoy! Know The Goal                

Thus dish is another “cold weather” home run!   Using the slow cooker makes it really easy, and this is a great dish to portion out for your weekly lunch meal prep.  Give it a try, let me know what you think!   Slow cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken

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  2-3 large chicken breasts 2 red peppers 2 green peppers 1/2 pineapple 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon fresh ginger or more 2 tablespoons coconut oil 2 tablespoons local organic honey 1/4 cup coconut aminos 1/4 cup tomato paste 2 tablespoons Apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder (to thicken) 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes 2 cups of water or broth Salt and pepper to taste Place all ingredients together in a slow cooker and cook on high for 4-6 hours. Serve alone or over organic brown rice. Garnish with fresh cilantro.

Spinach artichoke dip with Sun-dried tomatoes

Ingredients: 14 oz. artichoke hearts 3 cups baby spinach, blanched 1/2 white onion, minced 6 cloves garlic, minced 5 sun dried tomatoes, cut into small pieces ½ cup full-fat coconut milk Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions: – In a medium saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, butter or ghee. Add in the onion and garlic and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. – Add in the artichokes, sundries tomatoes and spinach and cook for an additional 3 minutes. – Remove from the heat and let it cool. Pour in the coconut milk and combine well. – Refrigerate for at least 30 min, and serve with fresh vegetables, roasted plantains or sweet potato chips