I wanted to share a special recipe that I am borrowing from the Anabolic Cooking Member Forum (paid membership site).

This site is where you can access all the products, workouts and other package contents but also connect with others and myself to share recipes, talk nutrition and of course everything about cooking.

Here is a ‘taste’ of the forums site for you

A guest post from a friend of mine, Joey Vaillancourt with a chicken recipe to to be cooked in a slow cooker.

You will need a slow cooker for this one so if ever you don’t have one, then be sure to check out both of these models below (I own both of these and they work very well):

Click here for the Under $20 Model <– Small Slow Cooker

Click here for the Under $30 Model <– Large Slow Cooker

Enjoy!

Spicy Cajun Chicken

Ingredients:
Cooking oil: 2 tbsp

Chopped onion: 1 1/2 cups

Chopped red: pepper 1 cup

Chopped celery 1/3 cupGarlic cloves, minced

Whole Wheat organic flour 2 tbsp

Sliced green onion 1/3 cup

Lean kielbasa  10 oz. cut into 6 pieces and halved lengthwise

Boneless, skinless chicken Thighs 10 (about 3 oz., 85 g, each)

Bay leaf 1

1 Cup of Low Sodium Chicken Broth.

Chili sauce 1/2 cup

Chili powder 1 1/2 tsp.

Dried basil 1/2 tsp.

Dried oregano 1/2 tsp.

Ground thyme 1/4 tsp.

Pepper 1/4 tsp.

How to cook it…

Heat cooking oil in large frying pan on medium-high. Add next 4 ingredients.

Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring often, until onion is softened.

Sprinkle with flour. Heat and stir for 1 minute.  Put in slow cooker.

Layer next 3 ingredients, in order given, over vegetable mixture. Add bay leaf.

Combine next 7 ingredients in same frying pan.

Heat and stir on medium for 5 minutes, scraping any brown bits from bottom of pan. Pour over chicken.

Cook, covered, on Low for 7 to 8 hours or on High for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Serves 8.

1 serving: 275 Calories; 13.8 g Total Fat 13 g Carbohydrate; 24 g Protein;

Muscle Cook Tip: To make this a bit leaner, you can substitute the thighs for chicken breasts and if you want it even leaner, you can use turkey sausages.

Let me know what you think (after cooking and trying it of course) ?!

With the right ingredients, you can quickly turn any ordinary meal into a very anabolic meal.

Let’s go over what you need to know about these 5 choices of muscle building foods.

Why Some Foods Are More Anabolic

So what makes a particular food qualify as part of great muscle building foods?  When a food is rich in protein, healthy fats, or complex carbs, this s going to help to support your goals that much better.

These nutrients will be required by the muscles to complete the repair and recovery process, thus they’ll be that much more effective.

If a food contains a lot of added ingredients – sugars, unhealthy fats, chemicals, or any other additives, this will hinder the metabolic reactions taking place in the body and will not only increase your chances of fat gain, but will limit the muscle building results that you see as well.

Those are the ones to stay away from.

Our bodies and digestive systems are not meant to ingest these foreign ingredients. Eliminating them and focusing on more natural food types will give you the upper hand in building muscle.

The Five Choices

So what are these muscle building foods?

The great choices that you should be adding to your diet include salmon, lean beef, flaxseeds, raw oats, as well as cottage cheese.

Salmon and flaxseeds:

Both are excellent choices because they contain essential fatty acids.  These are key for increasing insulin sensitivity.  Salmon also provides the protein your muscles need to repair themselves.

Lean beef:

Lean beef is great for iron, which is going to ensure you never experience early onset fatigue due to iron deficiency anemia.

Oats:

These are great because they’re incredibly calorie dense when eaten raw, so they’ll easily allow you to meet your muscle building calorie requirements.

Cottage cheese

This is a very slow digesting source of protein, so it’s perfect for the overnight period.

Adding These To Your Diet

So there you have the five muscle building foods, how do you add these into your diet?

Focus on eating your oats early in the morning as they are very calorie dense and will provide constant energy for a longer period of time as a slower digesting carbohydrate.  Then consume your beef and salmon later on throughout the day to ensure that the anabolic environment is maintained.

Right before bed, feed your body with cottage cheese and flaxseeds. This will ensure that your muscles get a steady stream of nutrients during the overnight period and muscle building continues onwards.

Make sure that you don’t overlook any of these.  If you aren’t currently adding them to your meals, now is the time to start.

Any of these make your list of favourite foods?

A few of you have some important questions about bringing up lagging muscle groups, so let’s dig further into these questions so that you can get the answer you need to see success.

Question 1: I have been making decent gains with my muscle building diet progress but am not satisfied with my shoulder development.  What can I do to bring up my shoulders more to get them better developed?

Muscle Cook: The very first thing to do is to make sure that you’re placing your shoulder exercises at the start of the workout when you’re feeling most fresh.  Many people make the mistake of doing bench press first, which will hit the shoulder muscles to some extent and make it harder to give 100% on your direct shoulder movements.

In addition to this, you might consider adding a few more sets of shoulder isolation exercises towards the end of the workout session, or increasing the frequency that you hit the shoulders to three times per week (keeping in mind shoulders do get hit on chest workouts).

Question 2: Do certain muscle groups respond better to different reps and set parameters? Can you give some examples and the logic behind this?

Muscle Cook: The larger muscle groups, since there are more muscle fibers that compose them are going to respond best to slightly heavier weights and lower rep ranges.  This is because these are primary strength muscles and by using a heavier weight, you really target the strength element side of things.

Smaller muscle groups such as the biceps and triceps will do better with higher rep ranges as that will allow you to bring about a higher overall level of overloading stimulus that is required to see optimal results.

Since these muscles may not be capable of always lifting a heavier and heavier weight, using the higher rep range allows you to continue to make further progress.

Question 3: When I am trying to make better gains in a certain muscle group, is it better to add more volume and more days training that muscle group or just focus on increasing the weight for the exercises and keep training volume consistent?

Muscle Cook: Ideally you want to do a combination of both.  I would first and foremost concentrate on adding more weight when you can, but on those times when you’re stuck at a certain weight level, then adding more sets and reps will be the way to go.

As long as you’re hitting that lagging muscle group twice per week, there isn’t really a reason to increase the frequency in which you target it, but you could go up to three times per week if you really wanted and had good recovery ability.

I am a big believer in switching my workouts often. Maybe it is time for you to change yours?

If you have been following a program now for a while, you should try a new ‘shock’ routine.

Insane Muscle Assault is an Advanced Growth Workout program. This is MY only workout program I have created to be shared with you, so take advantage

Click the Above Product Image or Click Here for Your Next Workout

Bringing up lagging muscle groups can take some time, but with a concentrated effort, it’s definitely something that you can succeed with.

I have a killer article today from my good strength buddy, Mike Westerdal.

He goes into some of the most interesting topics regarding Growth Hormone.

Enjoy!

—————————–
Guest Article
By: Mike Westerdal
—————————-

Over the last ten years or so, there has been a marked increase in discussions about how Growth Hormone (GH) impacts muscle growth, boosts the metabolism and facilitates the burning of excess body fat. Growth hormone is a protein-based peptide hormone that is made up of 191 different amino acids.

It is synthesized and secreted by cells called somatotrophs that are located in the anterior part of the pituitary gland. Looking back at man’s development over the last few thousand years, it seems that GH developed as a means to maintain growth and lean body mass during those times when access to food was scarce.

As an anabolic agent GH functions similar to testosterone, stimulating muscle growth, enhancing recovery and increasing utilization of body fat as fuel. However, there are a number of different theories as to exactly how GH works its magic in the body.

Two in particular are among the most common theories discussed.

The first theory—referred to as the somatomedin hypothesis ¬—states that once the pituitary gland releases GH, it then travels to the liver and other tissues where it stimulates the synthesis and release of insulin-like growth factors (IGFs). This hypothesis makes the supposition that the IGFs then function to stimulate the endocrine system, therefore facilitating the outcomes associated with growth hormone.

The second common hypothesis is known as the Dual Effector theory , which states that GH itself has anabolic effects on body tissues and does so without the assistance of IGFs.

Although there are different thoughts regarding how GH actually impacts the body’s metabolism there are certain things that we do know for certain. First, production of GH is at its peak when we are younger. As our bodies age natural production of GH begins to decline. We also know that we have the ability to influence our bodies’ production of GH.

Various factors that impact the body’s production of GH include overall health, diet, activity level, weight training, sleep patterns, consumption of alcohol, prescription drugs and the use of illicit drugs.

Of these, training with weights—in particular, training with heavy weights—has among the most profound effects on GH production.

Muscles get bigger and stronger in response to the stress of lifting weights. The growth is the body’s attempt to prepare itself for the next time it is faced with the same stress (lifting weights) so that when it encounters the same situation again, it is less stressful on the body.

Muscle growth is essentially an ongoing process of stress and recovery. Over time, as you continually lift heavier weights, the body continues to adapt to the additional demand being placed on it, by growing more muscle. With this understanding, it only makes sense that the greater the stress (lifting weights) the greater the body’s response action.

Training with light weights invokes minimal stress on the body and consequently, requires little or no recovery response because to the body, this is a ‘no big deal’ situation that it is prepared to handle. With light weights, the body has no reason to add more muscle because the muscle you currently have can handle the demand.

But introduce heavy weights into the scene and suddenly, the body’s reaction is totally different. Lifting heavy weights puts the body’s systems on high alert, evoking a strong hormonal response. And herein is what drives the pituitary gland to produce more growth hormone. The key to maximizing the hormonal response is to lift heavy weights utilizing compound movements that simultaneously recruit multiple muscle groups.

Isolation exercises (and exercises performed on machines) do not provoke the same strong hormonal response. Good GH-inducing movements would include the deadlift, the benchpress and the squat. These are commonly referred to as the ‘big 3’ of bodybuilding and for a good reason. Each is a compound movement that involves multiple, large muscle groups. As such, these exercises—when performed with low reps and heavy weights—push the body to increase its production of growth hormone to enhance muscle growth and recovery.

The capacity of heavy weight lifting to drive hormonal responses has been documented by researchers . For example, in a 2008 study, researchers regularly measured hormonal levels in the blood of an elite, record-holding male weight lifter over a period of several weeks. They found that his serum hormone levels spiked considerably as his training peaked. So if you’re interested in boosting your natural production of growth hormone, you need to pick up some heavy weights and get moving.Check out the video below to see some serious weights being lifted!

Tandoori is one of my personal favourites. It’s one of the safest things you can also get from a restaurant and not need to worry about it being ‘too’ unhealthy for you.

Beware, this is a spicy one though!

Let’s go over some of the key facts that you need to know about Tandoori and how to incorporate it into your menu properly so that you can reap all the benefits it has to offer.

Tandoori Explained

Tandoori essentially stands for marinated meat that is cooked over a very hot fire in a clay oven, referred to as a tandoor.  This cooking process is involves lowering the meat into the oven using a long skewer and then cooking until the meat is very well done.  The taste and texture of the meat really come out using this cooking technique, so while it is a little more intricate than some other techniques out there, it’s one that you should not be overlooking.

Since tandoori is primarily meat, it’s high in protein, which makes it one of the best muscle building foods. Furthermore, it tends to be lower in fat using this cooking method than some others that people often use, therefore helping to support lean mass gains better as well.

The marinade in which you use to prepare tandoori consists of a plain yogurt, along with a combination of different spices.  The particular combination of spices that you use will be up to you, but some of the more common ones that are utilized include annatto seeds, ginger, garlic, coriander powder, cayenne pepper, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, as well as pepper. You can use whichever combination you wish that you feel will bring about the best of results.

When Should One Use Tandoori?

Consider using Tandoori any day you have a bit more total time to prepare your meal but don’t want an intricate prep process.  It’s not quite as quick to cook as say stir-frying your meat in a pan, but doesn’t require as much effort on your part to complete the cooking process.

On those days where you want to put dinner in an oven and forget about it until it’s finished, Tandoori tends to work very well.

You can even try it using Shrimp!

Sample Tandoori Chicken Recipe

The Benefits Of Tandoori

Finally, what are the benefits to using this cooking method? First, as we mentioned, it tends to be lower in fat.  Since you’re using a marinade prepared from low-fat yogurt, herbs, and spices, this is going to ensure that you aren’t adding any unhealthy fats to the mix or calories that your body doesn’t need.  It’s important to choose muscle building foods that don’t have high calorie sugars or condiments added to them if you want to stay lean in your quest to add more muscle mass.

Second, the marinade of tandoori makes it that much more flavorful and the meat will maintain its moisture extremely well also.

Finally, depending on the particular spices you use to create your tandoori, you can also see additional benefits such as anti-inflammatory properties and improved metabolic function.

So make sure that you give some good consideration to adding tandoori into your menu plan.  It’s a great way to prepare your lean protein that’s on your list of muscle building foods.

Have you ever experimented with Tandoori? What were your thoughts on the flavour or the dish? Leave a comment below

Low carb with some good greens on the side. You can also add some brown rice or white rice (if post workout) if you wanted some more carbs in this one.

Ingredients

• 4 Tilapia Filets (6oz each)
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
• 2 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon Ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 Jalapeno Pepper, sliced
• 1 Tbsp Lime Juice
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine thyme, chili, garlic, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, jalapeno,salt and pepper

2. Coat tilapia fillets with olive oil and Lime Juice.

3. Pat both sides with spices

4. In a non-stick cooking pan, coated with cooking spray,cook each fillet until just cooked through, about 3 minuteson each side or until fish starts to flake

Quick Tip: Serve with Steamed Asparagus

Nutritional Facts (Per Serving)

• Calories: 224
• Protein: 37g
• Carbohydrates: 1g
• Fat: 8g

If you’re hoping to see optimal success, you need to be thinking about what you can do to ensure that you repair your muscle tissues as fast as possible after each workout session you complete.

One such technique to consider is the raw food approach. While you don’t necessarily have to make the complete switch over to just eating raw foods, adding more of these into your diet plan can go a long way towards helping you see better progress.

Let’s take a look at what you need to know.

The Advantage Of Going Raw

A big advantage to going wrong is that you won’t be putting any harmful chemicals in your system that could potentially cause your muscles to slow in their growth progression.  Many of the processed foods we eat contain a number of different additives that are neither healthy for the body, or support good muscle building.

Furthermore, some food loses its nutrients as the cooking process gets underway, so that can also decrease the overall nutritional value that you derive from the foods that you’re eating.

Quality Versus Quantity

Another large advantage to using the raw approach over cooked foods is that you may require less food overall to get your nutrients when using using raw foods compared to cooked because of the fact that you’re going to be taking in more overall energy density.

Raw foods tend to be very good in terms of digestive enzymes, vitamins, and minerals, and this makes them more powerful for promoting muscle growth.

More Energy Means Better Gym Performance

Finally, the last big benefit to going raw is the fact that you’ll have more energy on a daily basis for everyday tasks as well as you’ll have more energy in the gym.

When you’re fueled by raw foods that are providing high quality nutrition and that are often broken down more slowly by the body, you’ll have a more steady supply of energy being provided to the muscle cells.

If you are able to workout longer and harder because of this, your workouts are going to progress that much better.

So there you have some of the key benefits of raw food eating that you should know about.  More and more people are starting to make the switch over to this style of eating and it might just be time that you considered doing so as well.

If you need more help on learning how to incorporate raw foods into your daily diet along with more information on their benefits, be sure to pick up the free report I have from Yuri Elkaim AKA Raw Food Expert!

Click the Ebook Image above or the Link Below to Download this Report

http://www.anaboliccooking.com/blog/downloads/RawFoodReport.pdf

This is one nutritional strategy that you simply don’t want to overlook.

Have any of YOU made the switch yet?

It’s no secret that when celebrities need to look good, they’ll do whatever it takes to get there.  Sometimes this can involve some pretty extreme meal plans and workout regimes.

But, one thing that you have to question is whether these tactics actually work?  Is what you hear about your favorite star’s diet or workout even accurate? Or is it setting you up to fail should you try and follow it?

Far too many people are completely led astray by some of the things they read about the protocols at use.

Let’s have a quick peak at some of the more humorous approaches you may want to reconsider.

Rocky And His Love Of Raw Egg

If there’s one thing that you may have taken close note of while watching the Rocky series, it was his love of downing raw eggs in the morning on an empty stomach.

Is this a smart move in your quest for lean muscle mass? If you think so, you may need to think again. Despite at least 40% of the male population in the movie theaters watching these movies going home and doing just that, this technique is not the smartest of ideas as far as muscle building goes.

Guys think that this is a fast way to pack on the lean muscle.  But really, it’s just a fast way to get yourself sick. Whole raw eggs are breading grounds for food poisoning and will not treat your stomach well.

Next week and the week after, I will be sharing some great information regarding how raw foods have their place in a muscle building diet plan, but for now…

Go for a protein shake instead.

The Unrealistic Portrayal Of What It Takes

Another big problem that you’ll often run into when you’re turning to the movies for advice on your fitness and diet goals is the unrealistic portrayal of what it takes.  Very few movies or stars ever reveal exactly what they’re doing behind the scenes to get the body they obtain.

They never mention the 5-6 meals per day they’re eating regularly nor do they talk about the hours and hours they spend in the gym to get ready.

Instead, they make it seem like they ate as a normal person would and workout on occasion – something that would be totally maintainable for most people.

Don’t kid yourself. Unless you have hours of free time to train each day, the chances you get similar results at a similar speed as these stars did is simply not so.

This isn’t to say you can’t see good results on your own program, but you do have to be realistic in your expectations and make sure they are in line with what you can achieve time-wise.

Actors that are making these kinds of transformations often have hired nutritionists preparing their meals for them, which will make a significant difference in how well they are able to stick with any given diet.

Wouldn’t you like a team of chefs cooking for you? I know that not every actor has this at their disposal, but I am just trying to prove a point.

So next time you’re catching the latest flick, be sure to view the movie as inspiration only, not as a means to find your next training program or diet.  Do that and you’ll in for problems in the future.

What movies inspire you?

This scale has been developed to help you understand how the various carbohydrate rich foods that you eat act upon the body and which will be best to eat for a lean body composition and muscle mass gains.

If you were unaware of this fact, then you need to learn about it immediately. And for those of you who already knew that, you still might learn something from this refresher

Let’s take a closer look at what the Glycemic Index is all about so you can see why this is one thing that you’ll want to be paying close attention to.

How It Works And Why You Should Pay Attention To It

First let’s address how the glycemic index works.  The glycemic index is rating scale that is based off 100% pure glucose, which is given the rating of 100.  All other foods are then compared to how glucose affects the blood sugar levels after consumption and rated accordingly.

Those that produce a slower digestion response in the body thus producing a lower degree of blood sugar spike are given a value of less than 100, while those that produce a faster blood glucose spike are given a value greater than 100.

In addition to knowing the glucose index rating for the food, it’s also helpful to take into account the glycemic load of a particular food as this one also takes into account how much food you’re eating as well.

It’s important to pay attention to these two factors because the speed in which the carbohydrates become available to the body cells after release into the blood stream is going to influence factors such as muscle building as well as fat loss.

Eating the wrong foods at the wrong times and you may not be seeing the results you were hoping for.

The Glycemic Index And Its Effects On A Muscle Building Diet

So what do you need to know with regards to how the glycemic index impacts your muscle building diet plan?

What you need to keep in mind is that immediately after the workout, you’re going to want to boost blood glucose levels as high as possible, as this is what will drive the glucose into the muscle cells.

As a result, you’ll experience faster recovery and faster rates of lean muscle growth.

Later on in the day however, when you are out of the post-workout period, it will be important that you are focusing on keeping your blood sugar levels as controlled as possible as this is what will decrease your chance of storing excess body fat.  The end result is that you see leaner muscle gains and won’t have to go through a lengthy cutting period.

Using The Glycemic Index To Time Your Meals

So now that you know what the glycemic index is, how can you use this to time your meals?  The main thing to remember is that you should be focusing on having your simple carbohydrates that are high in the glycemic index scale immediately after the workout.  This is when the blood glucose spike will be helpful and will yield better overall results for you. After this shoulder workout below, you better believe I had some higher glycemic foods

Then, later on in the day, focus on only those foods that are low on the glycemic index scale.  These will be the ones that are going to have minimal impact on blood sugar levels and help to reduce the blood sugar response you get.

Here is a sample reference chart for you to use to guide your choices:

Low GI (55 or less) – most fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, fructose

Medium GI (55-69) – whole wheat products, basmati rice, sweet potato, sucrose, baked potatoes

High GI (70 and above) – white bread, most white rice, corn flakes, glucose, maltose, maltodextrins

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index

If you can use these principles with your muscle building diet, you will see faster results and feel a great deal better as you go about the diet as well.

Luckily, if you already have Anabolic Cooking, you should already know what meals are best to use and at which times

Any concerns regarding the Glycemic Index?

Failure to handle chicken properly is going to result in you putting yourself at risk for a food poisoning and potentially impacting the way that your chicken tastes as well.

And since all of us bodybuilders handle so much meat (especially chicken) it’s important that we all take precatuions to avoid getting sick…which will only set you back in gaining quality muscle.

Let’s go over a few of the most important questions that some people have with regards to handling chicken the right way.

Question 1: When I am cooking a meal with fresh chicken, should I first cook the chicken and then add the vegetables or can I cook the veggies and then add the raw chicken?  I just want to know whether adding raw chicken with vegetables at the same time can cause bacteria to spread or not?

Muscle Cook: Provided the chicken has been handled properly throughout the entire prep process, the heat from the cooking should prevent any bacteria from being present in your final meal, so it is safe to cook both the chicken and vegetables together.

That said, you should also keep in mind the fact that cooking times may differ between the vegetables and chicken, therefore it would be a smart idea to cook them separately to ensure optimal taste and texture of that meal.

Question 2: Is it okay to cut chicken with the same knife that you recently cut another type of meat with?

Muscle Cook: No, I would recommend fully cleaning that knife with some soap and water before you proceed to cut any other meat with it.

Question 3: I heard that I should wash certain meats to clean them prior to cooking.  Is this true?

Muscle Cook: No, you should avoid washing meats before cooking as this can cause bacteria to spread to other utensils or pots and cause cross-contamination to occur. As long as you cook the meat at a high enough temperature, any harmful bacteria that are present should be killed off so as to not impact you in a negative manner.

For optimal safety, invest in a meat thermometer and make sure that the minimum temperature achieved is 145 degrees F.

So keep these tips in mind as you prepare your muscle building foods that make up your diet plan.

If you are certain to prepare and cook your food using safe strategies, you won’t have to worry about food poisoning or other illnesses from occurring.

Did these questions and answers help you better understand these things?