Tag Archives: food

Dinner Experiment – Shiner Black Lager Braised Chicken

Today I had a fun dinner experiment… I decided to see if one of my favorite beers could take on another recipe. Chicken is one of the most misunderstood meats as some people forget that the hallmark of chicken is that it should be moist and tender. A good chicken breast shouldn’t be like a piece of dry beef jerky on your plate. I digress… Onwards to the recipe and review!

1 bottle of Shiner Black Lager
2 boneless chicken breasts (thawed and defrosted)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1/8th teaspoon of ground peppercorns
Shredded cheese (recommended choice: cheddar)

Tools needed: Slow cooker

Combine the chicken breasts, Shiner Black Lager, salt, minced garlic, and peppercorns together into the slow cooker. Set the slow cooker in low and let it cook for 7 hours. After 7 hours, remove the chicken breasts, discard the sauce from the slow cooker, and garnish the chicken with shredded cheese.

Notes: The end result is some seriously tender chicken that’s savory and moist. The chicken is imparted with the flavors of the Shiner Black Lager as well as the garlic and peppercorns. Pair the chicken with a rice or pasta dish. Pair the chicken with a red wine like a mixed red (ex: Stickleback) or a Cabernet Sauvignon for maximum effect.

Recipe – Simply Delicious Turkey Chili

1 lb Ground Turkey (preferably lean 93/7 meat to fat ratio)
2 cans (6oz) of tomato paste*
1 can of Rotel crushed tomatoes and chilis*
1 packet of McCormicks Chili Seasoning Mix (Low sodium formula)
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1/4 cup of beer (Use Shiner Black Lager for BEST results)

* – If you want a “cheater’s way” out of buying multiple cans… You can buy the Pace Taco Sauce in a bottle.

Tools needed: Slow cooker, skillet

Notes: This is a lightly spicy, savory, and sweet chili. It’s meant to just be very simple to make and easy to enjoy. The beer makes for the savory and hint of sweet in the chili while being giving a dynamic boost. The usages of the chili can be used in corn chip pies, burgers, hot dogs and fries.

1) In the slow cooker, put in the beer, chili powder, and garlic powder.
2) In the skillet, brown the ground turkey and drain off the fat.
3) Add the turkey into the slow cooker.
4) Add in the Rotel crushed tomatoes and chilis, 2 cans of tomato paste, and the packet of McCormicks Chili Seasoning.
5) Stir the contents of the slow cooker and put the cap on the slow cooker.
6) Set the slow cooker to either: low for 4-6 hours OR high for 2-3 hours.
7) Enjoy the chili! Top it with Frito’s corn chips, cheese, and sour cream. The chili can also be used with cheese burgers, hot dogs, and fries as well!

This makes about 4-5 servings.

If you want to use 2 lbs of turkey, double everything in the recipe. This includes the cooking time in the slow cooker. As far as the beer component in the recipe goes… it is optional. If Shiner Black Lager is not available in your area, pick a German dark lager to use.

“Zero?! Why aren’t you as studious with your updates?!” – Anonymous

Lately, I have had some of my fans a little upset that I haven’t been hammering away articles like a relentless machine… A lot of things have happened that I have had to “realign” myself and even balance out my mind. A good deal of people have been rather supportive of me which has helped expedite the process of rebalancing and realigning. My thanks this week goes to Sol, Rei, my Twitter fans, Yamcha, and my newest outspoken fan, Pistol. They all have kept me laughing, smiling, and most of all… having a great time!

Monday, everyone heard about me taking my aseptic training final. I was so sorely reminded of almost 3 years ago when I took the PTCB test… I took the 20 question test and finished it within 15 minutes. It scared me like my PTCB event… I walked alone but instead of waiting for the anticipation of my scores turning out in 3-4 weeks, I was able to get instant gratification knowing I passed. The night ended it a few rounds of celebration with Yamazaki.

Tuesday, I actually decided to go to extremes with my phone. I had grown rather fond of the _Alex_ ROM based in Windows Mobile 6.0 on my phone, but I couldn’t deal with the fact that sometimes the system was just awful slow at times. I wanted to have my phone as streamlined as possible but also have the cool “tricked out” features like the HTC Home screen, TouchFLO, and the HTC Cube. So I decided to do the most insane phone hacker thing in the history of my ownership of phones… I was going to build my phone completely from scratch. Naturally, I would have to get a “foundation” to build from… Thanks to the folks at XDA Developer’s Wiki on the Kaiser/Tilt, they had a link to the newest OEM ROM build for the HTC TyTN II using Windows Mobile 6.1. I would take that ROM and begin streaming the build into my phone… However, I had a snag that almost turned my phone into a paperweight… The ROM flasher utility had a hick-up and there was a warning that I needed to obey specific instructions to save my phone from being dead. I abided and given the blessing of whatever electronic deities were watching me. Eventually, the upgrade would finally finish and it would be grand. Everything from the unbranded HTC TyTN II was all there, but even though there was a tinge of the HTC TouchFLO control it was not quite my vision of the phone I had. I would have to add in the hacks and tweaks to give myself the HTC Cube, increased TouchFLO sensitivity, and even “steal” some elements from the wonderful HTC Touch. After finally getting that all set-up, it was time to restore use of my TomTom Navigator 6 to finally get a phone that is completely minimal of extra “features” for a device that simply works.

Most of the week was spent toiling about homework that I had to take care of at the office. I can assure you it was very boring and time consuming. I savored being able to put aside my homework to relax at the offices of ZeroXR, believe me.

Friday, Sol and I had quite a fun lunch. We hit up BJ’s Brewhouse in Dallas for some good Chicago style deep dish pizza and ice cold, hand made, draft root beer. We decided to do things proper with getting what I called the Death Pizza! I will say, it was quite savory and even meritted a laugh! The root beer was delicious and made the heat index of 95F feel like nothing.

Continue reading “Zero?! Why aren’t you as studious with your updates?!” – Anonymous

Workout Log 3/26/2007 – Food Logging Discrepencies

Did a few quick sets due to my personal emergency…

Squats – 3 sets, 12 reps, 30 lbs
Front Lunges – 3 sets, 12 reps, 30 lbs
Side Lunges – 1 set, 10 reps, 30 lbs

Due to being at Parkland from damn near 7:30pm – 10am, I have found that I don’t even remember what all I had to eat save for today. I am really more trying to concentrate on eating well for dinner and then hitting the hay super early… I have a long day ahead with tons of territory to cover at the office. I will feed myself more nutritious food and ease up on junk and garbage my body can do with out ’cause my body should be respected like a machine and I need to turn a new page on getting it into seriously fit shape. Expect me back to 100% by tomorrow and doing pull sets.

Workout and Food Log – 3/25/2008

Today went by pretty interesting, save for being tired through part 2 of today. I think I have found my niche as far as the Crea-Tech Extreme and whey protein usage goes. I will probably do my doses of the Crea-Tech as a pre-workout booster, as the taurine seems to keep my mood elevated and my energy pumping. Today, it just felt like being hooked up with an IV line and getting a nice steady pulse of energy into my workout. It was refreshing to walk out and be exhausted from the routine. The whey protein seems like a great supportive supplement post workout to feed the exhausted muscles, so I know I will have to stick with that.

My sets today were fun, but tiring. Doing more with dumbbells rather than machines now cause I need to regain my balance mechanisms.  Today was all “pull” mechanism exercises, so my arms have been sore all day… but I can’t even fathom how they will feel tomorrow. Tomorrow is “push” exercises… Squats and pain be damned!

I had a friend who wanted some files from me before work and would offer to pay for lunch… Ended up going to Chipotle, but it ended up mellowing my appetite for most of the day due to the protein content. Through out the day, I ended up holding out alright, just there were moments I was caught a little low on energy from my body just incinerating food at an amazing pace. Ended up using my whey protein shake as my “lunch” at the office and later had a tuna and cheese sandwich.

Pre-Workout
Crea-Tech Extreme – 300 calories, workout dose

Workout Routine
Dumbbell Bent-over Row

  • 25 lbs
  • 12 reps
  • 2 sets

Dumbbell Upright Row

  • 25 lbs
  • 12 reps
  • 2 sets

Dumbbell Lateral Rises

  • 30 lbs
  • 12 reps
  • 2 sets

Dumbell Curls

  • 30 lbs
  • 12 reps
  • 2 sets

Cardio – Step Machine

  • Duration: 5 minutes and 5 minute cool down
  • Resistance: 55 steps per minute/40 steps per minute
  • 60 calories
  • 467 step or 32 floors of stairs
  • Equivalence: 1 step is 8 inches, 1 floor is 10 feet.

Lunch
Chipotle fajita burrito (rice, barbacoa, corn salsa, sour cream, cheese) – 1,056 calories
Water instead of soda or sweet tea

Office “lunch” period
Whey protein and L-Glutamine shake, double dose – 400 calories, 36 grams of protein

“Dinner”
Whole wheat, tuna and swiss cheese sandwich – 340 calories

Late night snack
Monterey jack cheese stick – 110 calories

Grand Total:  2,206 calories

The lunch probably offset things, but I will be making up for that tomorrow… Squats will make my quadriceps their bitch.

Cheat Day – 3/24/08

Ended up just catching up on the times with a few friends and all and it was due today. I couldn’t even concentrate on myself so I completely lost focus on my whey protein, which I will be fine, as I substituted for. I will forego the Crea-Tech Extreme from it containing 2 grams of taurine which is almost as lethal as some serious coffee. I had fun and even caught up with some friends.  Tomorrow, I do pulls to amp myself up for upper chest work… as if I didn’t tear enough arm muscle Saturday from shifting boxes around. I probably may do some gut-buster sets to get the abs tingling again, I can feel the muscle tissue from Sunday on my abs going “damn dude… you put us through the ringer!”

Breakfast
Blueberry bagel and Philadelphia cream cheese (blueberry flavor) – 400 calories

Lunch
Monster Energy – 100 calories
Clif Builder bar Peanut Butter Fudge – 270 calories with 20 grams of protein (Zero’s Note: For some reason, the peanut butter tastes like cardboard.)

Dinner
Italian Chicken Florentine dinner – 1,100 calories (estimated, mostly from carbs and proteins)
A glass of white wine – 120 calories

After-dinner
2 shots of Rain Vodka – 140 calories (average for vodka is 70/shot)
1 can of Coke Classic – 143 calories

Grand Total: 2,273 calories

Workout and Food Log 03/23/2008 – Late Gut-Buster Session and Snacking

So according to my friends I passed out and napped at the office of ZeroXR for a short bit. I think the workout regimen is seriously increasing it’s appetite for fuel. I ended up just making a whole wheat peanut butter and honey. Not to much impact there… (That was around 9:45pm) Almost an hour later, my body craves a snack. I did do my gut buster set before my sandwich, so that should round out my day. I will probably have some Rice Krispies, fresh strawberries, Teddy Grams and bananas as my second snack.

Peanut butter and honey sandwich on 100% whole wheat bread – 330 calories

Rice Krispies and 4 fresh, large strawberries – 203 calories

Banana – 120 calories

Fun Sized Teddy Grams – 60

Grand Total: 1,997 calories

Late gut-buster set

  1. 12 Crunches
  2. 12 Bicycle crunches
  3. 12 Cross crunches
  4. 12 Crunches
  5. 12 Bicycle crunches
  6. 12 Cross crunches
  7. 12 Crunches
  8. 12 Bicycle crunches
  9. 12 Cross crunches

Food Log – Dinner and Early Evening Snack 3/23/2008

A quiet family dinner today, nothing too fancy. There was leftover fried tofu from last night and some steamed rice, ended up helping myself to that. They invited me also to eat an avocado with them and that was great. Ended up snacking on a bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch a little after and it’s helping me balance out. Later on… I may just eat a banana to boost up my potassium levels and recharge me.

Rice and fried tofu – 500 Calories

Avocado – 234 calories

Small bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch in Silk soy milk – 220 calories

Grand Total: 1,284 calories

Fitness and Food Log: 3/23/2008 Gut-Buster Set, Whey Protein + Crea-Tech

Today I took it a little easy on myself to allow my body some time to concentrate healing my arms and legs from how hard Friday was. I would keep to the natural concept of 8-12 reps and 6-9 sets for progressive overload and not tax my abs again that my body requires additional healing on another vector. Before my sit-ups, had a 1/2 dose of whey protein and a spoonful of L-Glutamine, did my sets, and finished with my Crea-Tech Extreme. I feel refreshed and vital again with working out and it’s just great that my body seems to lap-up the exercises I throw at it.

Pre-Workout
1/2 dose of Whey protein and 1 teaspoon of L-Glutamine – 200 Calories, 18 grams of protein

Workout

  1. 12 Crunches
  2. 12 Bicycle crunches
  3. 12 Cross crunches
  4. 12 Crunches
  5. 12 Bicycle crunches
  6. 12 Cross crunches
  7. 12 Crunches
  8. 12 Bicycle crunches
  9. 12 Cross crunches

Post-workout
Maintenance dose of Crea-Tech Extreme – 150 Calories, 10 grams of creatine

I may work in another set of crunches towards the middle of today and then another set towards the end. It seems that I am not challenged enough on it, but I should not push the intensity too high. I’ll log the rest of today’s eating and activities here as I get a chance.

Food Log – Late Snack 3/22/2008

After passing out from exhaustion due to exerting my torn muscles around at work… I woke to do a soak in epsom salt and warm water. After a 1/2 hour soak, my body was already crying out for more fuel. I think I will have to listen to it to keep fueling my body… cause denying my body the fuel it needs to help the muscles grow is counter productive.

Rice Krispies cereal in silk soy milk (2oz serving) – 140 calories

Fun Sized Package of Teddy Grams – 60 calories