The Bodybuilder's Kitchen: 100 Muscle-Building, Fat Burning Recipes, with Meal Plans to Chisel Your

Tired of eating rice cakes, peanut butter and egg whites to hit your weightlifting goals? Then this recipe book is for you. I am highly impressed by the structural breakdown of this book (calories, alternatives, strategic timing of carbs, etc.) in addition to the recipes. For those who are just getting into a healthy diet plan, you may find these recipes need to be “spiced” up or even a little bland compared to the high sodium, littered premise foods you use to make your meals. However, for anyone who is cutting for weight loss/definition, bulking for a show, or in need of a Keto-friendly menu, please refer to this book: the recipes are so clean and VERY simple to make. The most “unusual” ingredients you’ll use is protein whey powder and liquid aminos, which are found easily! Even my young kids enjoyed these meals. I used the lean menu for a week, and I could hardly eat everything per day because they were so filling. Plus, I immediately saw more definition by week’s end after eating right. Just be warned that if you follow a plan, you may have leftovers so you can duplicate the same meal the next day vs. making every single item: you could be cooking all day in that case (although the recipes are fast turnarounds). My only negative is that I followed the shopping list for the cutting program, but found as I made some recipes that the ingredients had not been listed. Therefore, a future edition may want to re-edit this aspect, and for customers: double-check the actual recipe. I was so impressed, I ended up buying her Train Like A Bodybuilder book, too. This book is equally awesome and very insightful with easily digestible information, as well as exercises.

My husband and I both lift weights 6x a week and I’ve only recently begun counting macros. I was looking for a cookbook to make it easier but was having a hard time finding one that had recipes/servings that were adequate for a 120 lb female in a cutting phase. A lot of the body building cookbooks had recipes that were 600-900 calories per meal. Maybe that’s great for a 200 lb guy but it’s way too many calories for me. Erin Sterns cookbook was exactly what I was looking for. All of the entree recipes are from around 160 calories to 300 and 20-35 grams of protein and there is a section of great sides that are pretty low calories. This works well for me to get my portions right and it allows me to easily double the recipes for my husband, if need be, who requires more protein and calories. She has each one clearly noted for it being low carb also, which is great for the cutting Phase. Most importantly, ALL of the recipes I’ve made so far have been absolutely delicious. I’ve made around 25 so far. They are seasoned perfectly and the ingredients are easy to find. It’s also budget friendly as there aren’t a ton of ingredients in each recipe. The almond crusted chicken and the ginger green beans have become one of our all time favorite meals. My kids will even eat it, which says a lot about how good it is! I make the almond crusted chicken in my air fryer and they cook up perfectly crusted. The bison and portobello sliders, ginger soy shrimp skewers, Tex mex fajitas, And Meatza have been ones we make often. The protein bars have also all been great and it’s awesome having a sweet treat that packs some protein when you have a sweet tooth. I use Sukrin Gold sugar substitute instead of the stevia that the recipes call for because I find the taste of it better and it has less of the sugar alternative after taste and often double the protein powder in the recipes, But even with those alterations, they still turn out great. This cookbook and Kendall Lou Schmidt’s the Ultimate Body Building Cookbook (which is similar to this one) have become my two favorite bodybuilding cookbooks and I highly recommend them.

Purchased this as a companion piece to “Bodybuilder’s Meal Prep Cookbook,” 64 make ahead recipes and 8 Macro meal plans. I use this book as an aide to expand meal planning and meal preparation the week is not as boring as it once was.

Good recipes and good guide to follow

I bought this book when it first came out just to support Erin Stern and didn’t really cook anything. Then in the beginning of 2020, I was frustrated that I was training and still having SUCH a hard time losing body fat from baby #2. I was stuck and knew it was my diet. I had this book sitting in the counter and decided that day was the day! I decided to cook through the cookbook. Surprisingly, the food was SO GOOD. I planned my meals weekly, and there is enough meals and variation suggestions to keep it interesting. So far, I’ve lost 30 lbs without feeling hungry or like I am on a diet. The food is so good and tasty, my husband has asked me to cook for him too. People at work always ask me what I am eating because my food smells sooo good. They ask me for the recipes and I direct them to this book. This book is pure gold. I love every recipe. It works for building muscle and losing fat. Erin Stern is a very intelligent person, and I have been a follower of her since early in her career. I thank her so much for this cookbook, since it has given me the tools to transform my physique deliciously!!! Thank you Erin! This book is a must have!

This book was beyond detailed and included multiple meal prep plans for all types of bodybuilding goals and also included healthy dessert recipes which I didn’t expect. Overall a great gift for any dedicated gym goers and great guide

I like the idea behind the recipe book and the different weekly meal plans makes life easier. However, I do not believe the book was fully vetted before being published. The shopping list and recipes are not in sync. As well as the proportions for the week are off. The recipe calls for 4 servings, but you are supposed to have 7 different meals a week? Practically speaking the book needs an adjustment.

I like this Cookbook. I honestly haven’t gotten into it yet. But hopefully I will.

Great book!

Well written very informative book

Très déçu du contenu

Recipes are great and proteins are easily changed if you want too. I'm following the recommended bulk and cut schedules so let's see how that works. I will post more in 1 month or so.

This is how the story goes: I discovered Erin Stern on BB.com, liked what she does, found out she wrote books, came on Amazon and found this one. I have a passion for cooking and the "Look Inside" feature gave me confidence that this book is money well spent. And it is! A brief intro by Erin tells you what this book is all about, and why she wrote it. This is followed by a chapter called “The Essentials,” which deals with macros (protein, carbs, fats) and different nutritional approaches for strength athletes. Not comprehensive. But enough to give you a solid foundation knowledge. And then... you're taken straight to the recipes. Some of these are keto or can be made that; however, a majority of them make high-protein "add-your-carbs-as-sides" dishes. Many are done in 30 or 45 minutes start to finish, some in as little as 20 and only a few take a little longer. What really surprised me is these dishes keep for ages in the fridge - 5, 6, 7 days in airtight containers (exception: fishy stuff is 2 days), without losing flavor or yielding in texture. Yes, I did keep them this long to verify the claims and ate the last portion on the last day – no complaints from me! Follow the storage instructions and you won’t need to remember to defrost or clean up your kitchen on weekdays. Just bag them as needed. THE KIND OF DISHES YOU GET: Erin's breakfasts are not your usual run-of-the-mill cereal affairs, although oats are used in some of the recipes. Others are perfect for using up leftover cooked carbs, especially rice and sweet potatoes. The entrees are as diverse as they can get: Italian, Asian, American, Mexican, oven-baked, pan-"fried," grilled outdoors, steamed (in baking parchment) and using chicken, beef, pork, fish, and shellfish. Sides are made using a light touch which leaves the veggies to shine: lightly seasoned and grilled, baked and made into salads (no added oils!), using a variety of different herbs and spices. Snacks & Power Bars features mostly home-made protein bars plus a number of sweet-and-savory or just savory snacks. You'll find plenty of gourmet-flavor shakes in the Shakes & Desserts chapter which build on the standard chocolate and vanilla flavor whey: Carrot Cake, Key Lime, Blueberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Coconut Almond and more, although dessert lovers will feel a little short-changed; the only dedicated dessert in this book is an avocado-chocolate mousse. Makes sense, right? Sorry, desserts are not healthy. (Will you cut me some slack? I don’t have much of a sweet tooth.) Do the recipes work? Oh yeah! You can follow Erin’s instructions to the letter and will end up with a dish that is salted just right, well-balanced and cooked to perfection. I haven’t cooked all the dishes I bookmarked to cook yet, but here’s what I’ve cooked so far: • Apple Sage Turkey Breakfast Sausage • Pumpkin Pie Bowls • Crustless Quiche • Canadian Bacon and Egg Cups • Chile Lime Salmon Pouches • Sriracha Curry Coconut Chicken • Chicken Hobo Dinner • Tex-Mex Fajitas • Chicken Cacciatore (Okay, you’re a bit at the mercy of your mushrooms here as in how much water they exude. The first time I made this I ended up having to reduce the sauce, so if unsure leave the broth out and season with a stock cube which is what I did 2nd time around.) • Muscle-Building Meatloaves • Spicy Black Beans and Quinoa A FEW ISSUES (mostly kindle-related): - Some bookmarks give you the wrong recipe name; e.g. I bookmarked the Hasselback Sweet Potatoes but the bookmark appears as Coconut Cayenne Smashed Sweet Potatoes (the preceding recipe so I have two bookmarks with the same name) - The sub-text on the chapter cover page uses a tiny font, which is hard to read on Kindle Paperwhite - Tables are not scalable, therefore completely unreadable on Kindle Paperwhite - A very few times only, the nutritional information is a bit out, at least when compared with the USDA values that my cooking software uses - The book is a bit scarce in food photography (but where there is a picture there is a good picture). Some ingredients may not be available at every street corner in this country. I am lucky enough to be able to buy liquid egg whites in two supermarkets in my town, but things like liquid aminos, sugar-free puffed rice cereal, or coconut oil cooking spray I would have to order online. (To me this is not an issue with the book but rather with the supply and demand in my area.) SUMMARY: This book is put together well and visually appealing. I don’t know if Erin developed or adapted these recipes all by herself or with some assistance from her nutritionist, but she did an amazing job by sharing them. I love this book, it made my life so much easier. I warmly recommend it.