The Blogosphere Expands: Beefyblimps

Just wanted to let you guys know about a cool new gainer-ish art blog called Beefyblimps. It's got some neat stuff, a fun style, and should def. get a few of you guys going. Enjoy!

Recipes for Summer Gaining: EagleDancer's Bread Pudding

Another recipe in the summer gaining series, this time brought to you by Eagledancer, a long time encourager and passionate cook. I haven't tried this one yet, but, judging from the amount of weight Eagle has packed onto his partner, I imagine it's as tasty as it is fattening. In his own words:

"Since we now live in Arizona, I don’t really do “Summer” recipes. Here in the “Valley of the Sun” (which is what the better business bureau calls the “Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area) we only have two seasons…Spring and Hell. The SigO tells me it’s worth having 2 months of Hell in exchange for 10 months of Spring. It’s common for us to get triple digit (Fahrenheit) temperatures by May, and it hit 115 or above a number of times last year.

All the locals are in awe about what a mild Summer we’re currently having, given the fact it hadn’t hit 100 until the first week of June.

Here’s a recipe that has the three essential ingredients for the best “jiggle” factor when it come to a happy belly—fat, sugar, and carbs. It helped add inches to the SigO, who has a weakness for bread (not to mention, for fat and sugar…). Since he’s gone from size 30 jeans to size 38s, and those are getting tight, he’s insisted I cook “low fat/low calorie dinners” and then he makes peanut-butter and honey sandwiches 90 minutes later for his 4^th or 5^th meal of the day, which he tends to scarf down in the kitchen before rushing back to the TV.

This is my modification of an old fashioned treat, bread pudding. I should also mention as an American Indian, we have a variation of this on our reservation. We call it “Tsoopa” in our language. It’s made with Pueblo Indian bread which is baked in our outdoor “beehive” shaped ovens. This bread is a regular part of our traditional diet, but since it has no preservatives, if you don’t eat it quickly, it tends to go stale in the dry humidity, and quite “hard.” As a result, a recipe for “stale” bread for us is very practical. The main difference to me is that the Tsoopa is made with cheese, so it’s not considered a dessert. As a result, I had to learn about non-Indian Bread Pudding from a non-Native sister-in-law from the American South. I like to add Kalua, because I think it makes sweet things taste better, the way bacon makes almost anything taste better.

In my version, I use 2 cups of heavy cream, which provides a base of over 1,600 calories and over 170 grams of fat to throw in with over 400 calories from the ¼ cup of butter, not counting the additional calorie help from the bread, sugar and eggs. To be honest, while I’m including for completion’s sake an additional recipe for a topping, I almost never make it because most of the bread pudding is eaten by the SigO immediately after I’ve taken it from the oven and it’s too warm to pour the sauce over.

At one point, the SigO and I were in a Seattle bakery outlet store buying loaves of bread at an incredible savings, and he mentioned to the cashier, “This bread has put 20 pounds on me!” Of course, that was about 60 pounds ago…"

Eagledancer Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark, depending on taste preference)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract1 tablespoon Kalua coffee liquor
3 cups bread, torn into small pieces. (French bread works well…however, I’ll often buy a nice loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread to use, in which case I’d eliminate the extra cinnamon. Don’t stress on the type of bread—after all, one of purposes of Bread Pudding is to use up stale bread. On the other hand, I buy the cinnamon-raisin bread to use for the pudding, and I’m not going to wait for it to go stale…)
1/2 cup raisins (if I’m using the cinnamon-raisin bread, I’ll cut the amount of additional raisins in half…)

Directions:

1. In medium saucepan, over medium heat, heat the cream just until film forms over top. Combine butter and cream, stirring until butter is melted. Cool to lukewarm.

2. Combine sugar, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and Kalua. Beat with whisk (or an electric mixer) until smooth. Slowly add cream mixture.

3. Place bread in a lightly greased 1 1/2 quart casserole.

4. Sprinkle with raisins if desired. Pour batter on top of bread.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 to 50 minutes or until set. I do the old-fashioned thing of poking it after 45 minutes with a wooden toothpick to see if it comes out “clean.” If the pudding is sticking to the toothpick it needs to bake a little more. Serve warm.

If you make the sauce to put on top of your bread pudding, adjust the sugar in the bread pudding recipe, change it to 1/3 cups sugar (the sauce has the other 1/3 cup in it).

Bread Pudding Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. flour
dash of salt

Directions:

Mix everything together and bring to a boil for 3 - 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside for 5 minutes, then pour on warm bread pudding. The reason I don’t use heavy cream in this one is because you need to boil it, and milk is less likely to scorch.

Recipes for Summer Gaining: Grimmwolf's Southwest Pasta Salad

The next recipe in our series comes from Grimmwolf, the encourager formerly known as the gainer JockBalloon. Grimm knows a thing or two about gaining- he packed on around 100lbs of fat to his frame after quitting wrestling after high school. See pic:


Recently he's chosen to embrace his inner encourager, to drop a bit of the belly and concentrate on getting really muscled. But don't forget, from personal experience, he knows just how to get a guy fat.

So, try this spicy pasta salad -it's tangy, easy to make, and ripe with calories. And while you're eating, be sure to check out GrimmWolf's Tales, a new gainer fiction blog written by the chef himself. Here's the recipe, in his own words:

Grimmwolf’s Southwest Pasta Salad:

2 boxes of your favorite pasta (I like to mix it up between two different types. Organic tastes better. NO ELBOWS.)
3 Bell Peppers: One Yellow, One Orange, One Red (you can swap in a green or any other bell peppers)
1 One Yellow Onion
2 ears of Sweet Corn.
3 Chicken Breast
1 Avocado (Yes we've seen these before)
Mayo, Hot Sauce, Lime, Little bit of Chipotle.

Before you start, note that a lot of this needs a grill. Either inside or outside, no using a George Foreman. All else fails u can use a pan but I wouldn’t recommend it.

First slice and de-seed all the pepper. It’s easiest if you do it in quarters or halves first. You wanna fire roast the peppers slightly, enough to char the skin and meat but not enough to dry out the veggies. This is going to apply for all the others veggies after the pepper. After the peppers are ready, dice them to thin bit. Go across the side to give you short bits and then put them into the bowl.

Make sure you have cooked the sweet corn before hand; this should be done before you start the pasta salad. But the corn on the heat and as it begins to get marks from the grill get turn it. Once the corn is nicely charred, slice the corn from its cob and put it in the bowl with the peppers.
Repeat the process with the onion that you have with the other veggies. Remove the skin, slice and lightly char. Then dice and drop it in the bowl.

Cook up the chicken, again nice char marks are a must! Then slices it up and again into the bowl.
Avocado. Can be done either slightly charred or just regular. Cut into small wedges and then when it is read (they will take the shortest time).

I’m not telling you guys how to cook your pasta. Cuz it all depends on taste. Anyway once all the items are ready you can toss them in with the pasta. Now on to the Southwest Mayo, to make it a pasta salad.

I can’t give you appropriate measurements because it again depends on your preference with how much sauce/mayo you like with your salads.

Either use homemade mayo, or take your regular store bought mayo (not lite) and mix it in with the hot sauce, chipotle, lime zest and juice. When it is all mix, the southwest mayo should appear a light pink. Obviously the redder it is, the more heat is going to be in it.
Its good cold and hot, as a meal or a side.

Recipes for Summer Gaining: BearTrainer's Homemade Strawberry Shortcakes

Continuing with my Summer Gaining recipe series, here is a recipe straight from one of my encourager idols, the ever eloquent BearTrainer. Check out his yummy, light, homemade calorie filled dessert sure to satisfy even the hungriest of gainers.

BearTrainer’s Homemade Strawberry Shortcakes

There are three parts to strawberry shortcake—the sweetened biscuits, the strawberries and the whipped cream. Impress your friends and make it all from scratch--it's the kind of recipe that even people who don't cook can make. Really simple!

Sweet Biscuits

Preheat over to 475 degrees. In a bowl, whisk together:

2 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
5 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Then, into one cup of buttermilk, stir one stick of melted butter, which will look like it’s “curdling” in the cold milk. Then stir this milk/butter mixture into flour until dough just comes together

Grease 1/2 cup measure and form biscuits with it, dropping them on to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes, till puffed and just browning. Let them cool completely (2 hours), then gently slice them cross-wise into 3 layers. (Note: reduce the sugar in these to 2 tbsp and reduce the size to ¼ cup to use this recipe for dinner biscuits or sandwich rolls. They are addictive!)

Strawberries:

Stem, hull and cut 3lbs. of strawberries into slices or chunks—your choice. Then sprinkle on top ¼ cup light honey (orange blossom or tupelo), ¼ cup of balsamic vinegar, ¼ cup of fresh mint rough-chopped, toss and let the strawberries macerate for 4 hours minimum in the refrigerator. (If you are feeling patriotic and want a red-white-blue effect, throw in two cups of fresh blueberries.)

Whipped Cream:

Chill your metal mixing bowl in the fridge for an hour or so. Then pour in one pint of heavy whipping cream, begin to beat slowly, pouring in ¼ cup of sugar, one tbsp almond flavoring, one tbsp vanilla. Increase speed and whip until cream makes firm solid peaks. (Don’t overwhip or you’ll get butter!)

Just before serving, assemble the shortcakes by drenching the bottom layer with juice from strawberries, generous spoonfuls of strawberries, generous spoonfuls of whipped cream, same with middle layer, then drenching inside of top of biscuit with strawberry juice, lay on top with a sprig of mint. Enjoy the richness, freshness and sweetness of a classic American dessert!

The Blogosphere Expands: Gym & Buffet

Hello faithful readers,

Just wanted to do a quick post to inform you all about Gym & Buffet, a new blog about lifting, eating, gaining, and general hotness. It's written by an adorable gainer/encourager couple, consisting of the currently growing G (whose transformation is pictured below),


and the formerly gaining, currently encouraging G, whose sadly now downsized belly is pictured here:




It's very smartly written, full of workout tips, insights into gaining, and is def. worth adding to your list of gainer/encourager blogs. And I mean, the pictures don't lie; these boys know a thing or three about growing a grade a ex-jock belly. Check it out and enjoy.

Recipes for Summer Gaining: Victor's Florentine Chicken Ring

So, I asked my friend Victor for a gainer friendly recipe. Being that Victor is 6' tall and 300lbs of beautifully fattened gainerman (up from 140lbs) he knows a thing or two about making yummy food that gets you growing.

Photographic Evidence of Victor's knowledge of good food:



He's literally twice as big as he was in high school. Drool. Onto the food!

Here is his recipe, and his words:

"This is a dish that I got from my mother over 15 years ago, and it is a perennial favorite with all my friends and family... Pretty much everyone I serve this to falls in love with it, and with good reason, too: the ingredients are simple, familiar, unfussy, unpretentious, easily storebought, and easily prepared.

It is hearty enough for the most diehard gainer or bodybuilder -- chock full of high-protein chicken breast and nutritious spinach -- yet is cheesy and carby enough to serve as a great comfort food too. The presentation is elegant enough for serving at a classy brunch, lunch or dinner party. Good playmates include a simple leafy green salad, a bowl of crisp chilled watermelon and cantaloupe, and some fudgy dark chocolate brownies for dessert. My beverage of choice is Coke, but if you're into wine, just go with a chilled Chardonnay or some other white wine to accompany this chicken ring."



INGREDIENTS:

- 4 chicken breasts, cooked thoroughly and cubed

- two 10-oz packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained

- 1 cup mild cheddar or American cheese, shredded

- 1/2 cup mayonnaise

- zest of 1 lemon

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

- 2 tubes refrigerated crescent rolls (8 count each)

- 1 refrigerated pie crust

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, mix the chicken, spinach, cheese, mayonnaise, lemon zest, salt and nutmeg until a homogenous blend is created.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Move oven rack to middle position.

3. Unroll pie crust onto a lightly greased pizza pan or pizza stone. Using a sharp knife, cut an 8-pointed star about 4" in diameter in the center of the crust.

4. Scoop the chicken mixture evenly onto the pie crust in between the star and the outer edge, staying about 1/4" away from both. Pat and mould the mixture until an even ring of filling is formed.

5. Unroll the crescents and separate them into individual triangles. Begin to cover the filling with crescents, by laying the wide end of a crescent at the outer edge of the pie crust; the narrow point of the triangle should be touching the 8-pointed star. Continue with remaining crescent rolls until the entire filling is covered in triangles. Note that small gaps may remain in between triangles; this is OK, as it allows for steam to escape. Also note that you may not use all 16 of the crescent rolls.

6. Using your fingertips, tuck and seal all the edges of the triangles into the pie crust on the outside edge of the ring. Do the same thing on the inside by rolling up the segments of the star and tucking the points of the crescent rolls into them. The end result should look like a giant donut.

7. Bake in the preheated 375-degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until the crescents are golden-brown. Serve piping hot by itself for brunch or lunch, or with a side salad as a dinner entree. Yield 10-12 servings.

I suggest you try and eat as many servings at once as possible, rub your belly and enjoy.

Plus Sized Male Models

Bet that post title got your attention haha.

Taking a quick break from my summer gaining recipes posts (don't worry, there's more), I thought my readers might be interested in taking a look at a recent editorial in the men's style journal Fantastic Man. In case you weren't aware, Fantastic Man is published by designer Jop van Bennekom, the same man responsible for similarly exceptional Butt Magazine.

The editorial, shot by Andreas Larsson and styled by Julian Ganio, features some handsomely bellied men in some dapper summer outfits.

I haven't had a chance to check out the physical copy of the magazine yet, but you can see a slideshow of the editorial here. The quote from the magazine describing the editorial says that it's "a series of stylistic suggestions for bold summer fashions, to be worn by gentlemen of quite marvelous shape."

Although not all the fashions pictured are exactly to my taste, and the guys aren't all that big (but I always think that don't I lol) I am very pro any magazine, photographer or stylist that is happy to put more big men into print. I am also very pro anyone who realizes that there are plenty of handsome, happy, bigger guys out there that want to dress fashionably.

So, enjoy the eye candy, and eat up so you can fill out your own summer fashions just as marvelously ;)

Recipes for Summer Gaining: Tagliatelle with Truffle Butter

The next recipe in my summer gainer recipe series comes from my dear friend (and beautifully accomplished gainer), DangerCocktail.

DangerCocktail suggested Ina Garten’s Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter as an easy dish to whip together on a weeknight or for a more formal dinner -a pretty classic, fattening recipe brightened up for spring by some fresh chives.

He suggests, “Pair it with a light, white wine -I don’t like white but you need something really light on the tongue, because the truffle butter with cream is rich. Serve that pasta with a great grilled steak or tri tip, and then a fresh spring vegetable with light butter/salt/pepper, or maybe a salad with oil and vinegar. Keep the other notes in the meal very bright and light.”

Fattening, luxurious, and easy. What more could you ask for? A recipe with both Ina Garten and DangerCocktail's stamp of approval. Yum.

Recipes for Summer Gaining: Cubanjew's Super Awesome Frittata

So, in my hunt for summery gainer friendly meals, I asked my pal Cubanjew if he had anything that was good for a breakfast or brunch type meal. He suggested his Super Awesome Fritatta recipe.

Cubanjew's Super Awesome Frittata Recipe

8-10 eggs (I prefer organic, cage free eggs -knowing the chickens are happy makes me happy)

2 or 3 not too small potatos, washed and sliced*

Shredded/grated cheese to taste*

Salt & Pepper to taste

Whole Milk (or for the adventurous, heavy cream or half and half)

Olive oil*

Butter*

*Organic if you can manage it

In his own, awesome words:

“First I cut one of my potatoes into thin slices and sauté them a little. Once the potatoes are decently soft, I mix in the salt, pepper and shredded cheese. Melt it down and mash it all up Don't use all of the cheese though! I generally do grated parmesan and then either a shredded cheddar or mexican mix and have it all combined. Trader Joe's has some really nice, organic pre-shredded cheese mixes, if you're too lazy to grate your own. Let it be a little lumpy! We like it like that!

Next, put your mixture aside and preheat the oven to 400. Wash your remaining potatoes and slice them fairly thin, but not transparent cause you want some substance to them, and microwave them submerged in water for a minute and 30 seconds to start their cooking process. Let them sit. Then, in a medium-large pan, combine your olive oil and butter and let it get hot, but don't burn the butter! I suggest medium heat on your range for this. Mix your potato cheese mixture up and cover the bottom of the pan in the mixture, and let it sit for a few minutes.

In a fairly large bowl, crack and combine your eggs as if you were making an omelette, and salt and pepper it to taste. Put that aside and look at your potatoes in the pan. Start flipping it over when it's brown on the bottom and add more of the mixture in. It's good when it's golden and crispy. When you have a little potato mixture left, remove it all and place it back in the bowl and mix it all together. Now you want to put more oil and butter in the pan, and arrange your potato slices in an even layer and let cook with a cover on the pan for 4-5 minutes. Put a thin layer of your grated cheese on top of that, and then your mixture of browned mashed potatoes and unbrowned mashed potatoes on a lumpy textural layer over that. You can toss in anything here; bacon, veggies, anything you have laying around, it'll taste good. I suggest if you add veggies to sauté them beforehand, and make sure that any meat you add is cooked through. Let it cook for another 3-4 minutes with a cover on it. Now you'll want to pour your eggs on top and then place a final layer of grated cheese and cook for 3 minutes with a cover on the pan.

You'll want to see it start to bubble. That's when you uncover and place in your preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, with you checking in 5 minute intervals by sticking a knife in. When the knife comes out clean, you're done and you can take it out of the oven. Let your frittata cool for a few minutes, then flip onto a plate and serve! When going to a party or somewhere I'm expected to bring a dish, my frittata never fails to impress! Or you could always, ya know, eat the whole thing yourself... lol”

And there you have it -a simple, fattening, versatile calorically gifted brunch recipe perfect for any growing gainer. Up next, DangerCocktail's summer dinner suggestion :)

Recipes for Summer Gaining: Quinoa and Avocado Salad

Like most annoying, health conscious yuppies, I’ve recently become interested in making an effort to eat locally and eat what is locally in season (in addition to trying to eat organic and as high fructose corn syrup and transfat free as possible). I'm also, obviously, working very hard to get my boyfriend bigger (haha gotta get in shape for swimsuit season). To that end, I asked a few of my gainer pals what their favorite spring/early summer recipes were so I could share them with my readers. I got all kinds of responses, so, I'm gonna post them up one at a time.

Firstly, the BF’s biggest Summer gaining tip is just add avocados to everything. He puts them on sandwiches, he puts them on burgers, he makes guacamole, he never makes a salad without them. And the effect is quite evident in his ever tightening jeans. In honor of my boyfriend’s devotion to avocados, may I present to you a Quinoa and Avocado salad with Dried Fruit, Toasted Almonds, and Lemon Cumin Vinaigrette.

Quinoa is super good for you, and avocados are loaded with healthy fat so, make a double portion and eat up! It's calorically dense, not filled with artificial shit that'll make you feel gross, and tastes amazing.

Try this and look forward to favorite gaining recipes from DangerCocktail, CubanJew, and others :)