QUANTITY

First, it should be said that individual portions of a particular dish might well be the same for a petite, 115 pound swimsuit model as for a 245 pound bodybuilder. You'll see us following that concept in serving sizes and numbers of servings yielded from MuscleChef recipes. Remember that old Schwartzenneger axiom "Stay Hungry."

The essential difference is that the female model probably has a typical three small meals a day, while the big, beefy guy might well consume as many as six or seven - even if one or two are made up of protein shakes or "meal replacement" protein bars.

A helpful strategy to help you save time and money is to cook in bulk. By cooking large portions of food and dividing them into individual portions to be refrigerated and/or frozen (for future meals) is one way to save valuable time, money. . . even cooking energy. It's far less expensive to buy five or even twenty pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast at a warehouse store than going to the supermarket every night and buying just one or two chicken breast. You also save time and energy by cooking in bulk. It doesn't take more time to cook a larger quantity of food and store it in the refirgerator or freezer, but it does take a lot more time to cook the same meal from scratch every time that entree hits your menu.

Many of our recipes on the MuscleChef website are written for six to ten servings. That means that a rice pilaf recipe that serves eight people will provide a single person with eight meals to span whatever time period is desired (at least, if portions are promptly and properly frozen). Or, if you're cooking for friends and family, it will provide enough food for eight hungry people.

Don't be reluctant to cook large quantities of food and store the leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer. See the STORING section for more details.