In my triathlon quest, I am constantly looking to eat healthier, lose fat, and gain lean muscle. It’s hard since endurance training means you need lots of fuel but triathletes also need proper weight-to-power ratios. I am a naturally bigger guy and grew up with my parents in the food business so unfortunately I love to eat. I simply cant starve myself like some people can. Anyways I stumbled onto this interesting food hack and have been eating it 2-4 times  a week as of recently.

Baked from Frozen Salmon

Individually Packed Frozen Salmon Fillets

In reading the nutrition section of Neila Ray’s No Equipment Workouts I read about buying the frozen salmon filets at the supermarket and baking them directly from frozen. I had never heard of this before (perhaps I am a minority here) but usually when I buy frozen I thaw it out for a day before I can cook which is a pain. Constantly managing freshness and having intense forethought to remember to pull out individual items to thaw a day or two before never has worked out for me. This recipe is insanely simple.

1. Oven to 400 degrees
2. Frozen Salmon filet – wrapped in aluminum foil (I make a little tent see picture) with salt and pepper (you can get fancy and add marinades too. The tent sorta steams and bakes the salmon simultaneously
3. ~30 mins in oven = baked perfectly (obviously oven temps can vary so check it)

Salmon Tented in Aluminum Foil

That’s it. I typically come back from gym/run. Heat oven while stretching and drinking a chocolate milk/protein shake. Throw salmon in – shower and change – and salmon is done.

I pair it with either quinoa or black beans and frozen broccoli or spinach. (Just 2 minutes to heat up in the microwave). I either make the quinoa in batches (cilantro and lemon juice is awesome with quinoa) or buy individual servings (Costco has them cheap). I bag HUGE bags of broccoli and spinach from Costco frozen and usually make about 2 cups to fill me up with minimal calories. I buy mostly at Costco where they sell the Salmon filets in bulk. I think 10 – 6oz filets cost 36 bucks.

Calorie Breakdown:Salmon – 350 calories per 6oz
Quinoa – 160 calories per cup (prepackaged quinoa label)
Broccoli – 50 calories for 2 cups

So total for this meal is 560 calories which is ridiculously low (I pretty much always have a post workout choco milk or protein shake to replenish calories immediately.

To me, this is the ultimate staple dish for dinners which literally takes 5 minutes of hands on time to prepare. I love salmon so perhaps I am biased. It helps me feel full when going to bed as well as keeps my daily calories low to help me cut fat.