The Shredded Chef: 125 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy (Third Edition)

Whether you're bulking, cutting, or just cleaning up your diet, The Shredded Chef by Mike Matthews hits every mark for flavor, macros, and simplicity. 🔹 Focused on Fitness Goals This book is purpose-built for body composition: whether your goal is fat loss or muscle gain, it gives you high-protein, low-calorie meals that support your training. On page 3, it's clearly framed as a "fitness-friendly" cookbook with macro breakdowns, meal prep guidance, and a section for shredding/cutting diets. 🔹 Recipe Quality & Ease Each of the 125 recipes is designed for ease: the ingredients are basic, the prep is quick, and the flavors are solid. On page 3, there’s a promise of “delicious and nutritious meals” that avoid bland or restrictive cooking, and the images on page 2 (Beef Lo Mein, No-Bake Matcha Bars, etc.) are genuinely appetizing. ✅ Pros: Tailored for lean muscle building and fat loss Easy-to-follow recipes with nutritional info Macro-calibrated for active lifestyles No-nonsense writing from a respected fitness author ❌ Cons: Photos are limited — more visual aids would help with presentation Basic cooking techniques may feel repetitive for experienced home cooks Overall: If you’re tracking macros and want reliable, efficient recipes that support muscle gain or fat loss, this is a top-tier resource. It's not just another cookbook — it’s a targeted fitness tool in your kitchen arsenal. Highly recommended for anyone in training mode.

Wow, so impressed with this book! My husband and I are looking for new, creative and delicious meals that incorporate more protein into our daily meals. This book is not only full of great recipes that are easy to prepare and delicious but it’s also got a lot of information about nutrition that explains why fats and carbs aren’t bad and what your body needs to be healthy and balanced. Can’t wait to try more of the recipes. Oh, and the quality of the book was beyond my expectations. Hard cover, lots of pictures and each recipe tells you the number of servings, and the amount of protein, carbs and fat per serving. Highly recommend!

Michael definitely knows what he's talking about for building muscle, burning fat, and staying lean without spending more than 4-6 hours a week in the gym. His recipes are delicious and are solid for carb-cycling weight-lifting days and rest days. The cooking instructions and ingredients lists are generally fairly simple and easy to follow. The addition of pictures for most of the recipes is a huge plus. I had a couple minor frustrations going through the book - one, there should've been a Table of Contents. I don't understand why this wasn't a thing, especially for a recipe-based book where you're needing to flip back and forth; and two, I noticed some errors in sentences and cooking instructions. For instance, one of the poultry recipes has four steps in its cooking instructions, yet it clearly had five steps at some point. You're told to remove foil that was never used in the first place. Honestly, you can just use your head and figure this one out, but it should've been more complete. All-in-all, I think it's good and is a worthy buy for anyone trying to step up their cooking game and get leaner at the same time.

Are you looking for exciting gourmet recipes and already know the basics of cooking? This will take some of your cooking skills to the next level. I've tried five recipes from this cookbook and am looking forward to trying more. Some of the recipes need a little adapting but since I know how to write recipes that is no issue for me. The recipes I've tried so far include: Creamy Blueberry-Banana Smoothie: This smoothie is made with banana, blueberries, honey, Greek yogurt, flaxseeds and milk. I felt it needed to be a bit sweeter so added three packets of stevia and one teaspoon of vanilla powder. It was then perfect. Beef Stroganoff: This is a lot better than the type of stroganoff you make with ground beef. Instead this recipes calls for beef tenderloin. I took it up a notch and used two beef ribeyes with all the fat cut off. One thing I can't find at my local store is condensed beef broth, so instead I just used 1 1/4 cup water with 1 3/4 teaspoon beef base (look for it in the soup isle). At the end of the recipe I realized it was a bit soupy (probably because I'm using stock not a condensed broth) so I added in two tablespoons butter mixed with two tablespoons flour. Changes the recipe calories a bit but I don't eat this very often. The Dijon mustard is really essential in the recipe. Once I forgot to add it and totally noticed a difference in flavor. Grilled Rosemary Lamb Chops: Making these is an aromatic experience. I fried the meat in a frying pan since I don't have a grill and they still turned out fantastic. The minute the rosemary heats up with the lemon juice it produces a heavenly scent. I'd use double the rosemary next time. Also lamb bones are really sharp so when you put them in a plastic bag with the marinade it might leak a bit. To solve this problem I put the bag in a metal bowl in the refrigerator. No mess to clean up. Pollo Fajitas: This recipe has a heavenly marinade that you can taste even after the recipe is done. The combination of Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar and soy sauce (I used Tamari) was delicious once heated. You serve the chicken with onions and green bell pepper in tortillas. They are also good with sour cream and salsa. Made these twice already and they are going to be a favorite for a long time. I use two large fry pans and cook the onions and peppers separately at the same time as the chicken. Works out great since everything is hot at the same time. Lemon-Garlic Shrimp with Asparagus: You can omit the asparagus in this recipe no problem. I felt there were enough veggies just with the red bell peppers. And the author would be happy to know I used organic bell peppers. To me they are a bit sweeter. The only thing with this recipe is it calls for garlic to be sautéed and sometimes it can burn. So I put all the sauce ingredients in a Pyrex glass measuring cup and added the garlic to that and poured it into the shrimp and peppers at the end. Great garlic flavor without burning anything. I added one tablespoons butter mixed with one tablespoon flour to thicken the sauce a bit. Other recipes I'm eager to try include: Cinnamon-Spiced Sweet Potato Pancakes Spiced Caribbean Oatmeal with Yogurt Swirl Coconut Carrot-Ginger Soup Thai Basil Chicken Chile Relleno Casserole Classic Tiramisu Triple Berry Crisp Yes this cookbook also has desserts but some recipes call for Truvia instead of all sugar. So this recipe book has been really fun to work through and I'm not done yet. I had a question about one of the recipes and the author got right back to me so that was nice. I look forward to trying new recipes in the near future. I love that so many of these recipes are gourmet. And these are recipes my weight lifting husband also enjoys. ~The Rebecca Review

I was in a food slump and struggling to find new recipe ideas. I just came across this book after searching for macro related recipe books. So glad i bought it. I have tried several recipes in it and all just so tasty. The peanut butter swirl brownies.....omg they are the best brownies i have ever made/tasted. Great book if you are looking to make tasty nutritious food. The only downfall is that the measurements are all US, but a quick google search to convert it was no issue.

I found it difficult to take advantage of the recipes, probably because I am an Indian and have had indian food for a long while now

The book helpt me to lose weight and get that nice shape. Is is easy to read and the price is good. My wife and I found the recipes easy to cook

Basically copy pasted intro from bigger-leaner-stronger. Obvious advices such as How to buy meat : if it smells bad don't buy it. ( Thanks for this one ! ) Very few pictures. Recipes are not 'precise' at all. Example : To poach eggs seems like you just have to crack them in a bowl and slip them in hot water. Sorry but cooking is a bit more than this. Anyway it's a cheap book - I'll try to get some ideas out of it. But I would not buy it again :/

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