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Oatmeal is one of the simplest breakfasts. Not The Oatmeal (which I also love) but oats, dehusked, steamed, and flattened.

By itself, oatmeal is mostly carbs with some protein and fat (by calories: 69% carbs, 16% protein, 15% fat), but adding some casein can tip that balance toward protein and add some delicious creaminess at the same time.

Ingredients

• 70g old fashioned oatmeal
• 1-1.5c water
• salt
• 60g casein
• 30g peanut butter

Adjustments

• You can use different varieties of oatmeal (quick cooking, steel cut, etc.) – adjust the cook time and water accordingly.
• Oatmeal doesn’t have a huge flavor on its own, so you can swap in many different spices or mixins – fruit, berries, cinnamon, apple pie spice, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, etc.
• If you’re adding fat, peanut butter, cream, butter are good choices. Or don’t, if you’re going for a lower fat option.
• If you’re going for low carb… well… oatmeal’s not the best choice.

Method

1. Like many recipes, we’ll start with a bowl and zero the scale.
   
2. Add the oatmeal. Salt it heavily – I always like to keep a lot of salt in my diet particularly when cutting. Yes, dropping salt will give you a momentary weight decrease but that’s all water weight. Salt and other related electrolytes are key for performance, and lots is lost via sweat -- so salting your food will make sure your supplies stay high.
   
3. Add water. Normal oats take a 1-1 ratio of oats to water by volume (1 c oats = 1 c water). In this case we’ll be adding casein which thickens a lot, so you’ll need extra water. Start with 1.5 c and you can always add water later until you get the right ratio.
   
4. Microwave – 4 minutes for old fashioned. I like to go a little longer here because we’re mixing in casein.
5. Now casein… delicious creamy protein. I used vanilla here.
   
6. And finally, peanut butter.
   
7. Mix. If it’s super thick, add water and mix again.
   

It’ll be hot so you’ll want to wait a few minutes for it to cool before you dig in -- goldilocks style. Enjoy!

I’ve been following Renaissance Periodization’s RP Diet principles for a couple years now, and one component of that is a decently large, high protein breakfast within a short time after waking. I’ve come up with several recipes that are simple, quick to make, and have some flex so you can adjust and hit the required macros for cutting, maintenance, etc.

One of my favorites is protein waffles. I’ve experimented with a lot of different ways to do them. The best result so far is casein, pancake mix, and eggs.

Ingredients

• 45g pancake mix
• 45g casein
• 3 eggs
• 1c water

Adjustments

• For lower carb, lower the amount of pancake mix. Don’t go too far though – eventually they’ll get a bit sloppy. 50/50 is the ideal ratio, you can go up to 60/40 or maybe 70/30 with some extra egg white, but eventually the waffles will start to get weird
• For lower fat, sub eggs with 130g egg whites
• For higher protein, sub in 130g egg whites to the waffles and cook the whole eggs on the side
• Add some seasoning… I’ve tried juice and zest of a lemon – pretty delicious but makes the waffle stick unless you grease it well. Cinnamon or apple pie spice is pretty good too.

Method

1. Plug in waffle maker. Don’t forget this step or you’ll be waiting around forever for the waffles after making the batter!
2. Combine the dry ingredients. I like to use a scale to make this easy.
   
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients, add the eggs, and beat them.
   
4. Add the water and mix. It’ll end up slightly thick, but keep in mind that casein absorbs a ton of water so it’ll get a bit thicker after you’re done mixing. If it ends up super thick, add a bit more water.
   
5. Add to waffle maker. Pour in an X gesture so it gets full coverage but doesn’t spill over the sides.
   
6. Eat! I like sugar free syrup with mine.
   

I know this is a tech blog, but there really is a bit of crossover of recipes and analytical thinking with cooking. Also, I don’t have a separate personal blog right now, so I figured this is the best place to stuff a few recipes for now.

When I was growing up, Mom’s Lemon Meringue Pie was a special treat we had once or twice a year. As I got older, I helped Mom with the cooking and learned all the secrets. Thanks Mom!

After I moved to Arizona and had access to fresh off the tree lemons, I figured I’d try my hand at it myself. I made a pie, and it was good. But a pie needs good crust, and good pie crust takes a couple of hours to make (roll, ball, freeze, repeat ad infinitum).

Bars are easier. But most bars end up being this gooey lemon sludge, nothing like a rich pie made with lemon curd and topped with fluffy meringue. I did a bit of research and put on my thinking cap.

First, the crust. Needs to be crumbly and light, and buttery enough so the filling doesn’t seep in. What better than a shortbread crust?

Secondly, the filling. None of these “mix some lemon juice, flour, sugar, condensed milk” pretenders – it needs to be a legit lemon curd, made with butter and eggs, slowly thickened on the stove.

And finally, we need some fluffy meringue to top it all off.

I ended up finding three different recipes that had the components I needed:

• Crust: Lemon Pie Bars {Shortbread Crust}
• Curd: How To Make Lemon Curd
• Meringue: Sky-High Lemon Meringue Pie Bars

Just ran into an issue where some old Windows server 2008 installs were starting to pop up with could not reach key management server (KMS), and thus bouncing to not genuine. Spent some time searching around for fixes, including running slmgr, swapping out dns, etc. None of it worked.

Turned out the solution was actually easier:

• Upgrade EC2Config to latest from: http://aws.amazon.com/developertools/5562082477397515
• Turn on windows activation plugin in EC2Config. Open "C:\Program Files\Amazon\Ec2ConfigService\Settings\config.xml" and change the state of EC2WindowsActivate plugin from Disabled to Enabled.
• Upgrade the network drivers from Redhat PV to Citrix PV: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/Upgrading_PV_drivers.html

The network driver upgrade will force a reboot. Once that’s done, the instance will be able to activate.