[AbiDrew85]

On my fourth experimental batch. I've made something very like a hardened tabasco brownie. Unlike brownies though it's not gooey, but it isn't "hard" either. It's marshmallowey.

The being marshmallowey is probably permanent, and I'm getting very close to perfecting that. The amounts for the water is very tricky!

The tabasco brownie flavoring is definitely not what I'm after.

I've decided to give up my quest for a more healthful alternative for fighting the bitterness and I'll be doing the brewing step with lemon juice and water this next time.

Lemon juice isn't UNHEALTHY, but it's going to wind up giving us an overdose of Vitamin C. It shouldn't be close to the upper limit for health in adults of 2000 mg, but it'll certainly be enough to complicate things.

When I was making my mint tea I was using 1/8th cup with about 2 grams of mint medley and ending up with a very flavorful combination, no bitterness left at all really. So I'll be trying with a quarter cup and see what happens.

Oh, and in case you're trying to figure out what an 1/8th cup looks like: coffee scoop, or 2 tablespoons.

So yeah. Reducing the hot spices and using lemon juice in the brewing process. Experiment #5, let's hope I've got it this time!

EDIT: It's still not staying completely solid at room temp. Must needs decrease the water content! It is closer though...

[AbiDrew85]

So I learned something interesting today: http://www.ochef.com/165.htm

Due to this information, I've decided I'll cook the vanilla into the mixture at the cooking stage (spearmint + chinese skullcap (chinese skullcap only in my own personal version of course) brewed in slightly diluted lemon juice + oats + hazelnuts) which I have been doing, and make sure to cook it for a half hour to reduce the alcohol contribution to only 1 gram out of 544 grams total in the entire mix. This is a bit longer than recommended cook time for regular whole oats of 20 minutes, but that doesn't matter, I'm liquifying everything but the gelation ingredients in a blender before the final prep stage anyways. Final prep stage is obviously beating in the gelation ingredients until it just barely starts to set, the goal being producing a nice marshmallow texture

Next experiment batch will come in at just over 100 grams protein, complete whole-day balanced micro-nutrition, and only just over 1130 calories according to present calculations. I am calculating with 4 places after the decimal but rounding off at the end, so I do mean JUST over when I say just over. First significant digit following the decimal is in the 100ths kind of just over.

Hopefully the changes I've made will finally kill that bitterness problem. Main contribution, the lemon juice.

The biggest reason I'm able to pack so much nutrition in so small a calorie count is because I'm going low carb and VERY low fat. Due to the way calories work, the calorie contributions end up with an almost negligible difference, though the protein is still highest contributor, but when you look at the grams of contributions, the carbs are 83 versus 100 protein, and the fat is only 43. The remainder are straight up micro-nutrients and of course water. I actually don't know what the mixture weighs at the end, the math is done including the lemon juice which is mostly water, and lots of other ingredients have a lot of water... but when cooked down and then beat to death and a large part of water and alcohol evaporate... I'd have to weigh the next batch after it sets.

My main sweetener is also stevia, not sugar, and stevia has basically no calories. It's NOT zero (like the advertising literature would like you to think) but it's so danged negligible it's not even worth TRYING to calculate. Mostly because it really takes so danged little AND it takes more calories for your body to process it than for sugar. Net calorie becomes essentially zero.

[AbiDrew85]

Holy crap. I'm losing weight SCARY fast now. I seem to have passed some sort of final wall and now it's almost too easy. Down to 132 this morning. That's three more pounds gone since a couple days ago. Controlled catabolism WORKS! And this is EXACTLY the kind of planning that's been put into my cutting bar.

Speaking of the cutting bar...

I have become convinced that LTU and/or Ultra Success are helping drive my absolute consumption of my life into developing this recipe.

I haven't been so driven to doing something ever in my entire life.

I've done 5 or 6 experimental batches now (keeping track is becoming difficult lol) and I believe I ALMOST have it right.

Some final tweaking and we'll see where we end up.

Part of me is considering just selling the recipe to someone else to develop it further into an actual finished product... But another part of me is insisting they'd just ruin the perfection and I need to do it myself.

I think the latter may end up winning. Though I'm not at all sure how to go about getting this into production.

Oh, and at least my first product will be a cutting bar. As of the NEXT experiment it'll likely be clocking in at a mere 907 calories a day, 25 grams of only good fats, no cholesterol, 67 grams carb, 20 grams of which are fiber, only SEVEN grams of sugars, and 100 grams protein. It also will have more than sufficient vitamins and minerals for ANYONE without going over ULs (Upper Limit), and it'll have a few stimulants, none going over GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) limits. There will also be plenty of folate.

I'll easily be able to keep it below 1000 calories and it'll have 100 grams protein no matter what.

After the cutting bar I'll make a bulking bar. Fewer stimulants, some more calories, same overall profile.

[TibetanPrincess]

Holy crap. I'm losing weight SCARY fast now. I seem to have passed some sort of final wall and now it's almost too easy. Down to 132 this morning. That's three more pounds gone since a couple days ago. Controlled catabolism WORKS! And this is EXACTLY the kind of planning that's been put into my cutting bar.

Speaking of the cutting bar...

I have become convinced that LTU and/or Ultra Success are helping drive my absolute consumption of my life into developing this recipe.

I haven't been so driven to doing something ever in my entire life.

I've done 5 or 6 experimental batches now (keeping track is becoming difficult lol) and I believe I ALMOST have it right.

Some final tweaking and we'll see where we end up.

Part of me is considering just selling the recipe to someone else to develop it further into an actual finished product... But another part of me is insisting they'd just ruin the perfection and I need to do it myself.

I think the latter may end up winning. Though I'm not at all sure how to go about getting this into production.

Oh, and at least my first product will be a cutting bar. As of the NEXT experiment it'll likely be clocking in at a mere 907 calories a day, 25 grams of only good fats, no cholesterol, 67 grams carb, 20 grams of which are fiber, only SEVEN grams of sugars, and 100 grams protein. It also will have more than sufficient vitamins and minerals for ANYONE without going over ULs (Upper Limit), and it'll have a few stimulants, none going over GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) limits. There will also be plenty of folate.

I'll easily be able to keep it below 1000 calories and it'll have 100 grams protein no matter what.

After the cutting bar I'll make a bulking bar. Fewer stimulants, some more calories, same overall profile.

Would you consider your bar gluten and soy free?

[AbiDrew85]

Would you consider your bar gluten and soy free?

I'll have to double check the gluten, but soy yes. Though some ingredients have been produced in facilities that also produce soy based products so SOME cross contamination COULD be present in very small amounts.

I also do know that even if there's no gluten directly, the same holds true for some of the other ingredients with facilities that also produce gluten containing foods.

I could potentially make sure to buy ingredients from sources that are absolutely assured to be free of cross contamination if that's important. Though if any ingredient actually contains gluten replacing it could prove problematic.

Even just assuring its free of any potential for contamination would raise the costs of ingredients significantly.

Anyways. I'll look into the gluten. To be sure.

EDIT: And that was fast. No. It definitely does have gluten. A gluten free option would require completely different formulation. Not even sure what I could use.

EDIT 2: After some additional searching I discovered that my Bob's hazelnut meal is ALREADY certified gluten free, and that there is a certified gluten free option at Bob's for all my other ingredients potentially contaminated with gluten. So it is doable. It would raise costs. Same with switching to things to avoid soy contamination. Though I'm not even sure I can get a PURE whey isolate with no additives and no chance of contamination. NOW is the only provider of pure whey isolate I know and they aren't very big on preventing cross contamination, unfortunately. That's the only problem I'd have with them if I had such needs. Thankfully *I* don't. But if I'm going to be making this for others...

[AbiDrew85]

I may just have found an answer to how I might possibly manage to bring this to market by myself:

http://www.agincubator.org/Nock.html

It's a good 40 minutes or more away, but it'd be worth it.

I'd still need to come up with a good way to raise at least SOME starting capital. I'd need at least enough for a first month's rent and several 4 hour or more sessions as well as material costs. I'm thinking about trying kickstarter for that.

[AbiDrew85]

My right breast has been extra sore and tender today. I hope this means only good things.

[AbiDrew85]

On more careful inspection of the terms of use for kickstarter, I can't use it. Or at least I'd be tempting fate if I tried.

They forbid anything that's an "energy bar or drink" or "supplements" from food based campaigns. And depending how one twists it, my cutting bar could be construed as an energy bar, a supplement, or both, even though I intend to market and sell it as "food".

So.... better just not to push my luck on that one.

There's other options out there though none are QUITE so famous and/or popular as kickstarter. There's an awesome new one though called crowdtilt that looks VERY promising, and they'll allow you to make a campaign about literally ANYTHING. They're all about tilting there, windmills, optional.

So I guess I need to work out what my minimum funding required will be to make a quick run of bars using NOCK as my kitchen. And what my upper goal would be to go out and lease my own space and hire some help, and then I can start a crowdtilt campaign and start spreading the word.

Honestly I'm thinking crowdtilt is just perfect for my idea. It really is sort of tilting at mainstream meal replacement bars and saying POW! It CAN be done right! And what better place to do some tilting than a place with tilt in the name! lol.

[viloletka]

Hey how do you plan to control the weight distribution as you gain weight?

[AbiDrew85]

Hey how do you plan to control the weight distribution as you gain weight?

This is actually the easy part. Seriously!

Simply taking the right balance of hormonal supplements at the right timing and it should take care of itself.

I'm "lucky" in that my body type as an endo/meso combination already will do exactly what I need it to as long as my hormonal balances are female.

I also need to make absolutely sure I'm getting the right combination of nutrients as well, of course.