I commonly am asked how to put on size while MovNatting/eating Paleo. Pretty basic 3 steps.
- Create an overload on the body
- Eat lots of nutrient dense food
- Let your body recover before thrashing it again
There is so much info out there that I’m not going to rehash much-rather I will just share a couple of my favorite, big ass meals that I eat for the dense nutrition (read calorie heavy).
Sweet potato marrow mash
1. Cook the sweet potatoes (yams, whatever you wanna call ’em) on 400 for like, an hour in the oven. Don’t be disrespectful and boil them, or put them in the microwave. We want them to get all syrupy and awesome. Don’t waste your time cooking one either, cook as many as you can fit in your oven-its time efficient, and you’ll need the sweet pots for other meals on this list.
2. Cook the bone marrow during the first 15 minutes that the sweet pots are cooking. MDA has a nice article about how.
3. Remove the marrow from the bone while you are waiting for the sweet pots to finish cooking. Then don’t you dare throw the bones out-instead you had better make a bone broth. Also use the remaining time to cook whatever meat and veggies you got going on.
4. When the sweet pots are done, add in the bone marrow and mash it up. I personally don’t eat the skins. If you’d like, you can cook the marrow on low in a pan so it becomes like butter.
5. Eat this and feel powerful.
Sweet potato discs
1. Take some of the cooked sweet pots from the fridge that you cooked when you made the bone marrow mash, and slice them into discs. Fry these discs in either butter (if you’re not a paleo nazi), ghee (if you are), or coconut oil. I alternate because they all taste different in good ways. Sprinkle with cinnamon. I like to serve this with fried eggs.
Lazy shepherd pie
1 lb of ground meat ( I like wild boar, bison, cow, elk, antelope) cooked in butter and cumin. Add precooked sweet potato and cinnamon. Get fancy and layer it in a bowl, devour.
Enter the Plantain
Part 1
Eggs + Best Bfast Sausage Ever + Fried Plantain = Hercules
1. In a copious amount of coconut oil and butter combo, put diced plantain and diced sausage and brown it up. Seriously, go try that applegate maple sausage, unless you live in a city I’m visiting, I can’t risk it being out at whole foods when I go to buy it.
2. Cook eggs in left over oils…which there won’t be much of since the plantain sponges it up real quick like. So put in more.
Part 2
This is the ultimate calorie bomb, and should be eaten only if you aren’t a Paleo Nazi, enjoy life, and really wanna put back some calories. It’s my favorite prefast meal.
1. Put in A LOT of coconut oil, fry up diced plantains til browned a bit.
2. Remove plantain with slotted spoon and place in a bowl.
3. Chop up really dark (84%+) and sprinkle over plantains. Then pour the left over hot oil over the chocolate-creating a magical coconut oil-chocolate syrup.
4. Add a scoop of crunchy peanut butter. (Or macadamia, or almond, whatever your preference is….but peanut butter is scientifically proven to be at least 74% more better)
5. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Hagen Daaz Five Vanilla Bean is my go to.
6. Sprinkle coconut shreds ontop.
7. You’ll probably need to sit down as the cold/hot/crunchy/soft/gooey/salty/sweet/crispy/gooey stimulation to the mouth is a little overwhelming.
8. You’re a better human now that you’ve eaten this.
Coconut Oil
If you do smoothies, salads, or anything…eat more of this. It is really damn good for you, and doesn’t give me (n-1) any belly problems like a lot of coconut milk can.
EAT MORE
The BIGGEST thing to remember when trying to put on size is that you have to eat to put on size. If you eat “paleo” it can be tough to pack calories away. Stop being a little wuss, you’ll get better at eating more, it just takes practice-like everything. For a more thorough look at exactly what type of commitment this is, you can look forward to the Whole9’s Dallas giving the lowdown on how he put muscle mass on in his fabled and forthcoming #cleanmassgain post. I don’t think my ice cream plantain dish makes the cut… 😦
These were just 4 calorically and nutritionally dense meals to try, sorry it doesn’t get into when, where, how much. Quickly I would say
- when-post workout
- where-your kitchen, learn to cook
- how much-LOTS AND LOTS if you wanna gain lbs
Visual Aid 
Gracias
BA training. 
Please keep blogging. This shit is awesome.
Thanks, and I plan to keep going. Hopefully I don’t blow my awesomeness load allover the interwebz too quickly.
Clifton I can hear your voice through your writing- awesome! And though the last thing I want to do is put on weight your post and visual aid are super helpful! Can’t wait to try the recipes. “don’t be disrespectful and boil them, or put them in the microwave.” haha preach it brother. So glad you started a blog! 🙂
Thanks Monica, it should be good fun for me to chronicle my silly fun travels this year.
Okay so thanks to this post, I pulled out this packet of nice grass-fed bone marrow out of the freezer I’d ordered a while back but was a little squicked out to try. I think it was the idea of eating the marrow with yams that sent me over the edge.
Bottom line: I’m now a marrow fan. Thanks for the nudge!
Yeah, that marrow is deeelishus. Also feels good on sun burns.
Reminds me of a weekend we spent packing in the calories.
Oh man, my next trip to DC is in October and is wicked tough, I arrive in the morning on a redeye from denver!!
SWEET! I am psyched to send dudes here who are trying to get big for paleo calorie-bomb recipes. Maybe you’ll tag/categorize them at some point?
I’ll organize the hell outta this. I’ll make the dewey decimal system look like a pile of trash.
Nice dude! I can’t wait to try this…in a couple months after Air Force crap.
This is awesome, Keep up the good work! Thanks Diane @ Balanced Bites for sharing this
Oh man, this looks AWESOOOOOOME
Hell yeah! Thanks Diane for the link here!!
Yeah, I use to boil my sweet potatoes in water in the microwave. Double-plus ungood.
Now I load up a tray of a half doen or so and bake in the oven. Definitely a lot better, like you are saying.
I frickin’ love this post. My go-to PWO meal is always a giant sweet potato (microwaved if I’m short on time) lathered in coconut oil and topped with pumpkin pie spice. I used to do cinnamon, but the pumpkin pie is just especially decadent. 🙂 Also, as far as ice cream, have you ever tried HD’s dark chocolate variety? = Deliciousness-bomb. I can’t wait to get in the kitchen and try that dark-chocolate melty trick. Thanks Clif!