Week 3 - Variety Needed (recipe for Steakhouse Beef included)

Time on the Dr. Poon Metabolic Diet:  3 weeks
Weight lost this week:  3.6 pounds
Total weight lost to date:  13.6 pounds

Hello again!  It's Superbowl Sunday - Go Steelers!  Actually I don't know much of anything about football but everybody I trust seems to think that the Steelers are going to take it so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. 

It has been an interesting week on Dr. Poon's plan.  Soon after my appointment with Dr. Poon last Sunday (check out my week 2 blog for more on that) I started to get really bored with my food choices to date.  Sure, it's been great to see the weight almost falling off and it's great to be burning all kinds of fat, but if I eat like a glorified rabbit I won't be able to sustain this long-term.  I'll probably be on this plan for over a year so I don't want to sabotage it on account of sheer boredom. 

I have a demanding job out of the house with demanding clients and super long hours.  I really admire the people who can come up with recipes and share them with others.  As much as I'd like to develop interesting recipes and try something new all the time, the job I have doesn't allow me time for that.  I usually get home between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. and I usually have a briefcase full of files with me.  For that reason, I decided to commit myself to developing interesting marinades.  Chicken tastes like - well, chicken - so the oomph is going to have to be in the flavours.  So far I've come up with one awesome marinade and strategy for having great meat in a hurry. 

Here it is - my first recipe (well, sort of)!  It tastes and looks like a meal from The Keg.

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STEAKHOUSE BEEF with MUSHROOMS AND ASPARAGUS

You'll need:
- One large Ziploc freezer bag (you've probably already been freezing your meat in them anyway so use the one that your meat was frozen in)
- Beef cubes (the kind you find in the freezer section for beef stews)
- Walden Farms BBQ Sauce
- Low-sodium teriyaki marinade
- Low-sodium soy sauce
- Garlic
- Mrs. Dash original seasoning blend

The night before you want to eat your beef:

1.  Take your beef out of the freezer and defrost it (I do this in the microwave).  Keep your Ziploc bag.  Of course, you can also use this with fresh beef but you'll need a Ziploc bag anyway

2.  When the beef is fully defrosted put the cubes back in the Ziploc bag.  Throw in some of the BBQ sauce, soy sauce, teriyaki marinade.  Use lots of garlic and Mrs. Dash.  If you want it spicy, throw in some black pepper and paprika.  Don't worry if you overdo it a bit on the sauces - most of it is going to get thrown away as extra marinade anyway.  The amount of sauce/spice will depend on how much beef you cook - when in doubt, be generous because you want to have enough marinade to fully coat the beef.

3.  Zip up the Ziploc bag tightly, leaving room for air.  Shake the hell out of the bag and massage the marinade into the beef (over the bag so you don't get stinky hands).

4.  Put the bag of beef in the fridge for the night.

This usually takes me about 5 minutes, not including defrosting time.

The next day:

1.  Cut up some white button mushrooms into quarters.  Trim down the stems first.

2.  Heat some olive oil in a skillet on med-high (I put my stove on 7.5 out of 10)

3.  When the oil is hot, take your beef out of the bag and put the cubes directly into your skillet.  Some of the sauce will spill off into the skillet - that's fine. You can toss your messy Ziploc bag at this point or hold on to it for garbage while you're cooking.  That's what I do.

4.  When the beef has browned on both sides, throw some water into the skillet and let it reduce a bit. 

5.  Just when you see the water starting to reduce, add the mushrooms into the same skillet.  Give the mushrooms enough time to absorb the flavours of the sauce.

6.  Cook your beef to taste (Dr. Poon says the more well-done it is, the less fat it has).  Plate the beef first and pour the mushroom sauce over the beef.

While you're cooking the beef, just have another skillet going with your asparagus.  Easiest vegetable in the world to cook - trim the asparagus stems like flower stems (on an angle), put them in a skillet of boiling salted (Half Salt) water and let them cook for 3-5 minutes (depending on how you like them).  I dust them with a few Molly McButter sprinkles when they're done for flavour.

Easy breezy, and so good!  You can substitute chicken, lamb, pork, whatever.  The marinade is fantastic and didn't affect my ketones or weight loss a bit.

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I just bought a camera so I'll see if I can find out how to upload a pic of this meal so you guys can see it.  Post a comment if you try this and tell me what you think!

I'm going to be vacationing in Florida this week and next week so it's going to be a major challenge to stay on course.  Dr. Poon told me to go with Phase 3 while I'm gone but I'm going to see if I can actually stay with Phase 1 or worst case scenario, Phase 2.  I'll check in when I'm back home (late next week).  Good luck everyone!