Week two of the countdown to surgery.

This week has been harder. I’ve been eating about 98% on plan but my weight leveled off and then I actually gained a pound over two days! ACK! I kept telling myself this is a science experiment and not to be so attached but after losing 8 pounds last week it was a bit of a letdown. (To say the least!) One person advised me that this is natural and to keep my perspective. I had a very stressful week with low sleep, and then I got my cycle, so there you go. Amazing how everything affects us huh?

The big win I got out of this week is I DID NOT give in and start eating the SAD (Standard American Diet) diet again, even though the scale did not recognize this. I did feel great all week! In fact I had so much energy it was unreal! Even after working long days, I wasn’t wiped out like I usually am.

So Cubby Bear, (paleo son) has been encouraging me to eat about 125 grams of protein a day. This is a really big stretch for the once vegetarian. I’m lucky to get 50 grams a day. But Cubby Bear says that eating a lot of protein satisfies and lowers the chance of doing bad things. Ya know like eating chocolate, lots of chocolate. It is time to explore, what is 125 grams of protein look like in one day?

To find out how much protein that is and how to get it, I took a stroll over to primal god among mortal men, Mark Sisson’s site to examine this.  He has an excellent article on this topic, as I would expect him to have, ya know, sense he is a god. So it looks like a 6 oz beef steak has 52 grams of protein in it. Hum, not bad.

(All the following meats are for 6 oz, except the egg of course.)Then a can of tuna has 40 grams which is close to the same amount for a chicken breast of the same size. Turkey on the other hand has 48 grams. Interesting. One egg is only 6.3 grams. Well that is disappointing; seeming that is one of my favorite foods. Venison one of our favorite meats to eat, thanks to caveman husband, is about 39 grams. Well I can see this is going to be a challenge but I am up to it! Bring on the venison!

My caveman hubby, affectionately known as “Stag”, is such a great cook. One of my favorite meals he creates is pan seared venison with onions and mushrooms. We have it for breakfast sometimes. (I’m drooling just writing about it.) Remember when cooking wild game that it has more connective tissue in it so if you over cook it, it will be really dry and liver tasting. Stag makes his steaks out of rump roast after the backstrap and tenderloins are gone. You can hardly tell the difference. Feel free to use grass fed bison or beef for this as well. This is a great site to get your bison from. Sustainably raised and happy buffalo meat.

Stag’s perfect seared venison steak

5-6 cloves of sliced garlic
4-6 Venison steaks, about 1 ¼ inches thick
A couple tablespoons of coconut oil
2 cups of sliced mushrooms
1 large onion sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Slice your garlic and wrap them in a paper towel and squeeze them dry. Cut your steaks into portion sizes and then take a paper towel and dab off all the moisture on both sizes. I know this sounds weird but you must get the moisture off the steaks to get the right sear on them. (Stag puts his steaks or roast in a colander on a plate, in the fridge for a few hours before hand to drip dry a bit.) Then heat up a heavy bottomed skillet and melt the coconut oil in there. (We use a cast iron skillet big and heavy enough to knock out a bear.) Put the garlic in the pan on medium heat and sauté the garlic until it is a nice golden brown color. Fish out the garlic and put aside. Turn up the heat to medium high and lay the steaks in the hot oil.

It is important to note here that you do not want to crowd the steaks. They need to be at least an inch a part to sear correctly or they end up boiling. Scouch the steaks around with your spatula so they do not stick as they are searing and cook 3 – 5 minutes on one side, then flip over and cook another 3 minutes or so. (We like our meat done medium rare) Pull out your steaks and put them on a plate a least an inch apart so they do not keep cooking. If you think they are overdone quickly cut them into slices to stop the cooking all together. Don’t be bashful to cut into the smallest runt steak and test the doneness. If that steak is cooked perfectly to your liking, remove and let the other bigger steaks cook about 30 seconds more.

After you have pulled the steaks out, drop another tablespoon of coconut oil in the skillet and dump in the mushrooms and onions. Sauté for about 5-10 minutes or so while the meat rests. When your mushrooms and onions are just perfect, pour them and all the pan drippings over the steaks and serve immediately with the sautéed garlic. Ug, very good.