Sunday, January 15, 2012

Cube Steak with Wild Mushrooms, Week 1 Update 30 Day Paleo Total Transformation, and RKC update

Paleo Friendly Cube Steak with Wild Mushrooms (Recipe below)
First things first. I wanted to report back after my first full week of eating Paleo, following Robb Wolf's 30 Day Total Transformation.
I've reported a couple times what I have been eating. If you've read those posts you can see that I've been eating very well. That's my first observation following the Paleo diet: you eat well, you eat clean and it's expensive. Buying local meats, including grass fed beef and wild salmon and other fish costs money. For me, it's ok, I can afford it. Not sure how someone who is financially challenged might navigate the price tag though.
Overall, I am feeling great.
I have more energy.
I'm sleeping better.
When I eat a meal, I get filled up faster.
I'm less hungry in between meals.
I feel strong during my workouts.
Food tastes amazing to me, better than ever.
Lots of pluses and not too many minuses, other than how expensive the diet can be. For me, it's worth it. I put food as the highest priority, in line with fitness, for my good health.
For this to work for me, I also need to ensure that the meat I am eating is meat that comes from a local farm, with ethical practices or else I can't eat it.
I'm looking forward to Week 2!

RKC Update
This Saturday, I had a 1:1 with RKC 2 Michael Perry, from Skill of Strength. It was an excellent session. He worked on my Get Up and taught me the Get Up Dance! I need to work on getting the bottom half of my Get Up seamless.
Next we worked on my swing. While doing my swing, right off the bat, Mike noticed my right knee was buckling a bit but the left one wasn't. He filmed me so I could see what he was talking about. So, we worked on correcting that.
He also thought my swing was too squatty and didn't have enough hip hinge. We worked on some drills to get my hips hinging deeper.
Lastly with the swing, Mike made the observation that I need to go heavier. Swinging the 16kg bell isn't enough for me anymore and in order to get better, I need to go heavier.
We then worked on the snatch. Bottom line, I need to use my hips more. I have so much power and I'm not tapping in to it.
To finish, Mike worked on opening up my shoulders/lats a bit as well.
To train for RKC, I'm having Mike write me a program to follow. He is currently training his wife Amanda, from Sistas of Strength for her RKC, and she is doing great!
Updates to follow for sure!!

Now, onto the food!
Here's a Paleo friendly recipe for Cube Steak with Mushrooms - done in pressure cooker, but you could easily cook this in the slow cooker or on the stove.
Cube steak comes from the round part of the beef, which is the rump. It's a thin steak that is usually pounded out to tenderize.

Ingredients
1-2 lbs Cube steak
1/4 cup coconut flour
S+P to taste
1 onion, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 lbs wild mushrooms (I used a mix of trumpet, chanterelles, and oyster)
1 cup beef broth (or more if your pressure cooker or crock pot needs more liquid)
Fresh herbs of choice (I used thyme, savory and rosemary)
Parsley, chopped

Technique
1. Season the coconut flour with S+P, then dredge the cube steaks in it.
2. Brown the cube steaks in coconut oil until brown; set aside.

3. Start to brown onions and garlic, seasoning w.S+P. To the aromatics, add the mushrooms and cook down until they start to release their moisture. Add fresh herbs and stir.

4. (If using a slow cooker, transfer the aromatics and mushrooms to the pot now and proceed as directed.) Add back the cube steak and add beef broth. Put cover on pressure cooker, bring up to pressure (15 psi) and cook for 6 minutes with a natural release. If using a slow cooker, cover and cook for 3-4 hrs on high. If using the stove, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes; check to see if steak is done, it should be very tender. Let it cook longer if it's not quite tender enough.

5. After the pressure has dropped for 10 minutes, release any pressure that might remain and open up the pot. The beef should be quite tender.

6. Test for seasoning, adjusting with S+P if necessary. Top with fresh, chopped parsley.

Coming up next in the blog, a Paleo friendly root veggie pancake and a review of Improveat's Coconut Wraps!
Enjoy!

4 comments:

Gail said...

This looks totally delicious! I hope fred cooks me this ( I don't have faith in my handling/cooking raw meat yet). Thanks for the recipes! Please keep them coming!

Gail said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sharon Shiner said...

Thank you Gail! Let me know if Fred makes this for you and how you like it! :)

Unknown said...

This looks divine, and I believe I will be making this for dinner in the next couple of nights.

One request: could you add pinterest buttons to your recipe posts? And other share buttons - it makes it easier for people to spread the word. :-)