In the New Year I am going to start a nutrition/cutting class. To give you a brief rundown, this class is going to be a 13 week long class. The first meeting will be a two part class; the first part will be teach those that do not know how to track macros, how to track. For those that don’t need a lesson on how to track macros, the second part will be a discussion on macros, nutrition, and what a cut consists of.
After the first meeting, we will track our macros for one week. No changes in diet, NOTHING different. Don’t go overboard, but don’t eat any less either. This is a very important part of your cut. There is no way to accurately cut your calories, if you don’t know where you are starting at. Then, after the second meeting there will be check-ins every two weeks.
This class is not going to be for the faint of heart. This class is going to be for those that are wanting to put effort into losing weight, those that want to learn how to track calories, anyone wanting to know about nutrition, etc. Even if you are not wanting to do a cut, the bi-weekly meetings will be helpful for those that often fall of the bandwagon and need some extra accountability. Making short term goals and reaching them every couple of weeks, is a major moral boost and will keep you motivated to continue making healthy, smart choices.
The most important thing to know about this class, is that it will take effort. Tracking takes effort. Making changes to your diet takes a certain amount of mental toughness and stamina, especially to make it through the 13 week process. Going through such a long process will build a foundation for making healthy choices, when there is no longer a group to hold you accountable and short term goals to keep you going. This will help those that need to learn how to make smart choices on their own and make it a life style choice.
Everything worth doing takes effort and determination. Making life style changes are not easy and not everyone in your life will agree with them. Believe it or not, being healthy is not always the most popular choice. I get a lot of criticism for eating healthy and get told on numerous occasions that ‘I could never eat at your house’ and ‘you must not feed your kids and husband’, those kind of comments can really get in your head and bug the stew out of you (me), but I know those people are 1.rude and 2.have no idea what I really eat. You have to make your mind up to be healthy and just stick to it.
MENU
Black Bean Quinoa Fajita Bowl + Steak
Back Strap + Grilled Eggplant with Tomatoes
Pork Tacos
Tenderloin + Beet, Carrot, and Pomegranate Salad
Pork Sandwiches
Black Bean Quinoa Fajita Bowl + Steak
Josh killed a doe at the beginning of the season and that meat has been long gone for weeks. It is so nice to have meat on hand and not worry with going to the store for thin steaks for bowls or ground meat for soups and spaghetti. As you may have guessed, he killed another deer this past week! (praise hands emoji) We need about 3 more in the freezer though.
This week I am going to use the cubed steak to make these. You can totally keep these vegetarian and not use any meat. I am going to keep this as a bowl, but you can skip the quinoa and use a tortilla instead if you want to keep the carbs low. What this recipe does not take into account was the oil needed to cook the vegetables. I like to spray olive oil in my pan right now and not use a whole tablespoon of olive oil just to cook peppers and onions.
Other than that, I do not add any avocados to my bowl. I love avocado, but I like to skip out on the fat too.
Back Strap + Grilled Eggplant with Tomatoes
On of the first things we eat on the deer is the back strap. Josh will let the meat sit on ice for a few days and then we take it to the processor, but we keep the back strap and tenderloin.
I like to cook the back strap in the cast iron skillet on medium heat. I season the back strap the same way I would season a steak. I slice the back strap into 1.5 to 2 inch thick pieces and cook it on both sides for about 2-3 minutes, until they are medium rare. I use Pike’s Peak Seasoning, but you can also make your own with …. and I cook the meat in grapeseed oil.
This grilled eggplant is so good and easy. It is easy to underestimate the amount of eggplant you need. Once the eggplant is cooked, it really shrinks down into half of the volume that you started with. I like to salt both sides of my eggplant after I cut it, about 30 minutes before I cook them to draw out the excess water.
It does take a decent amount of olive oil to coat the eggplant. The eggplant will really soak up the oil and collect in one spot. I like to spray the eggplant with olive oil, so it is coated evenly and doesn’t just get soaked up in the spots where the olive oil is poured on. I don’t like all of the excess fat in my meals, especially with oils. If I am going to have extra fat in my meal, I want it to be something I am actually eating and tasting not just something to coat my vegetables in.
Boston Butt Tacos
A few weeks ago twin packs of boston butt were on sale. We went ahead and cooked both butts, ate one and froze the other. Just coming back into town from having Christmas with my family, I am going to make this week easy and use the meat we have frozen already.
These tacos are good, meal prep friendly, macro friendly, and easy. It doesn’t matter whether you cook the peppers and onions ahead of time or not. I will at least chop them up and save myself that step. Roasting them in the oven versus cooking them on the stove top is another good option. I like to season my peppers and onions with cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper.
For the meat, I cook it in the crockpot for 8 hours on low. For the seasoning I like to evenly coat all sides with salt, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, paprika, and yellow mustard. Once the meat is cooked thoroughly, let it cool and then separate the meat from the fat. Then I get a large bottle of salsa verde, you can make your own if you are feeling fancy, and simmer the meat in the salsa verde. I always make sure I get the high fiber, low carbohydrate tortillas so I don’t feel bad about eating tacos.
Tenderloin + Beet, Carrot, and Pomegranate Salad
We cook the tenderloin the same way that we cook the back strap. You can mix it up and cook it in the oven as one entire piece the way you would cook a pork loin, but I like the simplicity of cooking it in as small steaks in the pan.
This is one of the first beet salads I ever made. I thought I was being so fancy with my layered carrots and beets, with the pomegranates scattered on top. It really is a beautiful dish and tastes great too. I love mixing golden and red beets, but if you are just starting to get beets a chance, which I highly recommend you do, start with golden beets. No oil in this dressing is also a bonus.
Pork Sandwiches
The boston butts were pretty big, so we are going to be able to eat off of them for four meals. Thank goodness. I love when an easy week of cooking just falls into place at the right moments.
The initial seasoning of the boston butt is the same no matter if I am cooking sandwiches or tacos. The sandwiches are the easiest of the two by far. I can tolerate a lot of carbohydrates so I get a good fresh baked bun from the deli. They have around 40 grams of carbs. I usually eat around half a pound of meat, but only eat one bun. I will fill my sandwich up and then just eat the excess meat that I pre-measured. Be mindful of the sauce you pick to cover your sandwich. You will end up consuming more carbohydrates and fat in a condiment than in your bun if you are not careful.
