Becoming a Beef Expert

When I got back to my hotel room after dinner Friday night, there was a big canvas swag bag that among other things, had a yoga mat.  There was an optional one hour yoga session from 7:30 to 8:30 before breakfast.

I saw a yoga studio the day before when I worked out so I just assumed that’s where it was going to be.  When I got down there exactly at 7:30, I was shocked to find only one other person there!  We waited 10 minutes, and then finally realized that we were in the wrong place.  So our hour of yoga turned into 45 minutes of yoga, but it was still tough.

The weird part?  The yoga instructor was touchy feely.  I don’t have that much experience with yoga, so at one point we were in child’s pose and all of a sudden I see feet on either side of my mat and she started moving my hips and massaging my shoulders!  Is that normal?!  Ha!

A quick shower and change of clothes and I was at the Rooftop Deck for our private breakfast. 

They had assorted muffins, fresh fruit, granola, and beef and sweet potato breakfast burritos.   Holy cow, were these good!  They knew I was coming because there were tiny bottles of Tabasco!

This recipe is on their website here – and here’s a better picture of it from their website.  The meat was super tender and I loved the slightly sweet balance from the sweet potato.  Of course, I had to pick off some onions, what else is new.

We then had two guest speakers before heading to lunch.  One topic was “Lifestyling: Styling your Life and Inspiring Others” and the second one was “13 Lessons I’ve Learned in 30 Years as a Mommy RD.”

The second topic wasn’t as appropo to me, because it talked about nutrition in school lunches – although she did have great distain for Jamie Oliver and how he tried to recreate the American school lunch with fresher ingredients.  Sadly, most school districts have to feed 500 kids on about $1.25 per person – you just can’t get that price point solely on fresh, unprocessed foods.  I liked this slide too:

It’s completely true – you don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.  I think Tony and I do a pretty good job avoiding processed food.  Well, until we have fish stick tacos!

We then met Chef Dave Zino for a cooking demonstration and lunch.  First course?  Tiny grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.  Heaven!

We also had a Thai beef salad – my keen senses removed the purple onions.

We learned about the different cuts of beef and how they are best prepared.  We also learned about beef flavor – I never really knew that different cuts of beef have more flavor – think that flavor moves front to back – the chuck and rib are very rich with beef flavor, the loin and sirloin have moderate flavor and the round has mild beef flavor.

Dave made three dishes – here are two of them – a ginger Asian beef kabob served over orzo, and a classic stir fry:

And dessert were macaroons – yep, insulin worthy – I had one.  So flakey and tender.

And before I knew it, it was time to go to our last stop:  The Chopping Block!  Hands down my favorite part of the whole weekend – the last and final recap will be tomorrow.

I think I must be on a breakfast burrito/breakfast taco kick because yet again, I had a breakfast burrito (with a tiny bit of hot sauce) and a lemon Chobani for breakfast.

Oh man.  I am so happy I finally found the lemon Chobani – so good!  So tart, but slightly sweet.  I cannot wait to make lemon poppy seed muffins using this yogurt.

We had a work luncheon – one of my co-workers is getting married in a week and a half.  We ended up having a pizza party.  Um, I think you guys know how I feel about pizza.  #icouldeatiteverydayandnevergetsickofit.

So after my overindulgence in the alcohol department the night before, I knew I had to be in control – not the pizza!

Here is a tip.  If you ever order deep dish pizza, don’t have them cut it at the restaurant if you take it out or have it delivered.  The cheese and sauce will be a complete mess by the time you get it.  I brought my pizza cutter from home.  The crust was still crisp tender – look at that crust!

I was good! My plate:

And I didn’t eat any of the chocolate mouse torte cake – but everyone gave it rave reviews.  I actually bought it at a Jewel bakery!

It was a nice luncheon, and between setting up, eating and then cleaning up, took a good two hour chunk out of the day.

I had chicken marsala on the menu last night.  Chicken breast prices this past week were crazy, so I ended up buying a small package of chicken tenders for $3.  Instead of cooking two chicken breasts for each of us, I diced up 8 ounces of chicken for the two of us.  I used my tried and true chicken marsala for two recipe.  If you’ve never worked with Marsala wine, it’s in the vinegar aisle.  There are some Marsala wines that can cost up to $20, but this is Marsala cooking wine – this bottle cost $2.89.

Chicken marsala is one of Tony’s favorite dinners.  Pure comfort in a bowl!

Well you guys, I have to admit that I am missing my Insanity at night.  So far all the alternatives I’ve used don’t push me or feel like I am working out as hard, so last night I dove back in and did 40 minutes of Pure Cardio.  Sadly, in the three weeks I haven’t done it, I’ve lost some of my stamina – I did about 90% of the workout.  Giant sweaty pics!!

So as much as Shaun T and Tania drive me nuts sometimes, until I find another alternative (who is going to send me the new T25?!  Kidding!), I am going back to Insanity.

Stats for the Day:

• 1967 calories (includes unpictured granola and apple/caramel dip snack)
• 284 carbs (wholly bat shit that’s high!), 121 protein (nice) 42 grams of fiber (nicer!) and 39 grams of fat (nicest!)
• 18$ of calories from fat, 24% from protein and 56% from carbs

Thanks to everyone on my Healthy for the Holidays FB page (still not too late to join – friend request me!  Beth Hills Velatini) for telling me to shake it off about my beer/wine consumption.  It put it into perspective, that one night doesn’t define how well I’ve been doing. 

I had to laugh at Debbi’s comment though!  Thanks Debbi!

Next time you drink unplanned alcohol, I’m coming over and putting onions on all your food for the day. Think about that next time you reach for a beer. Tough love, baby!

Make it a great day!