Meat and Potatoes Done Right

Do you know what you’re having for dinner yet? If not, you might want to stick with something classic and to the point tonight, and I’m sure you’ll be happy that you did!

Lisa looks happy!

First of all, you’re going to have to start at the grocery store – where most meals start. Generally, I’d say buy the most biggest, baddest, most-expensive steak and potatoes that you can afford. As with most things in life, you generally get what you pay for. That said, we bought the 2 biggest potatoes that we could find and some London Broil on sale. If you can afford Filet Mignon, get that. 😛

Next, you’re going to have to get those potatoes cooking. Scrub the skin on the outsides of the potatoes very well, and dry them off. After that, cover them in olive oil and salt. THAT’S IT. The olive oil and salt is the trick to getting those golden baked potatoes that are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. We cooked ours for about an hour in the toaster-oven at 375 degrees and 15 minutes at 400, but that didn’t work out as well as 45 minutes to an hour in the regular oven generally does. We were just trying to use the toaster-oven, because we live in the desert and it’s 120 degrees outside – didn’t really want to heat up the house.

I like how they look polished like bowling balls or something...

I’d start the steaks when the baked pototoes have about a half an hour left to cook. Once again, cover the steaks with olive oil and salt. THAT’S IT. The olive oil seals in the meat’s natural juices, and the salt helps sear the outside of the meat via the magic of science. Sometimes, I’ll apply the salt water or salt directly to the grill before throwing the meat on. The olive oil and salt will help ensure a juicy steak. After the steak is halfway cooked, crack some fresh pepper over it.

You think it looks okay to eat?

We served our steaks with Chris & Pitt’s amazing barbaque sauce, and drizzled some cheese over our potatoes. We just melted some sharp cheddar cheese down in a pan with a little vinegar (so that the cheese doesn’t stick to the pan).

This stuff is REALLY good.

 

DAY 88 – Our Last “Day”

Well, it’s about time that we stopped keeping track of the number of days that we’ve been on our diet, because we aren’t really dieting anymore. We both lost a good amount of weight – BRIAN LOST 30 LBS! LISA LOST 10 LBS! – but now we’re just trying to eat a healthy quantity of food and exercise more. When we were dieting, we didn’t have much energy to do anything. Now, we’ve been eating a little more, and it’s much easier to fit a workout into our day.

We’re not doing it anymore, but dieting for a while was good. Counting our calories really made us realize what a crazy amount of calories there are in some foods! There’s some places that we won’t even eat at anymore! In fact, if we’re eating fast food, it’s pretty much only between Del Taco’s regular tacos at 130 calories each or Wendy’s Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe with no mayo or ketsup at 230 calories.

Another reason that we’re not going to be counting calories anymore is that LISA IS LOSING HER MIND! 😛 lol. Seriously, I’m very afraid that I’m going to be married to a skeleton in matter of months. In fact, I might just be stopping in at Dairy Queen before she gets home to get her a Blizzard! She’s skinnier than before we met!? Actually, I guess we both are! 😉

Anyway, as a result of all these changes, Healthy Professionals Food Blog will be changing a little. For the most part, we’re just going to be blogging awesome recipes and pictures of food – no more charts itemizing our food eaten, calories burned, steps taken, and so on. Also, no more calorie scoreboard. So, I guess LISA WINS on the calorie scoreboard!

So, expect more blogs featuring tasty pictures like the one below! It’s actually our dinner from last night. There was something called the California Grill Pack at Stater Bros, and it came with 2 marinated chicken thighs, 3 boneless country-style ribs, and 4 bratworst for $6.99! It was awesome with mac and cheese!

4 Bratworst; 3 Boneless, Country-Style Ribs; and 2 Marinated Chicken Thighs!

Oh yeah! You can also expect more puppy pictures!!!

The cone's not on him just because it's hilarious. He's actually got a "hot spot" on his arm, but he doesn't let his cone bother him!

Day 84 & 85: Grilled Turkey Sausage and Zuchini Onion Kabobs!

We had turkey sausage with cream sauce again! This time we put the zuchini on skewers with little onions. Everything turned out absolutely scrumptious yet again! The sausages have 170 calories each and the 3 kabobs only have about 50 calories!

We also worked out on Wii Fit last night instead of the EA Active. We found the Wii Fit island track to be a bit more entertaining than the EA Active track. Plus on the Wii Fit version we got to chase a small puppy the whole way. What could be more fun?

CALORIE SCORECARD:

Brian=+1,572 Lisa=-12,980

7/15-7/16 Brian Lisa
Total Calories Consumed 4,998 4,025
# of Steps 18,864 17,999
# of calories for steps 660 630
# calories living 3,600 3,600
Total Calories Burned 4,260 4,230
Net Effect for Day 738 -205
# of Push Ups 30 20
# of Sit Ups 60 75
# of Minutes Ran 12 12

Day 83 – Turkey Dago Meatloaf

No, there’s not actually Degos in the meatloaf – nor Meatloaf the recording artist! We’re referring more to the Italian spices and spicy marinara sauce that it’s smothered with. We’d never used ground turkey to make meatloaf before, but it turned out arguably better than when made with ground beef! It went really well with lima beans, and it made great low-calorie sandwiches on English Muffins! Yum!

We simply spiced the ground turkey with 10 smashed crackers, crushed red peppers, powdered Parmesan, fresh cracked pepper, onion powder, minced garlic, celery salt and “Italian Seasoning”. After mixing everything into the meat, simply form the turkey into the shape of your pan. Then, cover the whole thing with some marinara sauce – out of the jar is fine. Bake it for about an hour and a half (depending on the size) at 350-375 degrees or until the core temperature is above 160 degrees.

We’ve been failing at exercising lately, but our feet our actually injurred in a way to where it’s better that we stay off of them right now. We don’t seem to be getting fat though, and it’s nice to be thinner now but still eating a reasonable amount of food.

CALORIE SCOREBOARD:

Brian= +834           Lisa = -12,775

7/12-14/2011 Brian Lisa
Total Calories Consumed 5,385 3,712
     
# of Steps 23,621 30,899
# of calories for steps 826.74 1081.5
# calories living 5,400 5,400
Total Calories Burned 6,227 6,481
     
Net Effect for Day -842 -2,769
     
# of Push Ups 0 0
# of Sit Ups 0 0
# of Minutes Ran 0 0

The Tea Show, Episode 21: Intro to Yerba Mate with Oregon Yerba Mate

http://blip.tv/the-tea-show/the-tea-show-episode-21-intro-to-yerba-mate-with-oregon-yerba-mate-5400031

Day 79 and 80 – EA Active Injuries

Well, as you might notice on our chart below, we haven’t worked out in two days. The reason for this is that we’ve both managed to hurt ourselves “running” on the EA Active fitness program for Nintendo Wii. We usually think of EA Active as a great way to exercise indoors and get your heartrate going when it’s 120 degrees outside here in the desert. However, maybe this is an activity that we’re going to have to start doing with shoes on instead of barefoot. It seems like we need more support, because both of us seem to have injured our feet in some way. 😦

CALORIE SCOREBOARD:

Brian= +1,676           Lisa = -10,006

Tons of fun and good for you, but be sure to wear shoes like these people in the picture!

7/10-11/2011 Brian Lisa
Total Calories Consumed 3,820 2,620
     
# of Steps 20,326 19,324
# of calories for steps 711.41 676.34
# calories living 3,600 3,600
Total Calories Burned 4,311 4,276
     
Net Effect for Day -491 -1,656
     
# of Push Ups 0 0
# of Sit Ups 0 0
# of Minutes Ran 0 0