So we’ve been talking about more cooking, right?  And everyone groans.  Number one complaint, “it takes too long and I get home so late”.  Here is a great recipe that makes for a great dinner and a few awesome leftover lunches.  After a little capital investment in storage and cooking devices (see above), this recipe turns out 4-5 Paleo-Zone meals for about $5/meal.  Total time in the kitchen is a laughable 10-15 minutes.

Ready??  3...2...1...CROCKPOT

Ingredients:

2 pounds lean beef or bison (stew meat is perfect)

1 bag of carrots

1 bunch of Asparagus

1 large onion

1 bunch of garlic

2 cups of beef, chicken or vegetable stock (or water)

Get the beef or bison that is already cut up, so it makes it easy for you.  The funny thing is that the less expensive cuts of meat usually have the least fat (since grilling steaks need that fat for “juicy-ness”).  We won’t need it since we’ll be cooking our meat for 8 hours and it will be fork tender.

Dice up the carrots, asparagus and onion into little pieces and put them on the bottom of the pot.  Then peel some whole garlic cloves (if you want...I love cooked garlic), and put them on top.

Dump the stew meat on top and fill the container with a few cups of stock, or just water if you like.  You don’t want to add any spices or hot sauce right now since they’ll turn bitter with the long and slow cooking.

What’s next?  Nada.  Zip.  Zero.  Zilch.  Just turn the dial to LOW and chill out for 8 hours.

I did this recipe last weekend on Sunday night.  We went to Whole Foods around 7pm and got some bison shoulder roast for $6.99/lb.  It wasn’t cut up, but we asked the butcher and he cubed it for us. 

I also picked up some organic carrots, asparagus and an onion for less than $20 with tax.  While I was there I made my dinner for the night at the buffet and ate it there (I had to, they had baked plantains and I couldn’t resist).

When I got home, I did all the prep work (all 15 minutes) and then went to bed with the crock pot cookin’.  The next morning I woke up and dished the stew equally into 4 tupperware containers and took two with me to the gym.  The other two I left in the fridge for lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I’m pretty large, and need a lot of food during the day.  This would make 5 very nice meals for most people.  For those guys Zoning it, you should add one 2 block fruit (apple, peach, nectarine) and 4 blocks of fat (12 almonds or cashews) with each tupperware meal.

It doesn’t get a lot cheaper or easier than that.  You get a phenomenal protein source, an easy to eat amount of carbs, and you can spice it any way you like (curry is one idea, or Texas Pete).

Have fun with this one, and let me know how you fancy it up when you give it a try!