Wrapping up steak week with a recap, and yes — lots of steak happened. Weight-wise, I’m down about seven or eight pounds so far. Not huge in the grand scheme since I’ve still got around 40 pounds to go, but it’s moving in the right direction.
Closed out the week with a beef stew, made in the pressure cooker instead of an all-day crockpot situation — 35 minutes and the beef chuck came out tender. I actually borrowed my French dip sandwich recipe for it: a little red wine, Worcestershire, soy sauce, bay leaves, four cups of stock. Skipped the salt entirely since the soy sauce handles that on its own. Tasting made us realize that 4 cups of stock was too much, diluted the flavor too much. Or I should have added more of the Worcestershire, soy sauce, and fish sauce.
The real steak week highlight was a New York strip — 7 ounces for me, 5 for happy healthy wife — with roasted broccoli and red onion. We also tried quinoa for the first time. Verdict? Healthy, sure, lots of protein and amino acids, but pretty flavorless on its own. Going to keep experimenting with how to season it before I write it off completely.
Also made kung pao shrimp this week, loaded with zucchini instead of the usual potatoes — really good, and the extra veggies helped keep things filling without piling on carbs. That’s been the theme lately: bulking up meals with vegetables rather than reaching for more bread or rice when I’m still a little hungry. Trying to live by that old “eat until satisfied, not until full” rule.
Quick behind-the-scenes note on the AI side of things: I’ll ask for American or Chinese flavor profiles, get suggestions, then look up real recipes online to nail down the proportions. Case in point — happy healthy wife vetoed lasagna but lit up at the mention of eggplant parm, so that’s getting the AI portion-and-healthify treatment for next episode. Baked instead of fried, already a good start.
That’s the wrap on week five. See you for the eggplant parm verdict next time.
