Beef, it’s what’s for dinner!

August 1st, 2009, by

Meaty...

This is a picture of our refrigerator. More precisely, it is 25 pounds of meat, or 7 days worth of nourishment for me. With the help of my girls, this meat probably won't make it past day 5 :)

Category: Nutrition

16 Responses to "Beef, it’s what’s for dinner!"

  • Garth
    August 1, 2009, 8:30 am

    It's a fridge of beauty Bill! Let me know if you start falling behind and I'll be happy to come help put some of that meat away :)

  • Brian
    August 1, 2009, 10:24 pm

    I'm going to be mature and not make a comment about how Garth wants to put Bill's meat away...

    So Bill, I see some ribs in the back there. What do you put on ribs, considering most bbq sauce has a fair amount of sugar in it?

  • Beth
    August 2, 2009, 9:41 am

    Hrmm... homemade sauce? Spice rub?

    <-- Jealous. On the other hand, that looks to be nearly a whole months' food budget for us. XD

  • Beth
    August 2, 2009, 4:19 pm

    Still Jealous. And still thinking that looks like our entire monthly food budget, nearly. *sigh*

    (And wondering why the last two/three times I've tried to post, it's failed? Maybe this time?)

  • Bill
    August 3, 2009, 10:14 am

    Brian - The last time I made ribs I made a dry rub of paprika (4tsp), sea salt (1tsp), onion powder (2tsp), black pepper (2tsp), cayenne (1tsp), and ground mustard (1tsp). I rubbed that into the ribs and put them in the pressure cooker with a cup or two of water. The rub needs some tweaking, but the pressure cooker produced some tender ribs. If anyone has a good dry rub recipe, please share.

  • Bill
    August 3, 2009, 10:24 am

    Beth - I actually find it to be MUCH cheaper than conventional crap. All of the meat in that picture was purchased at Trader Joe's in Lake Zurich. The 80/20 ground beef is $1.99/lb, beef rib eyes are $6.99/lb, beef short ribs are $4.99/lb, beef flat ironsteaks are $8.99/lb, and pork ribs are $3.99/lb. Lately, I have been living on 1.5 pounds of rib eye and 2 pounds of 80/20 ground beef, at most, each day. That comes out to cost less than $15 per day. Compare that to 3 meals at McDonalds (probably cheapest food option around) and total cost will be very similar.

  • Tommy Mo
    August 3, 2009, 1:32 pm

    McDonald's Double Cheeseburger = $1.09 (includes IL Tax)

    $15.00 / $1.09 = 13.7 Double Cheeseburgers in a day.

    Nutritional Information (per double cheeseburger)
    Calories = 440
    Protein = 25g
    Carbs = 34g
    Fiber = 2g
    Fat = 23g
    Sat Fat = 11g

    Nutritional Information (13.7 double cheeseburgers)
    Calories = 440 x 13.7 = 6,028
    Protein = 25g x 13.7 = 342.5
    Carbs = 34g x 13.7 = 465.8
    Fiber = 2g x 13.7 = 27.4
    Net Carbs = 438.4
    Fat = 23g x 13.7 = 315.1
    Sat Fat = 11g x 13.7 = 150.7

    Yeah, I would prefer to follow's Wild Bill's diet quest for beef excellence rather than "get more for less" at the drive-thru's value menu.

    (Source: Go here baby!)

    Just sayin'......

  • Mark R.
    August 3, 2009, 1:46 pm

    Hey Bill I thought all you Paleo guys bulk buy your beef to save some coin? Or is Trader Joe's actually a better value when meat is on sale?

  • Bill
    August 3, 2009, 1:52 pm

    Mark - We have been buying in bulk from Slanker's Grass-fed Meats in Texas for the past couple of years primarily because it is grass-fed. The fact that we get a bulk discount makes it all the much better. We recently ran out of cow though so we are temporarily shopping at Trader Joe's until we can order again from Slanker's.

  • Beth
    August 3, 2009, 9:50 pm

    "meals at McDonalds (probably cheapest food option around)"
    ...Although I wouldn't grace that with the title of "Food". XD

    Still, fair enough, the few things I've seen from TJ's have been... let's just stick with 'less reasonably priced'. :) I do like the looks of those numbers.

    Still, a couple of sacks of carrots and celery tend to fill in gaps in our menus quite a bit - as does romaine and spinach. I try to keep a quantity of fruit around here as best as I can, especially with the kids, but meat costs/cuts always get to me. Do you have any reasons to hit up the beef, or just a personal preference? (Not that I'm arguing, but chicken's just easier for me to cook many many pounds of, differently enough to keep me more interested. For example, what on earth do you do with that much ground beef? It's never been my favorite, most ideas I hear using it just consist of different varieties of burgers. :/ )

  • Bill
    August 4, 2009, 11:27 am

    Beth - You are 100% correct. I should have referred to the stuff you can buy at McDonald's as "Frankenfoods". As for Trader Joe's, I have found their prices to be hit or miss. Totally depends on what kind of food stuff you are consuming though. Awesome that you guys turn to fruit and veggies for snacks. Definitely setting your children up for success later in life.

    I generally warm the ground beef in a pan and then eat it. You have to make sure you don't cook the meat past medium rare though otherwise it becomes dried out, hard, and flavorless. Every once in a while I'll form burger patties first, but again, that is every once in a while. I used to (Jennie and Katelyn still do) make a lot of ground beef dishes with various herbs, spices, tomato sauce, and leafy veggies (i.e. chard, spinach, etc.). I have also been known to make huge things of chili. Oh, and let's not forget the simple ground beef and bacon dish.

    My preference for beef is centered on the fact that I can buy grass-fed/finished beef. As I have talked about in previous posts, this offers up an ideal nutritional profile. Along those same lines, if we were to get very technical, I believe the fatty acid profile of beef to be similar to lamb, but superior to pork and far superior to poultry (including chicken and turkey). Now, this doesn't mean I won't eat chicken or recommend against it. If that is what you enjoy then keep eating it. It is just a part of why you see me eating so much beef, but I get caught up in the details sometimes. When I do eat chicken (for variety), I tend to go for the drumsticks and/or thighs due to the higher fat content. I would love to get my hands on other meats such as bison and elk as long as they were free range and not fed anything they shouldn't be eating. Finally, I will admit that I'm an equal opportunity carnivore, but really, really enjoy beef :)

    I think that answers everything.

  • Jeff W.
    August 10, 2009, 3:54 pm

    Hey all, I learned this weekend that my wife has a cousin that raises only grass fed and organic meats - am finding out more info this week, but from the sounds of it, the pricing was very good, even compared with Slanker's