This is a cooking article I wrote in the first issue of Inside Fitness on how to prepare Eye of Round the best way...THis is your luck day, here we go:

Main Course:
By Darrin Robinson

My objective with this column is to provide you with healthy and tasty recipes to help add variety to your diet no matter what kind of diet you are on. I am going to provide dishes that make it easy to put different types of meals together my mixing and matching these recipes. I took chef training for years and love to cook, however I have to eat a structured diet day in and day out in order to maintain 4-7% body fat all rear round. My livelihood depends on it. I also have to design meal plans for clients and your average person is not going to stick to any meal plan if they are eating chicken and tuna every day.

For this first Main Course article I want to keep it nice and simple and teach you how to grill the perfect steak. Beef is a great source of protein but most people stay away due to the fat content. All beef is not created equal however. Most steaks that you are going to get in a restaurant are going to be New York Strip, Beef Tenderloin (fillet) and Rib Eye. These steaks are tender and taste great, why? Fat. Fat makes things taste good and the marbling (lines of fat running through the muscle) adds to the tenderness. I am not going to be teaching you how to grill one of these cuts though; I am going to focus on a much leaner (and less expensive) cut of beef, Eye of Round.

Eye of round, when trimmed of all visible fat is almost as lean as a skinless chicken breast here is an example:

4oz of roasted Eye of Round                 4oz of roasted Skinless Chicken Breast

33.3g Protein                                 35.2g Protein
5.3g Fat                                         4g Fat
1.9g Saturated Fat                                 1.1g Saturated Fat
78.7mgs Cholesterol                         96mgs Cholesterol
70.7mgs Sodium                                 84mgs Sodium

Nutrient breakdown provided by “The NutriBase Nutrition Facts Desk Reference 2nd Edition”

The major problem with extremely lean cuts of beef is that they tend to lack the flavor and tenderness of the fattier cuts of beef. I am going to fix that by showing you step by step how you prep the beef as well as cook and carve the steak, all important factors in order to achieve a great tasting, tender, lean steak.

1.        Don’t buy eye of round already cut into circular steaks. The way they are precut from the roast by most butchers makes them tougher after they are cooked. Buy the roast, trim the fat and cut the steaks lengthwise about 1 1/2” in thickness. I prefer my steaks this thickness, you can cut it thinner so it cooks faster.

2.        Once you have cut your steaks we want to add flavor, I have included a dry rub I always make that you can tweak to your personal taste. By excluding the salt and using a salt alternative you can monitor your sodium intake more closely for those of you that might be trying to shed water for a show or whatever. Use as much or as little rub as you like, I like to season it a lot.

3.        Place the steaks on a very hot grill, turn the heat down to medium high once they steaks are all on the grill and leave them alone for 7 minutes. That’s right, leave them, don’t keep turning or checking them. Once the 7 minutes has gone by flip them over and cook for another 7 minutes. This should cook the steaks medium rare to medium. Time will vary from grill to grill.

4.        Take them off the grill and place them on a cutting board and loosely cover them with tinfoil and let them “rest” for 10 minutes. This will let the meat relax and keep the juices inside, if you carve them too soon after taking off the heat all the juices run out.

5.        Have a look at the surface of the steak, you will notice the “grain” or fibers running in one direction. This is where we carve the steak ACROSS the grain in order to shorten the fibers and make that steak melt in your mouth. Notice the 45 degree angle that I carve at, this gives more surface area and makes it look more appetizing.

Now all you have to do is eat and enjoy.

Rub:
2 tbsp Garlic Powder
2 tbsp Paprika
2 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tbsp Onion Powder
1 tbsp Dried Thyme
1 tbsp Dried Oregano
1 tbsp Cracked Black Pepper

Hope this helps

Darrin