What a Metabolic Doctor's Kitchen Actually Looks Like at Dinner Time

Most people don't struggle with knowing what to eat. They struggle with actually building a metabolically healthy meal when life is moving fast and the fridge is full of leftovers.

In this episode, Nicole and I walk you through a real weeknight dinner — a lamb taco bowl built around what we had on hand, the shortcuts we lean on without apology, and why this meal works metabolically even when it isn't perfect. We cover the protein anchor, slow-carb vegetables, healthy fats that keep your mitochondria burning clean, and how to think about carbohydrates relative to your own tolerance.

The framework is simple: protein anchor → fiber base → healthy fats → optional carbs. Master that, and you can build this meal a hundred different ways out of whatever's in your kitchen.

This isn't a perfection showcase. It's what a metabolically healthy lifestyle actually looks like when you're busy, you have a family to feed, and the guacamole is leftover from Easter.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, welcome to our kitchen. So most people don't really struggle with what foods to eat. They struggle with how to actually build a metabolically healthy recipe. So we've been asked lots of times um, you know, what we eat or what would be a good meal. So we thought we would bring you into our kitchen right along with us as we're cooking a meal, and we'll kind of like talk you through what we're doing. This is my wife, Nicole.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Hi.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

And she does most of the cooking. She comes up with a new meal to make like every single day that would totally freak me out and stress me out. But um, so yeah, I mean, really the anchor and the framework to any metabolically healthy meal is protein. So today, what we have for protein on the menu is lamb. And so this is sort of a lamb taco bowl night. So for those in the family that can handle a little bit more carbohydrate, we have some tortillas and some chips. But for those of us that are a little more carbohydrate sensitive, then we'll be mostly focusing on the vegetables and the protein.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Well, so first of all, I the reason why we're doing lamb tacos tonight is because we had some guacamole and ceviche leftover from yesterday for Easter. So I always try to build off of what we have left over, but again, always have protein in our fridge. So um I've been getting this lamb at Trader Joe's. Um, and for those of you, it's actually not real lamy, if you will, or gamey. It's actually has a really mild taste, but um, it's comes like this and it's shaved. So it's nice because it cooks up really fast. Um, and then I'll show you how I prepare it, but I usually like cut it into smaller pieces. But um, so that's what we we use, and we use the lamb a lot for um, we do um chimichuri bowls with it, or we'll do um serve and turf as well. So, but just tonight we're gonna do tacos just because again, we have the guacamole and ceviche left. So for those of you interested though, um, I can get the guacamole, it's amazing. It's at um a lot of times I'll make it, but this is from Jimbo's, which it's fabulous. Um and the ceviche, oh my gosh, it's a crowd pleaser. Um, it's actually from Stayer Brothers. And if they don't have it in the deli section, um, the guy will make it for you, like fresh. So it's shrimp ceviche. So we have some of that.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah. So if you think we're at home like cooking up and making all these little things from scratch, yeah, we're too busy for that. Yeah, we're not but we're finding really good sources out there from um, you know, a bunch of different grocery stores and making it happen.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

And I think one thing too, um, I think you have to get yourself grace. There's good, better, best. And there's we try to use good oils and things like that, obviously gluten-free. Um, but we can't knock it out in the park every time. And and I'm just too busy too. So um, but anyway, so here's some pico de gallo that I got from traders. Um, again, for those of you who could, you know, have still have some carbs left to what kind of chips are nice? These are um actually there, I I do get the good avocado oil chips. These are um the Siete, Siete brand. Um, and we also get Siete the grain free ones too, but they're not real easy to dip. So they're not as um like strong of a kit, if you will. And then we get these tortillas a lot, the cassava um Cody tortillas. Again, you could get these chips from sprouts. They have, I think they even have them at Target, Jimbo's leaves. I get at Jimbo's.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Um by the way, we have no financial relationship with any of these companies.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Just, you know, and the carb actually, though. Two tortillas is 22 grams of carbs, so that's kind of a lot. But I also might like the core tortilla, so these are just from traders. I usually don't get them there. I I think they're organic. So they told me um I usually get ones that actually say organic on NIP VR. And then um, I just skip this Spanish rice at Traders. It comes in a plastic bag like this. I don't microwave it in that. I put it in a bowl. Um, and I just put it in the microwave again. Um, good, better, best. This is not the best. It doesn't have good oils in it, but I'm not gonna make my own Spanish rice. Um, and then we just have some, we make it into bowls, so we just have cabbage or lettuce. Um, I do make a sauce, um, saranta and ranch. Um, and this is the primal kitchen. Um, again, you can get it at sprouts, and um, it has like the good avocado oil. So obviously I pick and choose, um, not pick and choose, but I can't get everything, you know, good oil. I can, but and I'm not gonna make everything because I'm not making everything. Um, and then we just get goat cheese and shred that and um we do that. But um, yeah, so again, the this is a really easy meal, and you can have it for leftovers tomorrow. So I'll just kind of show you what we do.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Let's get cooking. So we have our a big castware iron skillet. We typically make enough food for like a small army. That's just the way it goes.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Oh, our oldest son eats a ton, so he's actually not coming to late, but but so this lamb comes like in thin strips, but I just use some shears and cut it because again, we're gonna have it like taco portions, but it it cuts out like um as you're cooking it, you could tear it apart too. But we have really good shears, so I just do it like this. So and I just add salt and pepper to it. Um yeah, again, you can use this lamb with anything. We do serpenturf, we do chibichuri bowl uh a lot of times. We always make rice. I always have a pot of rice going just for our kids. I'm not a big rice person. Chad loves rice, but I eat sparingly.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

I have to limit myself because I can overindulge. And for me, that'd be a problem.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Um so yeah, I think that's pretty much it. We probably um we had a bunch of berries left over from Easter too, so that will be our dessert. Um and what else? I think that's pretty much that's pretty much it. They also have this at Freighter's FYI which I haven't tried yet. They have um shaved kind of beef there too. Um so I have yet to try that, try that, but I think it's the same type thing. So if you don't like lamb, um, but I would highly encourage you to get this because it really, I don't think it tastes. We in the past, I would get um, I make Mediterranean bowls and I usually get ground lamb, but I think that tastes gamier than this. This is really good.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Um yeah, sometimes lamb could be a little hit and miss. Sometimes I like lamb, sometimes I don't. Um this shave lamb had been consistently really, really good. Just the way it, first of all, it cooks fast, which is nice. Um, it's kind of a quick meal you'll see. Um, but it's not I mean, some people don't mind that kind of gameiness to the lamb. And and this really is a like that. It kind of takes on whatever flavor you put in it. Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

And again, it it it cooks up easy, so it is a quick meal here on down. It's so thin, that's why, and you have to worry about, oh, is it done or not?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

So did you put oil in the pan first?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Well, I just did a little bit just because this can't so dry. You don't need any oil, it has plenty of fat in it. Um, and that's all good fat.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

So uh remember a metabolically healthy recipe, like I said, anchors in awesome protein and get a good variety of protein. You know, get fish and seafood and beef, and we have lamb and poultry is all good. Um, so that's why we really want to anchor it. And relative to your own individual needs, there can be some type of carbohydrate. Um, this can be in the form of a sweet potato, lots of vegetables. Vegetables are obviously you know pretty high in carbohydrate, but these are what we call slow carbs. We try to stay away from fast carbs and we're trying to really optimize our metabolic health. But then fat, we can't forget about fat. First of all, fat is satiating, it gives us kind of a sense of wellness and well-being. Um, typically, when I'm working with somebody who's really metabolically dysfunctional, we're pressing down the carbohydrates so much. There's only three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. And so when we're already pressing down carbs, we have to allow the proteins of the fats to come up a little bit. Remember, we're really trying to optimize our metabolic health. There's little engines in our cells called mitochondria. They pretty much just burn glucose and fat. And if we're already minimizing the carbs in the diet, we have to be a little bit more generous with fat. And so, as you can see, there's lots of fat, lots of fat in that shape line. But that's the kind of fat that our DNA is expecting. The kind of fat that our DNA is not expecting is like the seed all kind of fats from like soybean oil, corn oil, stuff like that. So this is the kind of fat that we can handle. And frankly, it's a really good uh fuel source for ourselves. Again, as we're decreasing overall carbohydrates and trying to optimize the metabolic flexibility of our mitochondria, we want to be a little bit more generous with fat. And as the mitochondria are used to having more fat, you know, kind of floating around the body as a fuel source, then in between meals, then our cells are already kind of primed to burn to burn fat for fuel. And so we just kind of become fat-burning machines. And that's kind of the whole point. We want that metabolic flexibility. Carbs are fine. We have plenty of carbohydrates. Um, but we want our cells to be able to seamlessly switch between carbohydrate burning and fat burning. So um every protein uh, you know, that I'm aware of all has some nice fat, especially animal protein, has some nice fat kind of embedded right in it. And this is certainly true with this. Yeah, I'm looking at stuff.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Um, so the way I hit the tortillas too, I just put um um the custom ones, the coyotes. You have to do it on the skillet. Um, even take the time, corn tortillas are quicker. And I just wrap them in foil and put them in gun. Again, that's how I do it. Um, and then we're getting some veggies with again, we make a bowl, so um, we get lettuce and cabbage in there too.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

So the whole point of making these videos is not to show what perfection looks like, is to show what reality looks like. Right. And you can only serve so many masters at the same time. And for the most part, we try to optimize for metabolic health, general whole foods. And sometimes it's not gonna be perfect. We're gonna buy things in packages. Um, and we'll we'll show you those things. So we'll show you kind of why we made that choice. But again, you know, you can only serve so many masters at the same time. And this is what reality looks like because there's lots of you know recipes and different platforms out there that try to make it absolutely perfect. But in reality, you know, kind of normal regular people are just not going to make those kind of meals. So we want to kind of bring you into our home to show you what we actually make to maintain our metabolic health.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Well, and I think that's what's important. Um, I think people think, and they often ask us like, oh, you guys must eat like in peck as well and stuff. And again, we do our best, good, better best. Um 90% of the time we uh well, we cook at home. I mean, I cook probably I mean six to seven nights a week. So um, but again, I've I've found quick, easy things to do. And yeah, because I don't want to spend hours in the kitchen either. So um but yeah, this is just kind of the reality and um just you know, what I don't know, like what what is possible and um you know, so people who are you know working on and again, this can all be prepped ahead of time, everything can be prepped ahead of time, and then just to make this takes no time at all. So pretty doables. Okay, that's how you hurry.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

All right. Okay, we're gonna kick it up a notch. Let's add in some spice. Like I said, the lamb is really tasty and it does kind of take on what flavors you put in there. So we're gonna put in a little organic ground cumin. For all the chefs out there, this is like probably not a super legit way of doing it. And this is how you get the powder all kicked up and stuff in there by shaking it right over the top.

unknown 11:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

So she's taking some out to give to our dog. She's pretty well. Alright, now we're gonna throw in some chili powder. It was suggested that I don't overdo that. So I'm not well, we did the cumin. We did the chili powder. That was in a little chipotle. It's not complicated. You know, super good. Yeah, there we go. Oh, that's pretty much done. There is Maya in Maya, Maya's on the cleanup crew, some histophora. She will take care of it immediately.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Oh, we're just in the ring, grabbings and cheese, and it's gonna be all done. And that was probably about so we will assemble it all and then take um show you the final the final.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Remember, fat doesn't make you fat. It makes your meal metabolically complete.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

You can have beans too if you want. Pinto or um, sometimes I do it. I feel like if sometimes no one needs it. So um you can always have beans to it. Um but again, we have plenty with just this. There's the amazing guacamole from Jimbo's.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

And again, we've made it from scratch many times, but sometimes you still really have time. I just didn't have time.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Or actually, we had it for leftovers, that's why. Sometimes I'll just cut up avocado, that's fine too. Craters also has a really good guacamole salsa that you can get too. This is um the it's like a chipotle ranch dressing that I made or sauce that I made. Peasy peasy. So there you go. There's some chocolate sriracha ranch, cucine. I like this, the hot and sweet alpinos from Craters. Chad does not like those, but I like them. Um, or you can just get regular alpino. You can add anything to it. It's like a chipotle bowl, whatever you want.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Okay, so we have a protein anchor and a fiber base. And of course, guacamole is full of full of amazing avocado, which is an excellent source of fat, also a really good source of fiber, and fantastic potassium. So protein acre, fiber base, healthy fats, and optional carbs. This is what a metabolically healthy meal looks like. It's consistent but not perfect. That's the point. We're not going for perfection, we're just going for a metabolically healthy lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

I'm gonna put the ceviche on top too, because there is pico in it. So instead of opening a pico, I'm gonna use this. And again, I like rice, but I'm gonna have chips instead of rice. So um I'm gonna I'm gonna choose to forego the rice. And uh again, that's pretty much I'm gonna put some Filipinos, pretty much. And this is uh this will be really, really filling. So there you have it. Pretty easy.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

So this is what a metabolically healthy meatball looks like. Uh it's a protein anchor, fiber base with some healthy fats. We have that guacamole, exant source of fat and fiber, and potassium and goodies, um, and alternate carbs. This is what a uh metabolic signal should look like. Right. Supercrab.