Rummaging through one of my freezers the other day, I ran across a 2 1/2 pound chuck roast that had clearly been in there a tad too long. Add to that the fact that I'd bought it at a super-cheap grocery store, not known for its excellent meat, and I'd bought it marked down because it was close to expiration date. In short, this was not a gourmet piece of meat.

However, it was a good-sized hunk of animal protein, and I was loathe to throw it out, or even to feed it to the chickens. (Chickens will eat anything.) I was determined to make it into at least a passable supper.

Complicating matters was the fact that I've been eating super-low carb lately -- induction levels or lower. I could have pot-roasted that chuck with canned tomatoes, a chopped half-onion, a little cider vinegar, some ginger and some Splenda, and it would have been terrific -- but higher carb that I wanted. So as it thawed, I contemplated...

I wound up marinating it in a mixture from my 15 Minute Low-Carb Recipes, from my recipe Inauthentic Bulgogi Steak. I threw 1/4 medium onion, 4 peeled garlic cloves, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons Splenda, a teaspoon of pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon chili garlic paste (the original recipe calls for Tabasco) into my food processor. Ran it till the onion and garlic were ground up.

I laid my sad, freezer-burned chuck roast in a non-reactive pan just big enough to hold it, and sprinkled about 1/2 teaspoon of unseasoned meat tenderizer over it; then I stabbed it ruthlessly all over with a fork. I flipped it over and repeated the whole thing on the other side -- more meat tenderizer, more heartless violence. Then I poured in the soy sauce mixture, and flipped the roast a few times to make sure it was coated. I let that roast sit in the marinade all day, turning it a few times when I thought of it.

When dinner time rolled around, I put my big cast iron skillet over a high burner and let it get smoking hot. I added a dollop of coconut oil, sloshed around till it melted, and threw in my roast. I gave it 8 minutes per side -- longer than I would have given a rib eye, but this thing was a good 1 1/2 inches thick.

Was it edible? Not only was it edible, it was yummy. Great flavor, great texture. You never would have guessed it was freezer dregs. I can only imagine how good a nice new chuck roast would be, given this treatment!

I do love to marinate chuck roasts with some meat tenderizer. They're so flavorful, and given the proper care they're tender enough to grill, broil, or, as in this case, pan-broil. With budgets so tight, it's a trick you need to try!