Salad is TOO kid food

Ian has a rabid penchant for “kid food” which does get indulged just a wee bit too often. But there are bright spots, and one of them is that he likes salad. He declared my favorite vinaigrette “disgusting” (then ate a whole bowl, but never mind) so tonight I made him a yogurt dressing (no sugar!) which he also declared “disgusting.” Keeghan ate the leftovers with a spoon, though, so we have a 50% approval rating- higher if you count my vote.

No- sugar added yogurt dressing

1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon mild table mustard
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 Tbsp cider vinegar

Mix well. Thin with a little milk, as needed.

My salad had chicken breast seasoned with lemon pepper and basil, heirloom tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and capers on a bed of romaine lettuce. I find it helps me not to get tired of salad when I cook the chicken right before I eat it, do I’ve been doing one boneless, skinless breast at a time in my Round Covered Baker. (that’s a Pampered Chef product, but I imagine any stoneware casserole would work.)

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Steak Salad

So, you remember when the Werewolf Fetus turned me, right? Well my love affair with red meat hasn’t abated and neither has his. (Yeah, okay, even the 8 year vegetarian in me thinks watching him wave a piece of steak in the air while yelling “MEAT!” is pretty dang funny.) Apparently some of us were just born to love meat and there isn’t much more to say. Anyway, we all know good steak is hard on the budget, but not when you know the secret to turning the cheap cuts into the best steak you’ve ever eaten.

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The day I found this recipe, I got very excited. You need to plan ahead a little more than doing them the “ordinary” way, but lean, cheap flank steak turns into a meat lover’s dream with this method. It’s so incredibly flavorful that eating it cold as a salad is still amazing. It is tender. It is juicy. It is out of this world. I made the salad with 7 ounces of steak, half a vine ripened tomato, and a bed of romaine lettuce. Add two tablespoons of your favorite dressing and you have the best lunch ever.

So here’s a quick recap of the steak recipe:

Approximately 1.75 lbs of flank steak
2 teaspoons of kosher salt (can’t use fine grained table salt for this)
Garlic powder
Your favorite steak seasoning blend or rub (I like Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning or a little fresh ginger grated over top in addition to garlic powder and black pepper.)

  1. Salt each side of the raw steak with 1 teaspoon of the salt. Sprinkle liberally with garlic powder. Let it stand one hour per inch of thickness of the steak. (In other words, a 1 1/2 inch thick steak would stand 90 minutes.) There seems to be some flexibility in your time frame, but I haven’t pushed it too far either way.
  2. Rinse well. I mean, REALLY REALLY WELL. I thought I had rinsed well the first time and… let’s just say it’s a good thing I like salt. Then pat dry with a flour sack or other towel that doesn’t have a lot of lint.
  3. Broil or grill to your preferred doneness. We’ve run the gamut and find that the steak is at its juiciest and most tender when prepared medium or medium rare, but, to each their own.
  4. Enjoy half for dinner. Save half so you can enjoy the world’s best lunch tomorrow. Slice into strips when cool.

Black Bean, Turkey, and Spinach Soup

Dinner time rolled around and I needed to pull together an awesome meal (that fit into my eating plan!!!) with the ingredients I had on hand. I had ground turkey and black beans! I had a pack of frozen spinach! Sounds like the making of a soup. Since the South Beach diet limits dairy, I needed to make something very delicious without cheese. Normally, I pair bean soups up with cheddar or Parmesan cheese, but tonight I needed to make one that didn’t rely on cheese for flavor. Also, it couldn’t taste too “tomatoey,” or my hubby would not like it. Here’s what I came up with:

9 oz chopped frozen spinach
20 oz ground turkey
1 can black beans (15 oz)
1 can V8 juice (12 oz)
4 cups chicken broth (low fat & sodium)
6 cloves garlic (yes, that’s a lot of garlic!) pressed
1/2 Tbsp each cumin, ancho chili powder, garlic powder, thyme, and paprika
1 Tbsp oregano
2 Tbsp dried onion flakes

Now, obviously, you should adjust the spices according to your taste, and if you keep a prepared taco seasoning on hand, that would probably work just fine. You could also chop an onion and use that instead of the onion flakes, if you don’t keep them around.

Put the broth, the beans, the V8, and the spinach in your soup pot and bring them to a simmer.

Brown your ground meat with the garlic and, if you’re using fresh, the onion. Add the meat and the spices to the soup and bring it to a simmer. SERVE.

I garnished mine with chopped tomato. It would also be good with some fresh, ripe avocado on top, or, if you don’t have any reason to cut out dairy, CHEESE.

This soup REALLY hit the spot! There’s nothing I love better than fast, filling, HEALTHY food!

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Now, THAT’S how you make a birthday cake

Today is 007’s birthday. Naturally, it would not be a birthday without cake. So I promised Ian we’d make one after school. And we did.

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Notice how the child is laughing at me. Because I lost this competition at “presentation.” the top layer fell apart when I took it out of the pan. Lesser mortals would have made do with the single, perfect layer already on the tray. NOT ME. I forged ahead. The sprinkles and mini marshmallows are there by request, but I’d consider it a kindness if you’d look upon them as a Redeeming Feature.

And then…

This is Irish Soda Bread. More accurately, the recipe says it is American Irish Soda Bread. Seems like there’s one word too many in that name to me. Also known as tomorrow’s breakfast. The recipe called for “coarse white sugar,” which I naturally didn’t have. What DID I have on hand? You guessed it. Gonna have to do.

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And now, because I was completely reckless and made another food related promise, we will make pizza for dinner. Wish me luck.

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Don’t judge me. It’s raining.

I absolutely just bribed my kid to clean up his toys by telling him we’d bake brownies when he was done. I know that’s awful parenting but I didn’t much care. It’s raining and we can’t go outside. Plus, I want brownies.

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Ian: Mommy, are we doing this backwards?
Me: no, we’re doing it exactly in order.
Ian: But, I LIKE backwards.
Me: Sorry, sweetie, you have to make the brownies, then eat them. If you could eat brownies before you made them, no one would ever make brownies. And there would be no brownies, and that would be sad.
Ian: (pauses for thought.) So. We make the brownies, then we eat them.

Waffles

This morning all us Sick Folk decided to be early risers, so I announced that we would have Tidy Up Time, followed by TV Time and, finally, Waffle Time.

Never have I seen such a showing for Tidy Up Time. It was like an unstoppable force of neatness rolled through my home.

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Waffle Time duly followed.

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Only one person was not thrilled by this… Sorry, kid, you’re not ready for eggs just yet.

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The results are in

What you are looking at is the best yogurt I have ever eaten. It doesn’t taste like yogurt. It tastes like cheesecake. I may never stop eating it.

Mind you, I DID make it from whole milk. Wow, is it good! I’ll be trying lowfat and skim milk in the near future. WOW!

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(If you’ve just come in, you can find the recipe I used here. It uses your crock pot and it couldn’t be easier.)