the PW asian-inspired flank steak

here's to trying new meals and sticking to the menu plan! This is actually from LAST week, but it's worth the post. I followed the pioneer woman's flank steak recipe with asian-inspired marinade. here it is, but remember that i am not the best at measuring.

• 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
• 1/2 cup Cooking Sherry
• 3 Tablespoons Honey
• 2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil
• 2 Tablespoons (heaping) Minced Ginger
• 3 cloves (to 5 Cloves) Minced Garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 whole Flank Steak

put everything but the steak in a shallow dish and mix well. add the flank steak, turning a few times to cover completely. i marinated it for about 3 hours, flipping it over at 1.5 hours.



i wish i'd flattened it a little in the middle. i think my steak was very thick because i had to cook it longer than she suggested (3.5-4 minutes per side? more like 5-6 minutes per side). also since i don't have a grill or grill plate, i did it in a skillet. next time i'd use the electric griddle at least. i chose not to make her "controversial optional sauce" with it (boiling the strained, leftover marinade with some water until it thickens some) only because i forgot to and dumped it down the drain. not because i'm concerned about any contamination at all.



served with steamed green beans and white rice! yes, i'd have loved to have asparagus and brown rice. but we use what we have when we're budgeting.

beef kabobs (baked!)

i have been meaning to get an indoor grill for about two months now. but something always comes up-- moving, buying plane tickets, etc.-- so i'm trying to still find ways to enjoy fun summer foods. usually this involves turning the oven on. which heats the house up to 84 degrees. which is still better than the 101 it is outside. but still. a grill would be so much better.



so i still made kabobs, that turned out wonderfully! simple-- beef, green pepper, and onion.



served with rice pilaf and a delicious salad.

(speaking of not heating the house up, i haven't mentioned that my mom bought me a pressure cooker **squeal** and they don't heat up the house-- because they cook things in a tiny, enclosed area, and it cooks fast! yay!)

also, seeing these photos, i wish we ate dinner earlier so that i had some natural light to take the pictures with. this indoor lighting sucks.

root vegetable soup

here's how to make an awesome winter soup.

root vegetable soup.

something good about my cooking lately?

i've been trying all sorts of ingredients that i would never have tried before.

today's ingredients?

parsnips and rutabega.

here's what you do:

cut up into bite-sized pieces:

3 big carrots

2 parsnips
some celery

as much of a rutabega as you can chop. those suckers are dense. i think i ended up with half of one.

in a dutch oven, brown some beef that's been chopped into similar size pieces as the veggies. add all the veggies (and onion, if you remember. i forgot. it might have made the dish thatmuch better), along with 4 cups of low sodium chicken broth and 2 cups of low sodium beef broth. add salt, pepper, and whatever spices you feel like. partially cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the veggies are fork-tender. before serving, wilt some fresh spinach in there. it only took about 2 minutes for the spinach to cook.

awesome: soup. lame: homework.

have you had a parsnip? it's like a white carrot, but sweeter. have you had a rutabega? it's like a dense potato, but spicier.

together, these ingredients all add up to the perfect winter soup. i'm looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch again tomorrow!

eggplant stir fry

a great thing about this week? i've been cooking with tons of ingredients i'd have not tried if it wasn't for the little "challenge" going on over here.

today, it was eggplant.

all you do is cut up beef, heat it on a higher heat just until it's cooked through to your liking.



then, cut up vegetables-- i chose eggplant, red pepper, and broccoli. lots of color!-- and added them to the pan for a few minutes to cook.

no soy sauce, since this week we're staying away from soy-things. so i used a splash of low-sodium beef broth, and lots of ginger. it was perfect! toss together, and serve over brown rice.



yumm-o!

easy appetizer meatballs

i love easy meals. i love meatballs.
i love easy meatballs!!

take a bag of frozen meatballs.
add a jar of heinz 57 chili sauce. or generic, like i did.
add a jar of grape jam. seriously.
add a dash of worcestershire sauce. 

heat it all thoroughly.

serve.

this can also be made in the crock pot. put everything in, turn the pot on low, and forget about it. stir well before serving.

it's one of those meals that makes your whole house smell amazing.
and yes, i said meals. last night i had meatballs-- and nothing else-- for dinner. it's that good.

spaghetti squash and meatballs

i made an amazing dinner last night. amazing. and i only took one photo, just now, of my leftovers. sorry.

so i made homemade meatballs first. easy. one pound of ground beef, half of a small onion (diced small), 1/2 cup bread crumbs, salt, pepper, one egg, 2T water. mix it all. form into balls and bake at 350 until done (20 minutes? 30 minutes?).

then i baked a spaghetti squash. there are so many ways to cook it if you look online-- but they all come to the same conclusion. cut it in half, put it face down, and bake or microwave. well, i found a better way to do it on the pioneer woman's blog. you just take the whole, intact squash, put it in the oven at 375 for an hour. that's it. then it's done, and it is so much easier to cut in half. scoop out the seeds, and use forks to shred. all the photos for that are on her website. sorry i didn't take any.

except for this amazing iphone photo of the leftovers.

i served the spaghetti squash (which, by the way, was still crunchy and amazing) with a few of the meatballs and some organic spaghetti sauce (thank to watching food, inc earlier in the day). also served with a side salad and red wine.

it was awesome.

busy weekend

i had a super busy weekend. starting friday, i was in "homemade" mode. i made so many baked and cooked items, and took hardly any photos. and i won't really post recipes with this post either. i'm just going to tell you of the awesomeness that i created and let you drool a little.

homemade pizza (store bought crust, for time's sake)
his: pepperoni and cheese. (yawn)
mine: summer sausage, homemade roasted red peppers, fresh parsley, black beans, mozzarella cheese.

pancakes (well, the mister made it. not me).

barbecue beef brisket in the crock pot.
giant brisket, in crock pot with beer and bbq sauce. cook on low all day, then remove and shred, and return to the crock pot. stir. serve on toasted buns with homemade potato wedges.

potato wedges.
cut potatoes into wedges. toss with olive oil, rosemary, and kosher salt. bake at 400 for 40 minutes, flipping halfway through. make extras. these go fast.

pie! i made homemade pie crust for apple pie. i still need practice in rolling out the pie crust and making it pretty, but it has to be one of the most flavorful, flaky crusts i've ever tasted. pretty good for a first try.

cake (boxed funfetti). dude. we had a birthday and i had a special request for making funfetti cake. so no, i did not make this from scratch.

bread loaves. instead of my usually boule bread, i made loaves. i just used a recipe from the kitchenaid cook book for cool-rise white bread, and demolished that recipe. i accidentally doubled the butter, and didn't use enough flour (because it was all together and didn't need any more). so i was really nervous, but it worked. the outside crust tasted a little... funny... but it was still delicious. next time i'll try reading the recipe a little better.

grilled flank steak fajitas

i like this recipe because:

-it is easy, and not very time consuming. the most arduous part is prepping the veggies and honestly, slicing a couple of peppers is hardly arduous if you ask me.

-it uses the grill. grill=less mess=less cleanup

-it eradicates the use for the salty flavoring/seasoning packs. no salty packets=healthier

-it is the color of the rainbow. ish. not only is it pretty to photograph and present, a friend of mine once told me that to stay healthy and happy, one should eat foods that represent the colors of the rainbow. she usually knows what she is talking about. wait, what's that?....no people, not like skittles.


ingredients:

1 lb flank or skirt streak (i prefer a non-fatty flank)
2-3 bell peppers ( i like to use one of each- red, yellow, green)
1 red onion
1 tbsp ground cumin
salt
pepper
evoo! (extra virgin olive oil)
1-2 tomatoes
lettuce
cheese
tortillas

method:

season steak with salt, pepper and cumin on each side

slice peppers/onions- thick enough to not fall thru the grill grate, if you want them thinner, lay them on a grill foil on the grate. toss veggies with oil, salt and pepper.

place steak and veggies on lightly oiled grill grate over medium heat, grill for 8-12 minutes (turning steak once) or until veggies are tender and steak in done to your likeness. (i do about 9-10 minutes for a pink center)

while food is grilling, i take the time to cut up lettuce and tomatoes. see my tip for dicing tomatoes by clicking here

when food is done, take off the grill and let rest for a couple of minutes before slicing meat across the grain. i take these few minutes to warm the tortillas over low heat on the grill, less than a minute per side.

serve with rice (spanish, white, etc) and sour cream, homemade guac and salsa.

chow!

p-p-p-pot roast.

i wouldn't normally relate my pot roast, or any meal for that matter to bob marley (or ub40. ...know where i am heading with this?) but after the ever so important better hurry up and taste this before someone else has to eat it taste test, i couldn't get the darn song out of my head.


red red wi-yi-yiiiiiiiiinne stay close to meee-he...

(insert island accent)

red red wine you give me whole heap of zing
whole heap of zing mek me do me own thing..

why? because this morning i added 1/2 c of what was left in a bottle of (menage a trois -try it, i PROMISE you'll love it. ten bucks.) red wine to my roast. THAT, my friends, turned out to be a great 6:00am decision. probably one of my finest to date.  the roast took on such a full flavor; and just enough of a hint of the sweetness and roundness came through in the broth and vegetables. i also added a can of french onion soup. i will use this instead of lipton onion soup mix from now on as it isn't as weird and salty.


this was a great, easy and cheap recipe to slowly integrate crocky into the mix for fall and winter meals.


and i share:


2-4 lbs chuck roast (i chose closer to 4 and decided to pull an erin and freeze the leftovers)
10 potatoes (i like yukon golds for this- quartered)
carrots, sliced. (or, cheat like me and buy sale baby carrots. score!)
4 ish stalks celery, sliced
1 or 2 medium onions sliced


chopped garlic
worsh sauce
beef broth (1 can or so)
french onion soup (1 can)
1/2 c red wine


and for seasonings, i use the miracle blend 
pepper


if you're like me, 6am doesn't come easy. so, i prepped my veggies last night.

this morning, while my tea kettle did it's thing, i seasoned the meat, tossed it in the crock pot. stuffed the veggies on, over and around the meat. i added the garlic and the liquids and sprinkled a bit more seasoning over the top. i set crocky to low for 10 hours and let her go.


thanks to last night's prep, it was all done before my water was boiled.


i have to say, i was delighted with how it turned out. had i felt more zealous, i would have made some gravy. or yorkshire pudding. but, i didn't. the kardashians putting neuticles in their dog was WAY more interesting.


until next time....


oh, and next time is *lobster tails*.