Delicious "Meats" Healthy

There are few meals that I find more satisfying or elegant than a steak salad. This love is a relatively new development as I use to be turned off to red meat. But I guess it's true what they say, with age comes wisdom, and I now know the delight that comes with an occasional piece of steak.

I am not a meat expert, so I won't pretend to know which cut of steak to point you toward, but I can say I have tried this with several cuts (rib eye, flank steak, hanger steak..others) and all have turned out pretty well.

One thing I can advise on is marinade. It seems pretty hard to mess this up, but I think this one is pretty full proof.

Marinade

1 cup oil (olive, canola, vegetable)

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

splash of soy sauce

splash of Worcestershire

squeeze of honey

2 cloves of garlic

several cranks of pepper

several cranks (or a big pinch) of salt

Other excellent add-ins are Dijon mustard, lime juice, lemon juice, brown sugar, shallots, spices and herbs. 

Once marinade ingredients are combined, pour over meat in a Ziploc bag. Try to extract as much air as possible and throw the bag in the fridge for anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple of hours. Keep in mind that if there is acid in the marinade (i.e. vinegar or citrus juice), it will break down the meat faster. No one wants mushy meat, so plan accordingly.

Ew! Gross! Raw meat!! 

Okay, so the rest is really easy. I buy pre-washed boxed salad greens (baby lettuce mix). Depending on my level of laziness, I will either toss the salad in a bowl with a bit of vinaigrette or put it on top at the end. It doesn't matter. 

On top of the salad, aside from the steak, I like julienned carrots, thinly sliced bell pepper, baby tomatoes, and cheese. Normally I would do blue cheese, but tonight I was feeling a little creative and I made these goat cheese medallions. This is a bit of treat, but with a low-carb high protein salad like this, I think you can get away with it.

Some of My Favorite Salad Veggies

Goat Cheese Medallion "Dredge"—AP Flour, an Egg White, and Panko Bread Crumbs

Goat Cheese Medallions Sizzling Away in a Little EVOO

In my mind, this is the perfect meal. Delicious. Easy. And yes, healthy. So long as you don't go crazy on the cheese, the calories should fall within the 300 to 400 range, and the fat will be between 15 and 18 grams. 

Happy Salad Making!

Til next time. 

Thanksgiving Fail

The other day, while surfing foodnetwork.com and trying to create a dinner menu, I became excited by the fact that Thanksgiving is only a mere 10 days away. So excited, in fact, that I decided to cook (with Dan's help) a mini-Thanksgiving meal.

Oh boy...

Although salad may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think TG, I find it to be a necessary dish among all the butter laden ones on the table. This salad is refreshing and easy. All you need is spinach, toasted walnuts, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and a vinaigrette of your choice.

Number one reason for eating Thanksgiving dinner? Candied yams. Amazingly enough, yams are a pretty health starch, full of potassium and higher in protein than most root vegetables. These health benefits are only slightly hindered by the addition of brown sugar, butter, and marshmallows (a no-fat food!). Dan is not a fan of these, however I look forward to them every year, so they had to be part of our pre-thanksgiving thanksgiving meal. But these yams...they just weren't quite right. Normally I would be able to make an entire meal of these. Not this time.

So here is where all really fell apart. Herb roasted turkey breast. Sounds easy enough. According to Rachael Ray (whom I will never trust again), all we needed was skin-on turkey breast, fresh herbs—oregano, rosemary, thyme, parsley—lemon, salt, and pepper. This turkey was the worst. Ever. It may have turned me off to turkey for life. The texture was bizarre and beyond explanation. And as Dan succinctly said "I'm not sure how this turkey manages to be overly-herbed and under flavored simultaneously, but it does."

Long story short, Dan felt especially disappointed by "Thanksgiving," so he ended up where all failed meals do: McDonalds. I stole a few fries.

That concludes the tale of Thanksgiving Fail. The next time I feel like recreating a meal that only happens once a year, I won't. I guess that means I won't be making any St. Patrick's Day corned beef. Oh well!

Til next time.