1 Steak 2 Meals

Last week was pretty crazy around here. I barley got a chance to cook what I was hoping to so instead of the promised salads, here is the first of one night of cooking equals two meals posts. This features a kid friendly steak and fries meal, plus a great summer salad that can be used in various ways.

Grilled Steak to Pita Pocket

When looking to feed just myself and my son, I like to make simple meals that appeal to a 5 year old, yet are fun for me to eat to. my son loves steak, so I fired up the grill, seasoned the steak and made a simple meal.

2 8oz. New York Strip

1 teaspoon of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning

Heat grill on high. Cook steak for 3 minutes on each side. Let it rest, slice and serve half of one steak to each person. Reserve extra steak for meals the next day. Serve with Garlic Fries.

Garlic French Fries

1 package of frozen french fries or microwaveable fries (use enough to serve 2)

1 teaspoon of parsley leaves (fresh or dried)

1 to 3 pinches of garlic powder or 1/2 clove of diced fresh garlic

Salt and Pepper

Cook french fries according to package directions. Season with salt, pepper, garlic, and parsley. Mix well and optionally add some grated Parmesan cheese.

Left Over Steak Pita Pockets

2 Pitas, Sliced in half

1 steak, cut into thin slices

4 teaspoons of Mediterranean Humus (available at Trader Joe's)

1/4 cup of Greek Vegetable Salad (recipe follows)

Open 1 pita half and add 1/4 of humus to pita. Add steak and veggies. repeat until each pita is filled.

Greek Vegetable Salad

1 English Cucumber, peeled and sliced in to 1/4 inch thick slices

1 red onion, sliced into thin half moons

2 to 3 tomatoes, cut into large chunks

1/3 cup of Greek Salad Dressing (I like Kraft for this)

In a large bowl add all ingredients an mix well. Cover and place in fridge overnight. Serve with Crumbled Feta.

Cantaloupe Salad with Prosciutto

I had some left over cantaloupe that I wanted to use before it went bad, ditto for some fresh mozzarella, and prosciutto. I started thinking that cantaloupe and prosciutto taste great together, prosciutto and mozzarella taste great together, what tie these three together, basil. Let me tell you, this was light, refreshing and would be great for a brunch menu, plus it only took 3 minutes to put together. Give a whole new meaning to fast food. My only wish is that I keep getting these inspirations when looking in my fridge.

Cantaloupe Salad with Prosciutto

1/2 cantaloupe, cut into 1/2 cubes

6 slices of Prosciutto

2 oz. of fresh mozzarella

4 leaves of fresh basil

Put cantaloupe into a bowl, dice prosciutto into small bite size pieces, add to cantaloupe. Mix in cheese and basil. Serve.

National Grilled Cheese Month

Someone on Foodbuzz mentioned that April in National Grilled Cheese Month, how cool is that. I love grilled cheese and all the possibilities that come from bread, cheese, and whatever you can imagine tasting good with it. Tonight for dinner I decided to go ahead and honor National Grilled Cheese Month. I hope that you will be inspired to whip something up in honor of this month.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon dried herbes de Provence 1/2 teaspoon salt

2 zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch rounds

2 summer squash, cut into 1/4-inch rounds

1 red onion, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 loaf of rustic bread cut into 1/2 inch slices

butter for bread

Cheese of your choice for this I recommend gruyere, fontina, or provolone

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a shallow baking pan place veggies and cover with olive oil, herbs, and salt. Place into oven and cook for 20 minutes. Right before vegetables are done cooking butter slices of bread and began to grill on a medium high heated skillet. Add cheese to one slice of bread, when vegetables are done cover the cheese with a serving of vegetables and top with grilled slice, cook until bread reaches desired golden brownness, and cheese is melted.

My 6 1/2

This is the ultimate sandwich. I have been craving this for so long, but never seem to have fresh mozzarella around the house. This simple sandwich is definitely one that you will crave and enjoy serving to others. Fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, prosciutto, and basil drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Italian herbs, served on a baguette. You can add pesto or roasted red bell peppers, but in my opinion the simpler the better for this one. This is another Morucci's inspired sandwich, once again, i you find yourself in the Bay Area, take the trip to Walnut Creek and enjoy a great lunch.

I am trying to work on my pictures of food, but I now realize why professionals use fake food to get great pictures.

A Classic

Many people are having money issues in these tough economic times, why not enjoy a classic low cost dish that is great for breakfast or lunch, a fried egg sandwich. I went simple on mine for lunch today and just added cheese, but there are so many different options for a fried egg sandwich. Add bacon, ham, a sausage patty, tomato slices, avocado, the list could go on and on. A special thanks to The Alchemist Chef, at http://alchemistchef.blogspot.com/ for coming up with a great list of recession proof meal ideas.

Great Spring Recipe

A friends and I were talking about recipes using vegetables that are in season right now, and she mentioned that Food and Wine magazine had a great pasta recipe. After hearing about it, I knew that I had to try this recipe: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/penne-with-asparagus-sage-and-peas. It is a habit of mine to never make a recipe as written, this one was no exception. For this one I did not use sage, I used one of my favorite Italian cheeses, Pecorino Romano, and used mini cheese raviolis instead of penne. I also cut down on the chicken stock, used low fat milk instead of heavy cream, and reduced the amount of cheese, garlic, and butter. I really do not feel that I made the recipe from Food and Wine, however it was definitely my inspiration and deserves credit as such. Give this recipe a try or add your own touch to it. Take the recipes advice and serve with a nice Sauvignon Blanc. While on the website for Food and Wine check out some other great recipes, there were quite a few that I am dying to try. I hope this recipe inspires you to get some asparagus and taste the flavors of spring.

Lawry's Taco Seasoning/ Huge Taco Salad

I have a problem in Virginia, no store that I have been to sells Lawry's Taco Seasoning. I have had to have friends visiting import this item for me, I am almost out and now I am going to just order some online, but really Virginia retailers, what is wrong with you? This is the best Taco Seasoning packet going, it is great on ground beef, chicken, ground turkey, and can be played with and used as a marinade. I beg all VA retailers to start carrying this product. Please forgive my rant over the lack of this product in Virginia; it just gets frustrating when you cannot get your hands on the right ingredients.

Anyway, I bought some great ground beef and needed to use it so I was thinking about all the things that I make with ground beef and decided I really felt like taco meat. I had three packets of Lawry’s left so I did not think my husband would get upset with me for making tacos without him. I used my packet and followed the directions on the back, from there the sky is the limit with what you can do with taco meat. Tacos, nachos with ground beef, burritos, salads, a favorite in my family is a mix up bowl, where cheese, sour cream, and pico de gallo are mixed together with the meat and scooped up with tortilla chips. I was feeling like I had not been getting enough vegetables in my diet so I pulled together this monster salad. It feature a chopped heart of romaine lettuce, ½ an avocado chopped, 1 ounce of shredded Colby jack, 2 tablespoons of pico de gallo, 3 tortilla chips that have been crushed, and about 2-3 ounces of taco meat. For a dressing I mixed 1 tablespoon of sour creams with a teaspoon of Tapatio hot sauce. I ate a little over half of this and was more than full.

New Egg Salad

I have not been cooking much for dinner as the days are sooo very long for me lately. I have been playing around with my lunches. One experiment was this egg salad. I made this yesterday and must have been feeling like eating something green to celebrate St. Patty's Day.

Egg Salad with Dill and Capers

2 hard boiled Eggs (use only one yolk)

1 tablespoon of capers with juice

1/2 teaspoon of fresh copped dill

1 tiny little bit of mayo

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 pieces of toasted Sourdough Bread

1/2 cup of arugula

Dice eggs, place in bowl and mix with other ingredients. I hate mayo so I only used a tiny bit to try and glue the mixture together, for those who like mayo, use more. Place arugula on toasted bread, top with egg salad, serve and enjoy.

Just a note on this recipe; I may try to play with this more, I was not able to really get the salad to stick together, probably due to the lack of mayo... I also need to work on my picture taking...

A week

It has been a week since my last post and other than two meals I have been eating only chicken and white rice. I am recovering from a vicious stomach bug and really while there has been tons of meals that I have wanted to cook, I do not think that I could have eaten them. Before I got sick I made two things that are worth writing about (at least in my opinion). One was a great mac and cheese, the other, a great BLT. Since I am still low on energy and not in the mood to write recipes, the posts for those will have to wait. I am off to get another chicken roasting and rice steaming, hoping that this will be the day of three days of this meal.

BLT

1 croissant

some mixed greens

3 slices of cooked bacon

1/2 avocado, sliced

some thinly sliced red onion

some sliced tomato

1 slice of Swiss cheese

Place all ingredients on a croissant sliced in half. Enjoy the best BLT ever!