Feed Your Inner Fat Kid: A New Leaf

Hello, hello food blog!! I haven't visited you in a long time. Why you ask? Well, unfortunately, I haven't been cooking much lately because pregnancy makes you a tired, lazy, take-out orderer. I've made a resolution, though, that I'm going to start blogging about food in an effort to light the fire under myself to do more real cooking before the baby comes.

I'll start with tonight's dinner, which was simply salad and steak! The thing I'm kicking myself about right now is how EASY and CHEAP it is to cook at home and how much better the food is for you. I went to Trader Joe's today and loaded up on fresh veggies and meat, came home, and had dinner on the table in less than 20 minutes. It's just pathetic how easy it was.

First I made the salad. I tore up one romaine heart (it's cheaper than the bag-o-lettuce) threw it in a colander, and rinsed. While that was draining I cut up a tomato, half an English cucumber, and a green pepper. To assemble the salad I blotted the lettuce with a paper towel, then arranged the veggies on top. For a little added protein I grabbed a handful of ciliegine mozzarella balls, squeezed them gently to remove the extra moisture, and then cut them in half to top the salad (a handful on each salad was perfect, and the cheese was definitely domestic so I didn't have to worry about pasteurization). For dressing, I used a drizzle of olive oil, then a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, then salt and pepper. Yum!

Then the steak: I have a great Teflon pan so I love pan-searing steak on the stove. I got some extra-virgin olive oil hot, then prepped the steak (lean Angus sirloin, yum) with some prepackaged Montreal steak seasoning. I cooked the steak about four minutes on each side to get mine RARE and a little longer to get John's medium rare. I think they turned out well!