Braised Beef Brisket

Today is back to reality.  Back to work.  No sleeping in snuggling with Tony like I did the last four days.  Let’s just say that it was a tad hard to get up this morning!

But it was a great weekend.  Although we didn’t get to see as much of Joe and Lizz as we wanted, we were grateful for the time we got.  Lizz had other plans on Saturday night so it was just Joe who came over for dinner.

Joe loves banana bread, so I made him a loaf to take back to Lizz’s parents house to have for breakfast on Sunday morning.  It’s the Ultimate Banana Bread from America’s Test Kitchens, and it’s a winner.  Although, no nuts for Joe, but the additional of walnuts would make this bread a true winner in my book.

Microwaving the bananas and then cooking down the liquid from the bananas makes for such a rich, banana flavor.

And I didn’t realize until later Tony bought extra large eggs, but it turned out fine.

Joe was a really picky eater when he was younger.  His Dad used to have to peel off the skin of hot dogs!  He wasn’t too fond of spaghetti sauce (butter and salt and pepper please) can’t stand pancake syrup (butter and sugar) and still, even though he lives in Texas now, doesn’t like bbq sauce.

But he loves my pizza.  When I asked him if he wanted to have thin crust or deep dish, he shocked the shit out me that he wanted the deep dish!

If you haven’t attempted to make Chicago style deep dish pizza at home, this is the recipe to make.  It sounds long and complicated, but it’s really super easy.  You can find the recipe here.

You know the dough is right when it doesn’t stick to the mixing bowl.  I love the addition of cornmeal in this dough too.

My slice of heaven:

Joe ended up eating half the pizza – he loved it!  I also made a big batch of baja fresh salsa for him to take back for Lizz’s parents too – I loved being able to grill outside in this 60 degree weather – so crazy!

So I made up for Friday laziness on Saturday and Sunday.  I did our laundry (folded and put away!), cleaned, organized the fridge and freezer, did our meal plan, we grocery shopped, and of course, I was Bizzy in my Kitchen making some dinners ahead of time for the week, and cooking for my SIL.  I am having her try the Bon Appetit Bahn Mi meatball sandwich this week – although I changed it up from the last time I made it – the recipe will be later this week.

But Sunday, it’s all about football food.  I had completely forgotten that I bought these bone marrow bones last February that we were going to have for Valentine’s day.  We saw it on a cooking show, but Tony wasn’t feeling up to it back then since he was still recovering from his hernia surgery.

I had to buy these at the butcher shop, and they have been in the freezer since February.  We decided to cook it straight from frozen to the grill.

Here’s a great idea, especially with the holidays coming up and having parties and get togethers.  I make my own crostini rounds for cheese spreads using Jimmy John’s day old bread.  It only costs .50 cents for a big loaf of it, and I just brush it with olive oil, garlic and Italian seasoning.  Just bake for 10-15 minutes.

Yep, Tony completely enjoyed this.  And I have to tell you, I had a small bite and the flavor was intense and very delicious.  And the dog liked the bone too!

With temperatures in the 60’s, I decided to forgo the gym and walked/ran outside over the weekend.  The grass is still green!

If the rain stays away, I may walk again at lunch because we may hit 70 degrees – on December 3rd!!  Sadly, in two weeks we could have a foot of snow, so I have to enjoy it while I can.

My store had beef brisket on sale over the weekend.  I decided to braise the beef brisket, and with the leftover meat, make a beef brisket chili for later in the week.

I followed this recipe for the most point, except I left out the onions.   Also, I only cooked it for 3 hours, and in the last hour added quartered potatoes and carrots.

The gravy was delicious and the meat was fork tender.   I was so busy cooking yesterday morning that as I was driving to my SIL’s house, I realized I hadn’t eaten anything!  So when I picked up the day old bread, I got a Vito for Tony and I to split for lunch – so before dinner, that’s all I had eaten all day so rest assured I licked my plate clean.

So Saturday marked the end of the first week of the Skinny Snowman Challenge.  Since I didn’t start it until Monday, and I didn’t work out Wednesday-Friday, my first weekly total was 255 out of a possible 450.  So my goal this week is to earn more points!

I’ve got my work cut out for me – check out the top 5 out of 150!

This week’s Top people are:

1. Alyssa K. & Shannon A- 450/450
2. Gwyn- 430/450
3. Mel, Becky K., Amy G., Renea, Jessica S.- 425/450
4. Peggy- 410/450
5. Yesenia & Cindy- 405/450

I will definitely be earning Meatless Monday points today.  I have a black bean potato egg casserole for breakfast, a pad thai tofu soup for lunch and for dinner tonight I made stuffed peppers.  Tony’s is my traditional stuffed pepper, but for me, I made a black bean, spinach, green chile salsa stuffed pepper – I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

Today is also my WI day!  Last week I was 168.2.  Today?

I’ll take it.  I got points on the challenge for losing or maintaining last week.

Alright, time to put my work face on – this is the first full week of work I’ve had in three weeks!

Make it a great day!