Best laid plans. Isn’t that how the story goes? Remember how organized I was over the weekend? I had basically gotten everything together for the week. My giant bag of food was packed, I had clean gym clothes AND REMEMBERED to put my shoes in my bag. Life was good!
Until I walked off without my food for the day. I was so pissed because I had a great smoked polish sausage/german potato salad soup I was going to do in the crock pot. While I probably could have gotten away with crock pot cooking without it bothering Tony, well, let’s just say the recipe I was going to make has sauerkraut in it, which I puffy heart, but Tony can’t stand. So I now have a check list on the back of my door as I leave the house:
- Do you have your insulin bag (um, turns out I’ve left this at home on more than one occasion and Tony has had to bring me my insulin)
- Gym Bag
- Lunch Bag
Check, check and check. So hopefully today I’ll look at the sign and not forget to bring it!
So onto Plan B. Thanks to my friend Heather, I had a Kind bar for breakfast – it was the fruit and nut one and it was delicious! And filling! I thought I’d have to have an apple that I had on my desk from last week, but this actually held me pretty well.
So I was so proud of myself on my grocery shopping this week. Because I deep cleaned the fridge/pantry/fridge I meal planned basically with what I had on hand and only needed a few things to round it out. I only spent $38 and $7 of that was on a rotisserie chicken!
But, I ended up getting a salad at Mariano’s – with lots of beans and I love banana peppers. I bought two chicken tenders on the hot bar and ended up chopping those up on top of my salad. My dressing was 1 tablespoon of ranch dressing mixed with 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar – yum!
So when I was cleaning out the freezer, I discovered I had an 8 ounce New York strip in the freezer. How do you forget about that? I am sure I’ve talked about it before, but I have fond memories of my Dad fixing my baked potatoes when we had steak and baked potatoes for dinner. He’d cut open the potatoes, put lots of butter, salt and pepper and mash it all around. Then he’d dip a piece of white bread in the juice that accumulated under the steak and that was heaven to me. Probably one of the strongest food memories I have growing up.
If I had to choose between one protein source for the rest of my life, it would hands down be beef. I puffy heart a good pork shoulder, don’t get me wrong, but beef is just so good. It’s taken me a couple years to get comfortable with dry rubs, wet rubs, etc. on beef and cook it so it doesn’t taste like shoe leather. I don’t know why I am calling this a “cowboy” coffee steak rub, other than the fact that having coffee in a beef rub makes me think of a chuck wagon cook. I think I could have handled being a cook on a chuck wagon! Making biscuits and gravy. Pouring hot black coffee for the cowboys, and ringing the dinner bell when dinner was ready.
For this eight ounce portion of steak, I mixed:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon mushroom soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground coffee
Mix that well together and pour over steak that’s in a ziploc bag. I marinated mine overnight, but a few hours should do the trick. I used my 2x2x2x2 method of cooking the steak – 2 minutes each side in one direction, then flipping it over and doing 2 minutes a side in the other direction. I am so all about the grill marks!
Just finished the steak off with a small pat of butter, and or course, who can have steak without pomme frites! I ended up eating only half of the steak, I’ll use the other half for a breakfast hash later in the week. I love mushroom soy sauce, it lends an extra earthiness to the steak. I realized before going to bed that I never finished putting that picture on Instagram. And you all know what an Instagram whore I am. Um, guess who liked it within minutes of me posting this? Just my BFF Sunny Anderson! And hey to Bellas Fit Mom, my DIL Lizz and Rhonda!
Question of the Day: What is your favorite source of protein?!
I will remember my lunch bag, I will remember my lunch bag, I will remember my lunch bag. That’s my motto this morning! Make it a great day!
I love beef, too!! Your steak looks so good!!
Bummer about leaving all your food at home – love your checklist idea!!
What’s the Beef!!!! Funny you should ask…..I bought some hamburger and a beef burgundy roast the other day. Yesterday, made some hamburgers, plus froze a few, with the rest of the meat made taco meat for a few tacos later this week. Turned the beef roast into Italian roast beef for sandwiches later this week. Yeah….we like our beef here. I do alternate with fish and chicken for the husband. But my preference is beef.
Your steak and fries look worthy of a picture in a food magazine. Oh and I think you could have worked on a Chuck Wagon too. Those cowboy chuck wagons were probably the early Food Trucks we have today….so that would be right down your alley…lol!
So have a great day….your check list sounds like a good idea…so many times I walk out the door forgetting something or leave a store forgetting something I needed…so lists help, if you don’t forget the list…(sigh) which I do at times.
Hmmmm, protein…I would have to go with pork! Between bacon and sausage and pepperoni, that’s definitely the best. 🙂
I love that right above Sunny Anderson is Bellasfitmom (a friend of mine who I met through blogging who lives about 30 miles from me!)
We love my chili recipe where I started adding to it beer and coffee. All beef chili with tons of hot peppers and coffee AND beer……yum! We too love our food so hot it can blow the top of your head off. Had red curry at a local rest Sunday night and it was so hot our noses poured along with our eyes. We just mopped up as we ate, laughed and kept eating every hot bite and it was soooo good!
Your steaks always look so tasty! I got a 1/4 cow this year from a local farmer and I get to pick up the beef today, looking forward to a steak like yours. 🙂 I think my favorite protein is pork. There are so many options – roasts, chops, pull pork, gyros, grilled kabobs, the list goes on! Do you know if that mushroom soy sauce contains wheat? Have a great day!
That steak looks amazing. It is, hands down, my favorite protein ever. People that aren’t from Nebraska always ask me about the beef from Omaha Steaks and how they are supposed to be so good. It’s not good beef!!! It’s grainy and tough and gross. I grew up on small town meat markets and beef directly from family members who farmed. Now, as an adult I still prefer to get my beef straight from the farmer. But noe being in an apt, we do not have any freezer space so I settle for the good butcher shops who get their beef from local farmers. Now THAT is real steak! I couldn’t live without beef. <3<3<3
I need to get me some of that mushroom soy sauce!
Favorite protein, that is a toss up between peanut butter and beans. I am thinking maybe I should try posting a list to the door too. My memory these days does not seem to be what it once was. I can’t decide if it is the memory getting worse or the list of things to remember getting longer.
Love that you and Sunny are BFF’s!! 😉
Let’s see – fav source of protein would have to be peanut butter. I remember polishing off an ENTIRE JAR in the hospital the day after I had Beckett. It was glorious.
Favorite source of protein is peanut butter! Unfortunately I gain about 5 pounds just looking at the jar so I stick to things like beans and quinoa.
The hubby uses coffee when he makes steak…did it last night, delish!