Certified Angus Beef Ambassador!

Last week my old blog friend Renee of Renee’s Kitchen Adventures sent me an email asking if I would consider being an Ambassador for Certified Angus Beef for the next 12 months.  Um, yes please!  She’s been working with them for quite a while, and when a spot opened up, she thought I would be a good fit and I am so happy!

This is a sponsored Ambassadorship,($$$) and turns out I like to cook with beef – a lot!  I am always happy to help people cook beef better, in fact when I posted on my Instastory over the weekend that I was going to be cooking a sirloin tip roast for Sunday dinner, I got half a dozen messages on Instragam asking for tips. 

We are now if full fall mode, where roasts are more likely to grace your dinner table, and if you have any questions or just want to learn more about it – check out their Facebook page today where they will be talking about how to pick roasts out, how to cook them, etc.  You can check it out here.

It was weird having the house to my self this weekend with Hannah and Jacob gone.  It was nice that I could blare my music and not having to worry about their nap time – they both usually open on Saturday and will nap from 1-5 when they get home, which is my prime cooking time – and the kitchen is right off their bedroom.  I managed to keep both dogs alive over the weekend – um, turns out this dog grandma made chicken bone broth and added that to their dry food and they ate it like it was their last meal!

Saturday afternoon I had lunch with my Momma and we shopped – it was fun spending time with her.  I don’t think I’ve seen her since Hannah and Jacob’s wedding!  I knew I had to eat something for breakfast though, and I found these refrigerator biscuits that needed to be used before expiring.  So simple, but it really kicked them up – I just did an egg wash on the biscuits, and sprinkled with everything but the bagel seasoning.  I made mini egg white and spinach breakfast sammies for 6 points.

My Sunday breakfast was equally delicious.  I found pot roast that needed to be used up, so I made these pot roast and egg white breakfast tacos – if you haven’t tried this Bolthouse Farms dressing yet, go out and get it.  It’s only 1 smart point for 2 tablespoons and was a delicious creamy avocado flavor on my breakfast tacos.  

My Mom and I went to Sam’s Club so I could get a rotisserie chicken to make my chicken bone broth.  I thought I wasn’t going to get one because there was a guy there that bought THIRTY chickens.  Everyone was giving him the stink eye, but we all got our chickens, just had to wait a few minutes.  While we were waiting, we looked over the meat bin, and I found a package of two thick bone in pork chops for $5.47.  Um, yes please!  I just did a dry rub with a coffee and garlic BBQ rub I got from Trader Joe’s.  I cooked it in my Lodge cast iron skillet for 6 minutes a side, and they came out perfect.  The crust on this pork chop was insanely good.

Sunday morning I was up about 7:15 and it was so toasty, I had both dogs under the covers to keep me warm, and I spent 30 minutes just catching up on my phone – so much happens when I sleep 😀  My friend Aubrey posted this recipe for a mushroom bordelaise sauce, and knowing I was going to make a beef roast for dinner, I knew I was going to make this.  My only changes is that I left out the minced shallot, and I did take 1/2 cup of the broth out to cool, added 1 tablespoon of corn starch, and added that the last 15 minutes of cooking.

I bought a cheap bottle of red wine at my grocery store for the sauce.  I had a sip of this though, and it was delicious.  If you are looking for a good table red, at $6.99 this can’t be beat.  

This is how the sauce looked after the red wine reduced in half – oh my Lerd, the smell of this was so good!

I used this marinade on my beef roast.  I probably put the beef in the marinade around 9:00 and put it in the oven around 4:30.  I baked it at 325 until it reached an internal temperature of 115, then let it rest 25 minutes before slicing. I realized I put my cast iron skillet on my baking steel, so the bottom of the roast got a little overdone, but this was delicious.  I added about 3/4 cup of beef broth in the bottom of the pan, and kept the lid off.

This is a great “basic” marinade because you can turn the leftovers into anything – for instance this morning I am having a beef and potato egg white hash, and for dinner tomorrow I am making bahn mi beef lettuce wraps.

I ran the mushroom sauce through the Weight Watchers recipe builder and each 1/2 cup serving is only 2 smart points – I really could do shots of this sauce on its own.  I made more sweet potato mash and sauteed spinach to round out this Sunday Supper.

I’ve been talking about this metabolic reset for the last couple of weeks, which was supposed to start November 1, but then they delayed it until today, and now the lastest is that it starts tomorrow.  We were all given a basic “grocery list” which is what you would expect, all lean proteins, veggies, healthy fats.  They started doing videos about meal planning and they kept saying, “this is what we plan for our meals according to our macros, but it will change depending on your macros.”  They had a live webinar last night, and they said that they were delayed in making a personal guide for each individual person – based on age, fitness level, etc.  

From what I gather, I think its sort of a carb cycle, but hopefully I’ll get all the info today and can accommodate the meal plan with what I have on hand.  But I am starting today – I’ve planned my meals, will not eat after dinner and plan on hitting the gym tonight for probably the first time in a month.

I missed my WW meeting on Saturday because I overslept – I never set an alarm on the weekends because I am always up by 7:15 or 7:30 –  I didn’t wake up until 9!  I weighed myself this morning and I was 174.6, which I think is what I weighed last week at WW.

Hannah and Jacob come home today – I know their dogs missed them so much!  We facetimed on Saturday night and as soon as they heard Hannah’s voice they ran to her bedroom looking for her!   

I hope you had a great weekend – it was chilly this morning – 28!  But sunny, so I’ll take it.  Make it a great day!