Sunday, June 21, 2009

Steak with Parsley Sauce and Chili-Rubbed Oven Roasted Potatoes

Steak with Parsley Sauce
Steak with Parsley Sauce

This morning after having a late-ish breakfast of cinnamon raisin french toast and grapes, I headed to the gym for another Couch to 5K workout. It was either too hot or I was a little dehydrated because the 30 minutes were TORTURE. And I caught a glimpse of myself as I was leaving and I looked like hell, which wasn't too far from how I felt. I let my breakfast settle before leaving, so it wasn't that. Maybe it was also because I took the week off last week.

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast
Cinnamon Raisin French Toast

I came home, slugged water like it was my job, and did a 25 minute yoga download to stretch out. By that time I was starving so I repurposed some leftovers in to this salad. The salad had leftover grilled steak, leftover oven roasted potatoes, carrots, cukes, tomatoes, red onion, a little blue cheese and some Good Seasons Italian dressing. It was the packet kind you mix yourself (I used half the oil it called for). I forgot how much I love that dressing.

Leftovers, reinvented
Leftovers, reinvented

The original meal was Steak with Parsley Sauce and Chili-Rubbed Oven Roasted Potatoes. The potatoes were supposed to be more like french fries, but I only had baby red potatoes, so they were more like a roasted potato. Tasted just like the fries usually do, actually.

I made this meal for the first time a while time ago when I was still with the ex. His friend came dinner and I figured it would be something he'd like. His friend's parents had just moved out of state, he was a recent grad working at a coffee shop, and after he paid the rent I think he had just enough money for Ramen and gas to get to work. So, I invited him to dinner whenever we had extra food, figuring he could always use a good home-cooked meal. Plus, he seemed enthusiastic about dinner, which was always better than the "it's OK" that I usually got from the ex.

I put this on my menu plan this week after I leveled my parsley over weekend. I needed something to use up a boat load of parsley, fast. This is really just a parsley pesto sauce, simple but tasty. I usually don't like a whole lot of extra flavor to my steak, but lean steak, like the top round I used, can sometimes need a little help in the taste department. It doesn't have any marbling going for it.

I don't like to reheat steak so I was originally planning a steak sandwich, but it just sounded WAY too heavy after my terrible run. So a salad it was.

The rest of my Sunday was cleaning, which I hate. It's boring and time consuming. But I like living in a clean space, so it's got to be done!

Dinner wasn't photo worthy, but it was great. Chili beef stuffed zucchini and refried black beans. The recipe was a Rachael Ray recipe I remember seeing a couple of years ago and it was actually pretty healthy. It was a surprise, actually. All I had to do was cut back the oil a bit, use 2% sharp cheddar and 93/7 ground beef. The beans were Meijer organic refried black beans with red jalepeno peppers. The nutritional info was great.. 80 calories, 0 grams fat, and 5 grams fiber for 1/2 cup. There were just beans, jalepenos and salt and it was all organic. Definitely less scary than most canned refried beans. If you live near a Meijer — look for them.

Alright.. I'm off to relax.

A question for the day on my way out, though: What do you do to get through a tough workout? I'm not going to lie, I wanted to call it quits halfway through today!

1 comment:

Peanut Butter Swirl said...

those fries look so delicious and so does the toast :D such a great cook you are!