Beef Baratheon with Portabello (or How to Cook a Steak)

Recently, I realized I didn't know how to cook a steak. Yes, dear Slayers, your faithful leader who is so full of delicious recipes couldn't even make a simple steak. My thinking is that if I don't know how to do it, there's gotta be someone else out there learning to cook who doesn't know how to do it either. Needless to say, I've picked up a few new skill points in Cooking and I'd like to share them with you.

This is not the kind of fillet mignon and potatoes you'll find in find dining. This is well seasoned meat to go with a bed of sautéed veggies. It should fill and fuel you without any extra fills or non-paleo comforts. I imagine it's the kind of thing Stannis Baratheon has grown accustomed to eating on Dragonstone. So let's get our meat hats on and fry ourselves up something delicious. 

Beef Baratheon with Portabello

Deviant Art

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 2 Steaks or 1 large steak to cut in half
• Chili Powder
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic and Onion Powder
• Sweet Pepper
• Small Onion
• 1 large Portabello
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil spray

1. Prep all your veggies. Chop up the onion and the pepper and cut your portabello into slices. 
2. Mince two cloves of garlic.
3. Set a frying pan on the stove on medium heat. 
4. Spray the pan liberally with extra virgin olive oil. and let it heat up for about a minute. 
5. Then add your minced garlic. Watch it carefully and as soon as it begins to brown (about 15-30 seconds), add your onions, portabello, and pepper. Use a spatula to stir it around and keep the garlic from burning to the bottom of the pan. 
6. Season veggie pan with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Continually watch these sautéing vegetables during the rest of the cooking process. Every few minutes you'll want to move and flip them around in the pan so they cook evenly and don't burn. 
7. Set a second pan on medium heat.
8. Now season the beef by sprinkling a little chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper on each side. Massage it gently so that everything is spread evenly across the meat.
9. Add your steak to the pan and cook it for about 8 minutes on each side or till the internal temperature is where you want it to be. If you have an internal meat thermometer, the USDA says 125 degrees is rare, 145 is medium rare, 160 is medium and 170+ is well done.  You will want to flip it every 4-5 minutes or so that it doesn't burn or sear the meat on either side. 
10. When your meat is done, turn off the stove and plate the veggies. 
11. The plate your beef and voila, you've made yourself a juicy steak with veggies!

Paleo Burger Salad Recipe

Ever get that hankering for a burger? I know I do. Now that I've adopted a more Paleo/Primal lifestyle, I don't indulge in the works with the bun and the ketchup with fries on the side.

For me, it's the meat that matters.

Yet, just a burger patty alone seems sort of lame, so last night I experimented a bit. I though, why not top the burger with a bunch of sautéed veggies and it just exploded from there. What I ended up with was a home made burger patty surrounded by sautéed carrots, red pepper, mushrooms, onions and cabbage on a bed of spring lettuces and dressed with balsamic vinegar. It was so delicious and it's the first "found object" recipe I've ever come up with. Don't worry. I'm not as bad as Vork from The Guild. I only used found FOOD in my kitchen since I didn't have any sort of planned recipe for dinner. Putting the whole thing together made me feel like an evil genius! Sorta like this guy:

I know. This is two Doctor Horrible themed blog entries in a row.

One "found object," the actual burger patty, I had made using a great recipe that I can't take credit for. It's from Catspaw over at Nerd Fitness and this is the recipe I use for my "weekly supply of ground beef" that I use to amplify quick dishes with a good serving of meat.

Here's the recipe as it was shared on the NF blog. Keep in mind, this is to make a week's worth, so either plan a Burger salad dinner party, or scale this down for however many you want to make.

Or you can buy/make your own! Totally up to you. I just find this recipe super yumz. So without further ado, here's:

Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Burger Salad
(singing optional but encouraged)

Ingredients:

• 1 burger patty
• Baby Romaine or Spring Blend pre-washed lettuce
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Mushrooms
• Red pepper 
• 1/2 yellow onion 
• Cabbage slaw 
• Carrots
• Salt
• Pepper
• Onion Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil/Cooking spray.

1. Plate your bed of lettuce.
2. Cut up all your other veggies and set them aside in a bowl. 
3. Season them with a few shakes of salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder and mix thoroughly so that it looks evenly distributed.
4. Cook up the burger patty to your desired level of done-ness in a frying pan. I tend to do about 3-4 minutes on each side for a medium rare burger. 
5. Set your finished cooked burger in the center of your plate of lettuce.
6. Use the same pan that you used for your burger and coat the bottom with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or use cooking spray to mist the bottom of the pan if you're being really frugal about the extra fat.
7. Toss in your seasoned veggies. More experienced chefs might have better ideas about an "order" in which to add the veggies so that everything cooks perfectly. Me, I just toss everything in together and it seems to work out fine. 
8. Make sure you return to your pan regularly to mix up the veggies so that the ones on the bottom don't burn. I like to do this on medium heat for about ten minutes until my mushrooms have browned a bit and the onions, cabbage, and carrots have softened. You can always taste along the way if you're unsure how you like them.
9. When you're done, surround your burger with a ring of your sautéed veggies. 
10. Dress the dish with balsamic vinegar.
11. PUT IT IN YOUR FAYCE MOUTH!

Let me know if you try this recipe or if you have any other ideas to spice it up! 

My First Gain: My Fat Is Trolling Me

Well today was my first weigh-in day where I gained since starting this program 7 months ago. I only gained 1.2 lbs, but if I had lost that much, it would seem significant, so it certainly doesn't seem like a victory week. 

Obviously it's disappointing but I'm not really surprised after the week I had. I'm coming off a few weeks of pretty major loss following my surgery and I gave myself a free day on Monday night to enjoy treats at our New Years party- one of my three indulgence days for the holiday season. I didn't realize it would go on for two whole days, so I didn't pack extra Nutrisystem food like I normally would when I go to stay at a friend's house. I had to wing it on a day where I wasn't able to be particularly active and though I did my best, I certainly got off track and I don't think I every quite recovered during the course of the week. Sadly, my gym was also closed for a few days following that AND I had my last ERCP procedure for my gallbladder situation so the doctor recommended that I didn't do anything strenuous. Then I had four days of work, giving walking tours all day long (which was actually great because I needed to get more active). Anyways, those are all EXCUSES- I could have gotten off my ass and gone for a walk even if I couldn't go to the gym. I didn't. It was my choices that got me here. I could spend more time beating myself up, but I won't. Today is a new day and it's time to hit the ground running. It's time to stick 100% to the plan and get the the gym at least 4 days this week.

Conversely, there were a few positives to the week. 

I tackled my boredom with frozen veggies by putting together a huge salad kit for the next five days. I've been going the frozen route because the small grocery store near me really doesn't have great produce and walking to the far away one (and of course walking back with heavy shopping bags) is pretty awful. So I decided it would be worth it if I bought enough salad "fixins" for about five days. I tossed the baby romaine salad with peppers, carrots, and cucumbers. Then I put them into super fresh-keeping tupperware containers and dish out my portions of veggies and measure out the low fat dressing at meal time. We'll see how it goes this week, but so far, it's amazing. I look forward to the fresh salads more than I do the ACTUAL Nutrisystem dinners! It's my favorite part of the day. SALAD IS MY FAVORITE PART OF THE DAY?! Who am I? :)

I got to go back to work this week, which is taking some monetary stress off my shoulders. Even though it's our slow season for tours, I'm just happy that even a LITTLE money is going into my account. I've been living pretty frugally and will continue to do so because I have a small vacation to fund in March. I'm going to PAX East, a gaming convention, and I'm going with my boyfriend and a bunch of friends. 

The convention marks one of my mini weightloss goals (-88 lbs by March 22) and my second cosplay attempt. This time, my boyfriend is joining me in costume to support my efforts (what a trooper!), and we're going as Rainbow Dash, and Soarin the Wonderbolt from "My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic." Weirdest part: That was his choice! Heeehehehehehe. That's right, folks. I'm in dating a Brony. This week, we kicked it into high gear with building our costumes. I have a lot of sewing to do and because this costume is more tailored than my last one, I have to wait until closer to the event to start on the clothing aspects of mine or I'll be swimming in it. So, I'm starting by sewing his, ordering my prescription pink contacts, and building all the details like aviator goggles, our pegasus wings, and my custom painted rainbow sneakers with LED rainbow laces. 

Lastly, I'm currently watching The Biggest Loser and I'm celebrating because for the first time, I'm watching it without an iota of fear. I used to feel inspired by the show, but in the back of my head, when the contestants struggled, I always panicked a little because I knew I had yet to face my own demons on the scale, in the gym, and at the table. Now I am transforming myself and I am focusing more on the commonalities between myself and the folks who are hard at work on the show. So for fun, I'm tracking my weightloss along with the show in a personal mini challenge to see how much I can lose during the course of the season. It's nice because the episodes come out on Hulu on my weigh in day so I can write my blog whilst watching the show. So my first Biggest Loser weigh-in is: 178.8 lbs. We'll see how it goes next week!