There's nothing like the smell of onions and garlic cooking on the stove.... This week I have attempted to throw myself into making meals again. An 8 yr relationship tossed to the curb has had me eating out and nuking shit in the microwave. YIKES~! Although I have managed to maintain my 50lb weight loss since mid-2009..all that is about to change!
I have a very unhealthy obsession with food blogs. Food porn takes up a great deal of my weekly internet black hole. I think the hardest thing is fighting the devil in my head that screams for butter, sugar and good ol' grandma made food...and trying to listen to the rational olivia newtown-john "let's get physical" sweat-band wearing guru that tells me to cut out sugar and watch carbs. Yes, its true..I lost 50lbs last year doing Atkins and amazingly I did not put all weight back on as I have in the past. Granted.. 8 years worth of tears, almost becoming homeless, loving and losing, and struggling with who the heck I had become and wanted to be...kept me from dipping into the fatso bowl. I had so many moments of not wanting to eat anything and living off coffee...like that's good for you lol. But my inner soul mama wants to make my own butter, concoct creamy mac and cheese, and try every damn brownie recipe this side of the Mississippi River. I am damned if I do and damned if I don't try.
This week marked my first official trip back to the store with a typed ingredient list and a master meal plan in over 9 months. Kylie and I tried these recipes and I will let you know which ones were winners and which ones were runners up.
First of all....let me tell ya who's food blog I am sampling this week. I am more than likely going to spend quite some time devouring these recipes. I dabbled in some of her recipes back in 2008 and fell in love. Please note..this weeks food blog spotlight is not for the faint-hearted. If you are dieting or have some weird aversion to butter...don't even attempt this recipes. My number one fave food blog is The Pioneer Woman. I have been following her for a couple years now and for the most part...drool over everything she does...from the food porn to the silly humor in her writing. She's real and she's down-to-earth which I adore. I also am head over heels for her blog style of photographing everything she does which for people like me makes it a hellva lot easier to actually recreate these.
This week we did:
Beer Braised Beef with Onions - I LOVE this! Even Ky tore it up! It made the house smell wonderful plus I got to do some dutch oven cooking which is always fun...especially with Le Creuset. I got beef that was almost 3lbs and used Miller Lite...hey hey hey it was cheap and available. As a side we did exploded mashed potatoes. Pioneer Woman has a recipe similar to this but I make my regular homemade mashed potatoes (family secret) and then add the bacon, green onions, and shredded cheese. They are similar to my favorite dive's exploded potatoes ~ Frisco's in Frederick. Definitely would make this if I had company :)
Fried Round Steak - I should of known I would not be impressed ONLY because I have had fried round steak...country fried steak..whatever the hell ya wanna call it..before at the request of my now ex-boyfriend. I did not grow up in the country so until I met him..I had never EVEN heard of country fried steak lol. Not a big fan of it..it's OK but nothing spectacular. For some people, I could see how this would be a comfort food..perhaps taking them back to childhood memories but for me, my memories are void of this. I liked that Ree used only flour and not egg to coat these. They were light and as fried round steak goes..not too shabby. If you or your hubby or domestic partner...luvs country fried steak...then this recipe is for you. We served with veggies in a rosemary sauce.
Smashed potatoes - I varied this slightly and served with the beer braised beef. Definitely a huge hit! Highly recommend this recipe if you love loaded baked potatoes. Goes great with anything or you can eat it alone..out of the bowl...like I did.
For the line up for the rest of the week into the weekend...I still have a layered salad, chicken with lemon penne pasta, mushroom swiss sliders with homemade onion rings to do and bean and beef burritos. I will post those results by early next week. Kylie is going away for the weekend so I won't be doing so much cooking.
My goal after unloading the fridge and freezer for next week is to try some healthier meals. I will see what I come up with...probably going to hit up my favorite low carb food blog for some ideas. If you are trying to lose weight..there's definitely some substitutions you could have used for these recipes so feel free to screw around with them.
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