Less Meat

I watched this film yesterday. Forks Over Knives reviews how we as Americans eat and that our diet heavy in meat and animal products is making us sick. I will be the first to admit that I have let my and subsequently our diet slip in the past 3 years due to my demanding work schedule and most of the time thinking about making better food choices or exercise seems too overwhelming on top of my already exhausting schedule and life demands. We made one simple goal: to eat fewer animal products. It was the perfect time to try a diet remake since we had just come home from vacation and had an empty fridge. I ordered these two cookbooks to help inspire my cooking: Vegetarian Everyday and Super Natural Everyday.

We had friends over for dinner last night to celebrate our first year of marriage and we brought back lobsters from Maine. That was before I decided we should have a meatless week. So I made this quinoa and lentil salad and brussel sprouts to go with our last meat for the week. Dinner was amazing and I could not believe how great our top tier of the cake tasted 1 year later.

Today I made a wonderful vegetable curry. It is so far the best new recipe I have tried in this less meat goal. I am sure we will make it again. I hope to check in again with updates on our meatless week but I am in the beginning of 5 weeks of nights.

Year One!

We have been married for one year today. It has been a good year, a tough year in some ways mostly related to residency but a great year in love. I am so blessed to have found the perfect partner for me. I love him more each day. My sweet hubby!

Chai Love

We have had Chai for a little over a year. She was adopted from King Street Cats. We think she is about 4-5 years old and when she was found by King Street Cats she was in a dumpster and very sick. When we got her vet records she had an abscess, jaundice and the vet had written "possible euthanasia?" We are very glad that this little lady some how made it though and into our lives. She has some special behavior quirks and often nips our feet when she is hungry and loves to wake us up at 4 AM for Friskies, of which she will only eat the Savory Shreds varieties. But she brings plenty of joy to our lives and entertains us for hours. She loves her bird toy, anything with catnip and laser pointers. She  only snuggles on her own terms but in this picture she was snuggled right up next to me snoozing away. We think she is pretty cute. 

A Few of My Favorite Products!

One thing I always love shopping for is bath products. I love taking showers. I find showers so relaxing. I recently picked up a bottle of gud by Burt's Bees conditioner, the Pearanormal Activity flavor and it is my current go to in the shower. It smells so good or gud and makes my hair nice and soft.

I also have some favorite shower staples that I have used for years.

I love my Aveda Botanical Kinetics lotion. I use it daily especially in the winter. When I am not going to be out in the sun. It is light and does not leave your skin feeling greasy.

In the summer I swear by my alba even advanced moisturizer with SPF 15. It is great for daily wear. There is something about the comforting smells of favorite products. What are your favorite bath and shower products?

A New Shed

I think it is a sign of aging when the highlight of your week is picking out a new shed for your backyard. When we bought our house it came with a shed that had seen better days. Ivy was growing through the walls into the shed and it is pretty much a house for termites, spiders and other bugs. Since we do not have a garage it was time for an upgrade! Yesterday we ventured all the way up to Pennsylvania to visit Penn Dutch Structures. They are building us a custom shed not unlike this one below. I never thought I would be excited about a new shed but I am thrilled that 6 weeks from now we will have a new clean and bug proof place to store our bikes, garden tools and lawn mower. Who knew home improvement could be so fun.

Our New Favorite Dinner

This dinner is a combination of several recipes and my own twist. But it is hands down the best steak salad you will ever eat!

Steak Salad

For the Steak:
NY strip Steak 1 per 1-2 people depending on how many big eaters you may have
1/2 stick unsalted butter per 2 steaks - melt and clarify
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt, pepper to taste

Pat the steaks dry. Mix the clarified butter and oil together. Salt and pepper the steaks on both sides. Then brush with the butter/oil mix. Set aside until your grill is ready.
Grill each side for approximately 3 minutes or until cooked to your liking. Let rest for at least 5 minutes prior to slicing thinly to top the salad.

For the salad

Heirloom tomatoes
Avocado
Shallot
Olive Oil
Lemon
Dijon Mustard
Heirloom lettuces or your favorite green (arugula, spinach baby greens would work well too)

I layered the lettuces then the tomatoes then the avocado. I sliced the shallot thinly and then whisked up a lemon vinaigrette with some zest, olive oil, dijon mustard and the shallot. After I lightly dressed each salad I spooned the shallots on top of the steaks.


This is delicious! We also made a version with romain where we grilled each of the heads of romaine first and that was all sorts of amazing!

Fajita Night

Four best friends from high school playing cards together many years later 

I am pretty sure the first thing I ever knew how to make was fajitas. My love for Tex-Mex food has been long standing but was solidified sometime during the summer of 1998, also known as the magic summer to my best friends from high school. Looking back on it our lives were pretty awesome then, we had no responsibilities. Our biggest worry was trying to wake up in time for peak sun hours and making sure we had all of our favorite things packed for the beach.

Our daily ritual usually involved packing sandwiches individually in sandwich bags labeled with each name in Sharpie marker and topped with your own favorite sandwich toppings. Our cooler held the essentials - Diet Coke, Cheez-Its and maybe some Michigan cherries. The days task, playing cards and relaxing at the beach. After a long day in the sun we'd head back to the cottage and make dinner. At sixteen our culinary skills were just developing but one thing we had down was fajitas. Over the years the recipe evolved, becoming more sophisticated as we became adults. The location may have changed and the beverage of choice evolved from ice cold Diet Coke to Oberon Beer or a fresh squeezed Margarita. What remained the same? The people around the table and the love that went into making dinner together.

I recently returned from two trips where fajita night happened, the first to Northern Michigan with my family and a second a weekend in the Poconos with my husband's family. Both times fajita night did exactly what it was supposed to do - bring people together in the kitchen and around the table.

I absolutely love this book and blog by the same name because it captures so much of what I love about cooking. Of course I love to eat but what really drives me to spend my valuable free time dicing onions and chopping herbs is what food does for a group of people. Food brings us together. When we share a meal we come together to share our lives.

Now on to the recipes...

Fajitas for 6 people

3 lbs steak or chicken breasts about 1/2 pound per person
3-4 bell peppers any color
1- large onion
2 cups shredded cheese
1 cup salsa
2 cups guacamole (recipe to follow)
1 cup sour cream
12 Tortillas (burrito size)
1 bag of your favorite Tortilla Chips
1 cup chopped lettuce
2- tomatoes diced
4 tablespoons Cooking oil (I usually use olive oil)

You will need two large saute pans. Slice up the meat into strips about 1/4 thick the goal is to have similar size pieces for even cooking. Slice up the peppers and onion into strips. Heat the pans over medium high heat, add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, I usually use olive oil. Season the meat with salt and pepper and cumin to your taste. Add to the pan and cook through. Alternatively, I recently used NY strip steak, seasoned with salt, pepper and cumin and rubbed with melted butter, see this post about how to grill the perfect steak. I had my husband throw them on a grill and then sliced them prior to serving.  To your second pan add the peppers and onions and cook until soft and tender. While the meat and veggies are cooking prep the other toppings, chop lettuce and tomatoes and set out salsa, sour cream and cheese into bowls. Someone can also make the guacamole during this time or it can be made ahead of time. Once the meat, peppers and onions are cooked gather everyone around the table. Heat up the tortillas either in a warm oven, the microwave or in a saute pan.  Load up your toppings and enjoy.

Guacamole
3 ripe avocados
3 cloves garlic
1/4 c chopped onion
1 bunch cilantro washed and patted dry
2 limes juiced
1 tomato diced
1 jalapeno seeded and diced
salt added slowly to taste

I usually start by dicing up the garlic, onion, cilantro, tomato and jalapeno. I then squeeze the juice of two limes over the top. I slice open my avocados, remove the pits and then squeeze them into the bowl. I usually use a potato masher or two forks or my hands (washed first of course) to mix everything together to so that the guacamole is combined but still has chunks of avocado. I add salt as I go tasting every so often until I cannot stop eating it.