My Craving

Last night I had this HUGE craving for something ... only I had absolutely no idea what it was for. Then this morning I woke up and turned on the TV to the Food Network (there's not much else on at 7:30 am) and my favorite chef, Elie Krieger, was cooking flank steak. That's when it hit me! I wanted some beef!! So I payed close attention and when I went grocery shopping this morning, I bought some flank steak!

I couldn't think of what I wanted to go with the steak, and it wasn't the onion salad that Elie made, that's for sure, so I flipped through her cookbook that I own and there it was - honey roasted sweet potatoes!!! I have been wanting to cook sweet potatoes for awhile (I've heard they're fabulous for preventing skin cancer - definitely something I want to do!!) so I figured there was no time better than the present!! So I also bought some sweet potatoes at the store.

I got home, I marinated my steak (in a plastic bag just like Bobby taught me) in olive oil, Balsamic Vinagrette dressing, and a little lemon juice and let it sit in the fridge all day. An hour before eating, I peeled and diced my sweet potatoes and coated them in a marinade of lemon juice, honey, and olive oil. Then I grilled my steak on my fabulous George Foreman (thanks Aunt Mary!) and I steamed some broccoli in my awesome Tupperware microwave steamer (thanks Aunt Layne!).

What do you think? Would you eat it?

In case you're wondering, it was DELICIOUS!! Well, the steak was a little chewy, but it really wasn't too bad - and the sweet potatoes were absolutely delicious!!! I don't usually prepare meals like this for myself (I live alone - what's the point?!) but it sure was wonderful!

Smile: This afternoon I prepared a delicious peanut butter and berry smoothie! It was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself!


Cooking Sidenotes: I'm not at all a great chef and something always happens, so read ahead if you're curious about what happened this time!

• I forgot to read the recipe carefully this morning (I only skimmed it for the ingredients before I went grocery shopping) so at about 6:30 when I wasn't yet starving, but figured I might as well start cooking, I read the recipe for the sweet potatoes and realized they had to cook for an hour! Oops! I guess I should have read the whole thing earlier!
• I was pretty nervous about peeling the sweet potatoes! I still remember that in Kindergarten I had trouble peeling carrots (I had a tendency to miss the carrot and get my thumb instead) and to this day I still get nervous about peeling! Well I'm happy to say that I successfully peeled three medium-sized potatoes without any injuries to report!!
• I bought peanut butter for my smoothies (I need to add some more protein to my diet) and I wanted to be healthy so I bought an organic peanut butter. I opened the lid and liquid went everywhere! There was like a layer of liquid on top of the peanut butter!! I don't eat a lot of peanut butter so perhaps this is normal (is it??) but I definitely wasn't expecting it!!
• I put the steak on my black plastic cutting board and let it sit for a few minutes (so the juices wouldn't all come running out). Then when I started cutting the steak, the juices came out and ran off the board and onto the counter and the floor! Oops!! So I transferred the meat to my glass cutting board and that worked out better, but some of the juice still ran off. One of these days I'll learn how to do all of this without making a mess!!