Ten-Minute Meal: Nik & Steak & Cheese Zoodles

This "as it happened" lunch is brought to you by...Nik! :) Seriously though...submitting a recipe for the contest is as easy as snapping a pic of one of your meals!

 



Hey friends! Are you getting together your entries for the 2^ndannual Bariatric Foodie “Play With MY Food” recipe contest? (If not you should be. For simply sharing the recipe and a pic of one of your meals you could win a $50 Amazon gift card!)

If you need some inspiration, here’s a really quick and easy dish I made myself THIS very morning for lunch that is the perfect kind of recipe (and an example of what I mean by a decent food picture – this was taken with my phone).

Nik’s Steak & Cheese Zoodles

Ingredients:

• 3-ish oz. leftover cooked steak or roast beef (NOTE: You don’t HAVE to use beef. If you’ve got leftover chicken make it chicken and cheese…seafood, make it seafood and cheese. You get where I’m going with this right?)
• 1 oz. onion slivers
• Zoodles (zucchini noodles I made using my spiral vegetable cutter)
• Whatever random quick-cooking veggies you wanna throw in there (I had spinach so I used that)
• Salt, pepper, garlic (or garlic powder)
• 1 wedge Laughing Cow Light Garlic & Herb cheese
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Spray a skillet with non-stick set it over medium heat and let it get hot. Throw the steak and onions on there and get them cooking.

Meanwhile you can be cutting your zoodles. (It’s a quick, easy and, dare I say, fun process!)

Add zoodles to the pan and toss it around with the steak and onions. Let those go about a minute before adding the other veggies you intend to use. Add spices.

Once everything is tender (it only takes 3-ish minutes) throw in the Laughing Cow Light wedge (NOTE: you may want to dice it up. They don’t exactly “melt” easily). Toss throughout (I use tongs) allowing the temperature of the food to soften the cheese.

When ready to eat, top with Parmesan cheese and enjoy! These tasted like a steak & cheese sub - without the bread! And it literally took me 10 minutes to make.

So if you were hesitating to enter the contest because you thought you needed a "fancy" dish - don't! In fact most of the judges WANT simple and good recipes. So get yours together and submit by September 30 for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card! Plus you'll be helping to fill the contest e-book that will be available to everyone for FREE download.

Keep playing with your food!

Nik's Cheesesteak Ramekin

Looking to check-in your Week 4 Bariatric Foodie Pledge goal? Click here!

I know. Ok? I KNOW. I do. I know.

Some of you live alone. Some of you have families who hear healthy and say "[BLEEP] no!" And so with many of my recipes you make them and you have a WHOLE lotta food left. What can I say? I blog my truth and my truth is that I've always had two other mouths to feed (and very often the occasional adopted, hungry drifter).

This time I'm going to give you an individual recipe. It is small. It is fast to make. It only requires a few ingredients. But here's the "catch." It's friggin' DELICIOUS! So don't be surprised if those same people you struggled to feed before try to swoop in and steal this. And don't blame me! After all, it's easy enough to make another one, right?

Nik's Cheesesteak Ramekin
Makes 1 serving

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. thin-sliced deli roast beef (you can go for low-sodium if you need), chopped
• 1 tablespoon of finely diced onions
• 1 tablespoon finely diced green peppers (if you can do them)
• A few slices of mushroom (if you like mushrooms)
• 1 Laughing Cow Light French Onion-flavored cheese wedge
• 1 slice of reduced-fat provolone cheese
• Any condiments you used to love on your steak sub
• A three-ounce ramekin 

Directions:

Spray down a pan with nonstick and let it get  hot. Add onions, mushrooms and peppers and sautee about a minute.

Add the beef and sautee that until either warmed through (if you are new out and/or have a sensitive pouch) or crispy (if you, like me, have an Iron Pouch).

This flavor added a LOT of flavor to my beef/veggie mixture

Turn off the heat in the pan and drop the Laughing Cow cheese wedge right on top of your steaming hot meat mixture and allow it to soften. Then mash it through the mixture (it doesn't really melt into stuff but you can mash and mix).

Next add any condiments you like directly to the meat mixture. I just wanted ketchup so that's all I added.

Place the mixture in your ramekin and top with a slice of provolone. Then stick the whole thing in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds to melt the cheese.

And voila! A cheesesteak sub. No bread. In a ramekin. In a size that does not make you want to cry.

...my work is done here...

Nikki's Quickie Salisbury Steak & "Rice"

Ok so can I just say Salisbury steak is REALLY hard to photograph??? It all looks like gravy and mush!

This is the story of how these simple turkey burgers became heroes.

You see...it was late evening on a weekday. My evening ran late. The kids were hungry (and whiny) and frankly I was already feeling like a bad mom so I really didn't want to add fast food guilt to the mix. So I came home and whipped up a dinner so good it even surprised me.

It didn't occur to me until after I'd made it that this might be a good recipe for my Foodies who don't like big batch recipes. I hear that from you guys all the time and I've been working on it...honestly I have! It's hard because with two kids and a small food budget I sort of have to cook in big batches (and freeze things) in order to make ends meet. But this one was easy, yummy and a reasonable size. Winning!

Now I need you to follow me on this one. It goes a few places you wouldn't expect but the result is yummy!

Nikki's Quickie Salisbury Steak and "Rice"
(Makes 2 servings...or more depending on your pouch space)

Ingredients

• Non-stick cooking spray
• 1 large onion, sliced into rings 
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 turkey burgers (as you can see, I used Jennie-O)
• 1.5 - 2 c. beef broth (yes beef...and how much you use depends on how much gravy you want to end up with)
• 1/4 c. Atkins Baking Mix (or if you don't have any, whole wheat flour works too)
• 1/4 c. cold water
• 1 c. frozen cauliflower florets + 2 c. water for boiling (or, if you have it lying around, a cup of cauliflower rice)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Spray down a pan and heat it over medium heat until hot. Add onions and sautee until they are slightly browned. Add garlic and sautee about 2 minutes more.

Add the burgers to the pan and then cover the meat/onions with beef broth. Cover and allow the burgers to cook in the broth over medium-low heat.

Meanwhile, set a small pot of water over medium heat to boil your cauliflower florets. Once the water is boiling, add florets and allow to thoroughly cook. 

When the burgers are done, remove them from the gravy. In a cup, mix together baking mix/water (and please...make sure the water is COLD! If not the gravy will clump).

 Allow the broth in the pan to come to a boil (increase heat if necessary) then add the baking mix/water mixture with one hand while whisking with the other. Continue to whisk until the mixture is incorporated. You'll know it is incorporated when two things happen. #1 - the mixture will lighten in color and #2 - it will immediately thicken.

(I should give a warning here. The Atkins Mix has an interesting "smell" to it. It's not stinky. Just...different. It doesn't show up in the taste but until it is something I notice. But the food still tastes good. If you are sensitive to smells, I'd go with the whole wheat flour alternative.)

Once the sauce has thickened, add the burgers back in, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. You'll notice the gravy has a grit look to it...this is not because of clumping of the flour but bits of the burger that come off into the sauce which, to me, makes it even better because it is MOIST! But to prove there ARE actually burgers in all that gravy, lookit:

Meet Orange Plate...our newest cast member. I got the budget to hire orange plate after the unfortunate death of jade casserole dish. May the dish rest in peace.

So anyhoo...the kids INHALED this dinner! And I felt good about what I gave them. As an added bonus, I made a turkey burger (which I can tolerate) taste like beef (which isn't so easy for me to tolerate). So to me it's a win/win!