Back on Track and the Power of the Broiler...

3 Pounds Down and I'm Back on Track

Woohoo, back on track! Dropped 3 pounds this week, didn't make it to the gym but tracked what I was eating and cooked at home a lot. Have my first kickboxing class at a new gym near my house on Monday, so planning on getting in some exercise in this week.

On the cooking at home topic, today's post is dedicated to the magic of your oven's Broiler (oooh, aaah, wwooww). To be honest, cooking meat at home used to scare me. I've spent a lot of time making pastries and other baked good, but I always worried that if I tried to cook a steak, or salmon, or anything that used to be alive (no kids, there's no brownie farm out there), that I'd either overcook it and it would be chewy, undercook it and I'd get some horrible disease that I can't pronounce, or otherwise screw up the meal.

Then in swooped Fresh Direct's Cooking Instructions, and I haven't looked back since. So far I've mastered broiling steak and salmon, and am slowly pushing my comfort zone out to other things like veal and using marinades.

What I never realized is how SIMPLE broiling is. Take your steak, trim the fat, rub on some Olive Oil (NOT Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which is for tasting and not for cooking due to its lower smoking temperature, I think...), sprinkle on copious amounts of sea salt and some pepper, then place under the broiler (about 2 inches away from flame) for 7 minutes on one side, then another 3 on the other (for a 1" steak), remove from broiler, cover with tin foil for 5 minutes to let the juices distribute (meat will continue to cook once you remove it from the oven/broiler, about another 10 degrees so remove when your meat's about a notch more rare than you like it), then serve! It looks something like this:

Steak Dinner Under the Broiler...Yum

Also, I've been sautéing a lot of veggies recently, which are equally as easy. Below is the following: put about a Tbsp of Olive Oil into a pan, turn on high, add mushrooms, brussels sprouts, sprig of rosemary, sea salt and pepper and sauté until the mushrooms gives up their water and the brussels sprouts become soft. Just grab a fork and taste as you go!

Mushroom and Brussel Sprouts with Rosemary

I also made this recipe for Sauteed Brussel Sprouts the other night, with some salmon (add olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, 7 minutes under the broiler), and a quick Israeli salad (chop veggies of your choice, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper dressing) for this delicious dinner:

Salmon, Caramelized Brussels Sprouts, Israeli Salad, Pinot Noir

It's actually surprisingly easy to whip up a quick meal that's delicious! I also took Knife Skills 1 at the Institute of Culinary Education's Recreational Division last weekend, so I've been looking for excuses to make things that involve dicing or cutting. I must say though, my carrot dicing skills are nothing short of a work of art:

He Dices, He Slices, He May or May Not be Missing a Finger!

Turns out there's a whole skills to using knives and keeping them sharp which makes food prep MUCH easier and faster. The course is $100, lasts 3 hours, and I HIGHLY recommend anyone and everyone take it!

That's all for this week, let me know in a post below if you have any great (i.e. easy and delicious) recipes or cooking resources to share with everyone!

----Alex