Low Carb Cooking

Well we are closing on the house in just one short week if all goes well! I am trying not to get too excited because everyone keeps sharing their home buying horror stories with me about how their deals fell through at the last minute or how their closing was delayed. We are turning in the rest of the documents needed for our loan tomorrow and I'm feeling nervous since we only have a week for this all to come together. Still, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

So in the mean time, here is a post about one of my favorite things in the whole world, food! My husband Eric has been on a low carb diet for about six months now and has lost a whopping 50 pounds! I am so proud of him and am constantly amazed by his will power (there's no way I could do it). Cooking for Eric is something I really enjoy, I like to show my love for people by making them delicious food. In fact, I probably significantly contributed to his weight gain in the first place by cooking delicious, fatty things for him.  So now that he is watching what he eats I have really had to adjust my go to recipes for weeknight meals which used to mainly consist of pasta and sausage. Sometimes cooking low carb sucks, sometimes it's frustrating and uninspiring, but usually it is a fun and rewarding challenge. Plus it gets me to eat healthier too which is a great thing :-)

So here is my most recent low carb cooking experiment. I may make this a recurring weekly section on my blog since I am constantly collecting new recipes and ideas and I want to share them all.

Improvised steak salad

This recipe is what we had for dinner tonight and it was a totally invited collaboration between Eric and I. I have been craving a nice steak salad for a while now and we finally got around to making it. Eric was in charge of cooking the steak because in my house the men cook the steak :-) I came up with the other fixings and we both adjusted them to our liking. Basically all we did was pan sear some strips of top sirloin (delicious!) in some bourbon for a few minutes. We used a pre-bagged salad mix, the kind with radishes and grated carrots in it, I think it was called "American Blend". I added some toasted pine nuts and banana peppers to mine for some extra texture and a little kick. We topped the salad with some ranch dressing and our crumbly cheese of choice (I used blue cheese and Eric used feta). Finally we both added some freshly ground black pepper. We both agreed that this dish is a winner and we will totally make it again. The great thing about this kind of dish is that you can adjust it and basically throw in anything you have leftover and it all tastes great. The salad is a great counter to the steak since it is so crisp and fresh and when I eat steak by itself it sometimes feels too heavy. I encourage you to try this at home, it worked out beautifully for us!