A Hard Day's Work Meal

I have one of the best husband's in the world. He works so very hard and takes such good care of his girls. He really is my best friend. So when I spend as much time as I do planning and preparing meals, it's not only because I love to cook, but my own special way of giving back to the man that gives us so much. We work quite well as a team. I think we balance each other so well. We will be celebrating our 14 year anniversary next week. The Dynamic Duo. So for tonight's dinner I made a T Bone steak, Japanese Sweet Potatoes, Salad, Homemade Ranch Dressing, sauteed mushrooms and fresh corn on the cob. This is one of the dinners we tag team on. I get everything prepped and he grills it. Granted I can use the grill if I needed to,  but this is a way for us to cook together. Plus, he's great at it. It's a guy thing. So here's the recipes/pics for tonight's dinner.

T-Bone Steak- seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning and grilled to desired temperature.

Japanese Sweet Potatoes- My family loves these. They are so creamy inside and have no strings. It has a light cream coloring on the inside. Stab potatoes with a knife throughout and microwave approximately 8 min turning halfway through. 

Salad- Okay I am known for my artistic salads. Look out if you ever go to Sweet Tomatoes with me. My salad overfloweth. I love everything and anything in my salad. I use whatever looks good and what I have available at home. Tonight I used Romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, orange tomatoes, cucumbers, red & yellow peppers, sweet onions, radishes, broccoli, sunflower & pumpkin seeds.

Homemade Ranch Dressing-

• 1/2 cup Mayonaise

• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup buttermilk  - I used the can buttermilk diluted with water
• 1 clove of garlic mashed
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh dill
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Salt and Pepper - I used Himalayan Pink Salt but you can use whatever salt you have

Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl. Refrigerate until serving time to let flavors develop. Enjoy over salad. Thank you to Lowfat Lifestyle for the recipe that I tweaked a little. 

It was so much better than eating out and definitely alot heathier! 

Sauteed Mushrooms

8oz of mushrooms

1 clove of garlic

1 Tbs onion- tonight I used sweet onion

1 Tbs of Red Wine Vinegar

Montreal Steak Seasoning

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

Circle the pan three times with EVOO. Over medium heat sautee garlic and onion in EVOO til lightly browned. Add mushrooms, seasoning and red wine vinger. Stir until mushrooms have softened. 

Naturally Me,

Diana

Beef it's what's for dinner, well a snack rather...

So I noticed that I haven't put any meat recipes on my blog. As I said before my dad is from Oklahoma.  I spent a good portion of my childhood there because of family and my dad being stationed there. Yep, I'm an Air Force Brat. Cows in Oklahoma are much different than those in Florida. They look like true cattle and not like anorexic cows. So needless to say I love beef. You can take the girl out of Oklahoma but you can't take Oklahoma out of the girl. A friend of ours that my husband used to work with makes beef jerky all the time. He was so kind as to give me his recipe for it. This beef jerky is always a big hit at our parties and gatherings. So here is the recipe:

2 pounds of Ground London Broil (I usually buy London Broil when it's on sale buy one get one (bogo) free and have the butcher ground it for me to save on $$$)
2 packets of Nesco beef jerky seasoning
2 packets of Nesco beef jerky cure
13-14 seeds from Large dried chilli pepper (I usually find it in the Latino food aisle)
Dehydrator
Jerky gun (I use the flat tip but you can use round depending on your preference for jerky)

Mix London Broil, seasoning and chilli pepper seeds until well blended. After well mixed, fill jerky gun and squeeze out strips onto dehydrator trays. I use my Nesco Dehydrator and set the setting to the highest at 155 for 4 hours and Walla! Homemade Beef Jerky!

Positively Me,

Diana

Mixin' Cultures

So I consider myself a half breed. I'm half Thai and half American. My mother is from Thailand and my father is from Oklahoma. I'm very proud of my heritage on both sides. I've always believed I had the best of both worlds way before Hannah Montana came into being. I can remember my mom making 2 meals for dinner every night. One for her one (Thai) for my dad (American). I would generally eat whatever sounded the best that night. It's because of how I was raised that I appreciate all the various foods that different cultures make. I will be posting more on Thai dishes at a later time. Today's dish is a mixture of two different flavors that I love so much, guacamole and hummus. Thank you to Ali's Blog "Give Me Some Oven" for her recipe Guacamummus. I changed the recipe just slightly and it came out wonderful and was a big hit with the family. Hope you enjoy my version!


Naturally me, 


Diana 




Guacahummus- 


1 ripe Avocado cut into chunks
1 can chick peas drained
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1/4 cup red onion chopped
1 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Lime squeezed
2 garlic smashed
1/4 up Fire Roasted Tomatoes 
2 Tbs Tahini
1 tsp of Cumin
1/8 tsp of salt (I used Himalayan pink salt but you can use regular salt more or less depending on taste)






In food processor (I used a blender since I don't have a food processor) combine all ingredients. Blend until smooth. Serve with cucumber, crackers or use as a spread on sandwich. I made a breadless sandwich and put this spread on it. It was great!!

Comfort

So I recently learned of my close friend being newly diagnosed with breast cancer. She is the 3rd person in just a couple of weeks of my friends and family who have been newly diagnosed with some form of cancer. It's scary how quick these illnesses creep into our lives and rock our world. All I can do is send my loved ones Positive Healing thoughts and prayers that they will find the strength within to fight these cancers. What this news has also done is strengthen my belief in creating a natural healthy environment for my family as best I can. My family and I are worth sacrifices such as giving up sugar because of the dangers that it can cause. So as I process my way through all this information, I felt like I needed a bit of comfort food. So today's breakfast, well actually lunch, was Slow Cooker Oatmeal that I cooked overnight so that it was ready first thing in the morning. It was like waking up to a warm hug. 


Positively Me,


Diana


Slow Cooker Oatmeal


1 Cup Steel Cut Oats (you can get them in bulk food aisle of natural food store. I paid .99 a lb at Richard's Foodporium)
4 cups of Water
1/2 cup of Half & Half
1/2 tsp of Vanilla Extract
Slow Cooker Liner- Not necessary but made it alot easier for cleanup


Heat oven to 375. Toast oats in oven for 15 min to help bring out nutty flavor of oats. Line Slow cooker with Slow Cooker liner. Add toasted oats, Water and Half & Half and Vanilla. Turn Slow Cooker on Low and cook for at least 8 hours. Stir well prior to serving. This will make at least 3-4 servings. I added 1 packet of Truvia for a single bowl of oatmeal. You can use Stevia, Truvia or Agave syrup to help sweeten the oatmeal. If I have blueberries on hand I add them to my oatmeal. You can add whatever fruit or nuts you would like. Enjoy!! 

Going Green

So now that I've become more of an Earth Mama, I have been recycling as much as I can. Luckily, our garbage service has recycling days every couple of weeks so we recycle our plastics, aluminum & glass. We live close to the elementary school that recycles paper and gets money in return for their weight of recycled material. We take our paper there so we are giving back to the school as well as the earth. After I am done using my juicer, I use the leftover pulp to fertilize my garden. I do this with my coffee grounds and other organic material. I recently learned that baking soda is a natural ant killer. I haven't had a problem with the ants after I sprinkled baking soda in my garden. So as I think of green (which happens to be my favorite color) tonight's vegetable for dinner is grilled zucchini.


Naturally Me,


Diana


Grilled Zucchini


1 Zucchini halved from top to bottom
Olive oil
Pepper
Salt (tonight I used Himalayan Pink Salt)


Coat both sides of each slice of zucchini with olive oil. Sprinkle pepper and salt. If using Pink Salt use sparingly as a little goes a long way. Grill for 8-10 minutes flipping halfway. Enjoy!