Herbed Steak with Balsamic Sauce

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning, crushed
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 boneless beef top loin (strip) steak, cut 3/4 inch thick
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

In a small bowl combine pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder and salt. Sprinkle over both sides of steaks; rub in with your fingers.

In a large heavy skillet cook meat in hot oil over medium-low to medium heat until desired doneness, turning once halfway through cooking. Remove meat from skillet, reserving droppings in the skillet. Keep meat warm.

For sauce, carefully add broth and vinegar to the skillet, stirring to loosen any brown bits in bottom of skillet. Bring to boiling. Boil gently, uncovered about 4 minutes or until sauce is reduced by half. Remove from heat; stir in butter.

Divide sauce among 4 dinner plates. Cut each steak in half. Place a piece of meat on top of sauce on each plate.

Verdict:

The spices on the steak were wonderful! We'll probably use this again on meat we grill. Very flavorful and peppery. The sauce... we probably will skip it next time. It didn't do anything for the flavor, and made a mess of the rest of the sides I put on the plate.

Tomato Seafood Soup

We've tried a couple of seafood soups before. Once with clams- shell and all, and another time with muscles. Neither time worked out well for us. So it was with some trepidation that we attempted this recipe last week.

INGREDIENTS
· 1/2 cup chopped onion
· 1/2 cup chopped green pepper I used yellow pepper, I didn't have any green in the fridge
· 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
· 1 tablespoon olive oil
· 1 can (14 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
· 1 jar (14 ounces) spaghetti sauce
· 1 cup salsa
· 3/4 cup chicken broth
· 1/2 cup white wine or additional chicken broth It seems a shame to waste the remainder of the can of chicken broth, but wine? Yes, that sounds better :)
· 3 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
· 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
· 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
· 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon pepper
· 1 package (12 ounces) frozen uncooked shrimp , thawed, peeled and deveined
· 1 package (8 ounces) imitation crabmeat, chopped or 2 cans (6 ounces each) crabmeat, drained, flaked and cartilage removed We used the cheap kind, not the fancy lump. I think the $5 cans of fancy lump would have looked a little more appealing, but the taste was the same.
· 1 can (6-1/2 ounces) minced clams, undrained

Wow. Clams, crab and shrimp. Sounds fishy, right? Not at all! This soup was WONDERFUL! But I suppose you'll be wanting the directions:

DIRECTIONS
In a Dutch oven, saute the onion, green pepper and garlic in oil until onion is tender. Stir in the tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, broth, wine or additional broth and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the shrimp, crab and clams. Cover and simmer for 5-7 minutes or until shrimp turn pink.

Verdict: As I hinted, this soup was WONDERFUL. The seafood was not overpowering in flavor, and it had a nice zip to it (must be the salsa- who would have thought to add salsa to soup?) Just delicious!

Fiery Orange Beef Stir-Fry

Yes, another stir-fry. I hear you groaning out there. But stir-fry is very healthy! Veggies! Protein! Carbs!!
Ingredients
1 pound tender beef steak
4 tablespoons Kikkoman Teriyaki Marinade & Sauce, divided
1-1/2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch, divided
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh orange peel
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 medium carrot, julienned
3 green onions, cut into 2-inch lengths, separating whites from tops
Hot cooked rice

Directions

1. Cut beef into thin strips; coat with mixture of 2 Tbsp. teriyaki sauce, 1-1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch and garlic. Let stand 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, combine remaining 2 Tbsp. teriyaki sauce, 1 tsp. cornstarch, crushed red pepper, orange peel and juice and 1/4 cup water.

3. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in hot wok or large skillet over high heat. Add beef and stir-fry 2 minutes; remove.

4. Reduce heat to medium-high; heat remaining 1 Tbsp. oil in same pan. Add carrot and white parts of green onions; stir-fry 1 minute. Add green onion tops; stir-fry 30 seconds. Add beef and teriyaki sauce mixture. Cook, stirring, until sauce boils and thickens, about 2 minutes.
Serve with rice.

Verdict: Mark says "yeah," I say "nay." I thought this would be spicy with a hint of orange. Instead it was ORANGE with a little kick. A very small kick. Mostly it was beef smothered with orange juice.

I am the pickiest eater you will ever meet, Mark is the least. So take our review with a grain of salt. I imagine for most people this recipe comes out somewhere in the middle.

Pretzel Chicken with Cous-Cous

All right, I'll just fess up right now. This is supposed to be the 9th dinner, but it's not.

I made it a whole two months into my New Year's resolution before falling completely apart. But you come to this blog to laugh at my failings (at least I don't think you do, for both of you who actually read this). You come here for the recipes that I manage to not follow the directions to each week.

Ingredients
1 cup pretzel sticks
2/3 cup unsalted peanuts
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional)
1/2 cup refrigerated or frozen egg product, thawed a regular egg whipped works just fine too
1 14- to 16-oz. pkg. chicken breast tenderloins
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 16-oz. pkg. frozen sweet peppers and onion stir-fry vegetables I used cut-up fresh veggie's
1/2 cup uncooked couscous I couldn't find the box of this stuff plain, so I used the boxed stuff that you mix in the flavor packet with. Which was good, because I used the flavor packed in the end when the cous cous had no flavor!
2 Tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 Recipe Dipping sauce

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a 15x10x1-inch pan with foil; coat with nonstick cooking spray; set pan aside. Place pretzels, 1/2 cup peanuts, and red pepper in food processor. Cover; process until coarsely ground; transfer to resealable plastic bag.

2. Place egg product in shallow dish. Dip chicken tenderloins into egg product. Allowing excess egg product to drip off, transfer tenderloins, half at a time, to bag with crumb mixture. Seal bag; turn to coat chicken pieces. Arrange chicken in prepared pan. Bake chicken for 10 to 15 minutes or until no longer pink (170 degrees F).

3. Meanwhile, in a saucepan combine broth and stir-fry vegetables. Bring to boiling. Stir in couscous; remove from heat. Cover; let stand 5 minutes. Chop remaining peanuts. Stir peanuts, rice vinegar, and oil into couscous mixture. Serve couscous mixture with chicken and dipping sauce.

Makes 6 servings Umm... maybe if you eat next to nothing... this was enough for two of us, no leftovers. And I used the entire box of cous cous, which was about a full cup.

Dipping Sauce: In a bowl combine 1/3 cup plain yogurt, 2 tablespoons yellow mustard, and 2 teaspoons honey.

Verdict: The pretzel-covered chicken was excellent! A very different taste (I kind of felt like I was eating junk food, not dinner). If we do this again we'll use some red pepper to give the cous cous more color.

The cous cous was not at all like the recipe called for. I didn't have rice vinegar, so I skipped it. And I used the parmesan flavored cous cous box. But it all turned out. And much easier!

We didn't do the dipping sauce because I hate mustard. I just used honey, Mark dipped his in spicy mustard.

We liked it!