Saturday, January 21, 2012

Saturday Snapshot

Here's another fun Meme. I love pictures.  Love 'em.

Hosted by At Home With Books:

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

The Gung-Ho Diet* from back in the Resolution Days is still going strong, and no one could be more surprised than me!!  (Except maybe my partner in crime - he is astonished, too.)  We're 21 Days into this thing and still happy, not-hungry, enthusiastic and.... uh, happy.  Amazing!!  :-D

My thing is, I don't expect diets to actually work. We've tried low-cal, lose-weight-fast diets before and basically, it's a huge pain. Literally. But oddly enough, this one isn't.

Better yet, I learned how to make this incredibly delicious fajita plate that tastes a lot like the one we pay $15 for at our favorite Mexican restaurant (which name we never remember.) In fact, if you've ever come to visit us, we probably took you there... and you know what chicken fajitas I'm talking about!!

 The trick is cooking with broth instead of oil. I use beef broth for steak fajitas and let the liquid reduce down to get good color.  I also add spices while the meat is raw, like a rub - Italian seasoning (which is Mexican without a few things) and garlic salt. When the steak is nearly cooked through, I transfer it to a cutting board to slice into bite size pieces. Sometimes I go crazy with a big knife, wildly chopping (like I've seen authentic chefs do) but usually a pay close attention to slice thinly so I get bite size pieces.

While the meat was cooking, I sliced up the peppers and onions, so they go in the pan while I'm slicing the meat. The reduced broth with the spices starts making a most delicious sauce and as the onions caramelize and the peppers... do their thing... I have a hard time keeping my fingers out of the pan, and get a few burns "testing".  As soon as all the veggies are turned, I layer the steak on top and watch over it all closely until it looks just like a sizzling fajita plate:
Steak Fajitas
It's delicious!

For our Gung-Ho Diet, this is what we eat - I didn't exactly follow portion size b/c the kids like steak, too. They ate apples and peanut butter with their steak bites... because apples still exist even after snackers have worked the kitchen over thoroughly. (I picked up a very large bag of 'em.)

*It's the hcg diet (when it's not "Gung-Ho"), which means shockingly low calorie count every day along with 3 daily doses of this miraculous stuff that's supposed to make us - not hungry and lose fat instead of muscle.

Mini Alien Snowman - by Dash
** I am in Oregon!

Leave me a link to your Snapshot!!


Or... your diet update!!   :-D


Or....... a fun, new Recipe!!!