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Showing posts with label dinner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dinner. Show all posts

Monday, May 28, 2012

Chrono diet day 2 - Monday


For breakfast today (and probably most days) we had the 2 slices of Milton Whole Grain Plus bread with butter and cheese and we broil it – same as yesterday.

And I guess I should tell you that most times I see a recipe, I make some little changes to it.  And today was no different.  For lunch I had the recipe for South American Flank Steak for the Sonoma Diet cookbook and I made a few changes.  Below is the recipe.  The items in ( ) are the original recipe.  For the record, this was “ok” but the flank steak from yesterday had a MUCH better flavor.

South American Flank Steak

1 1-pound beef flank steak
1 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro
1/3 cup orange juice
4 teaspoons passion fruit balsamic vinegar (red wine vinegar)

1 tablespoon garlic infused extra-virgin olive oil (regular EVOO)

4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 ½  to 2 teaspoons finely chopped canned chipotle chili peppers in adobo sauce*
¼ teaspoon rosemary and black olive sea salt (kosher salt)


¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper




Trim fat from steak.  Score both sides of steak in a diamond pattern by making shallow cuts at 1-inch intervals.  Place steak in a self-sealing plastic bag set in a shallow dish.

In a blender combine cilantro, orange juice, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, cumin, coriander, chili peppers, salt and black pepper.  Cover and blend until smooth.  Pour orange juice mixture over steak.  Seal bag turn to coat steak.  Marinate for at least 2 hours, turning bag occasionally.


Drain steak, discarding marinade.  For a charcoal grill, place steak on the rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium coals.  Grill for 17-21 minutes or until medium doneness (160° F), turning steak once halfway through grilling.  (For a gas grill, preheat grill.  Reduce heat to medium.  Place steak on grill rack over heat.  Cover and grill as above.)


To serve, thinly slice steak across the grain.

Nutrition facts per serving:  (if you followed the original recipe and used it for 4 servings):  193 cal., 9 g total fat (3 g sat. fat), 47 mg chol., 126 mg sodium, 2 g cargo., 1 g fiber, 25 g pro.

*NOTE: Because hot chili peppers contain oils that can burn your skin and eyes, wear rubber or plastic gloves when working with them.  If your bare hands do touch the chili peppers, wash your hands well with soap and water.

We had ½ cup of brown rice each with our steak.


For dinner I have adapted a recipe from the Weight Watcher’s Best Darn Food Ever! Cookbook.  The recipe calls for buns, but since we can’t have bread in the evening we are omitting that part.  And, I promise I am going to start posting about trips – but I thought I would tell you which spices I picked up while traveling that I used in the recipe below.  And we LOVED this recipe.  Ron said I could put it on his short list anytime!

Smoky Pork BBQ on Buns (8 PP)

3 tablespoons packed Splenda (regular) brown sugar
2 teaspoons smoked Hungarian paprika that I picked up in Budapest last month (smoked paprika)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin that I picked up in Morocco
¾ teaspoons alderwood smoked sea salt (regular salt)
¾ teaspoons black pepper
1 1 ½ pound lean pork tenderloin
1 tablespoon Tuscan infused olive oil (canola oil)

2/3 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup water
¼ cup ketchup
2 tablespoons minced inion
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (red pepper flakes - I would have used this but we are in Norway and I could not find any).  :(
6 whole wheat hamburger buns, split and toasted

Preheat oven to 450° F.  Spray medium roasting pan with nonstick spray.

Mix together 1 T of brown sugar, the paprika, chili powder, cumin, ½ t of salt, and ½ t of black pepper in cup.  Sprinkle spice mixture all over pork, pressing so it adheres.

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add pork and cook until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes.   

Transfer to prepared roasting pan.  Roast until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of meat registers 145° F for medium, about 15 minutes.  Transfer to cutting board and let stand 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine vinegar, water, ketchup, onion, remaining 2 T brown sugar, ¼ t salt, ¼ t black pepper, and the pepper flakes in small saucepan and bring to boil.  Reduce heat and cook until reduces to ¾ cup, about 15 minutes.

Slice pork across grain, divide pork, evenly among bottoms of buns (we did not use buns).  Drizzle with about ¼ cup of sauce.  Cover with tops of buns.  Serve remaining ½ cup sauce alongside. (Remember, we did not use buns)

Nutritional info if following recipe:  1 sandwich:  314 cal, 7 g total fat, 1 g Sat Fat, 0 g Trans Fat, 74 mg Chol, 681 mg Sod, 35 g Carb, 11 g sugar, 4 g Fib, 28 g protein, 72 mg Calc.

To go along with this we ate our unlimited green salad with a homemade dressing of Blood Orange infused olive oil and Tangerine Balsamic vinegar.

Chrono diet meals day 1


I just realized that I did not post our recipes for yesterday!  It’s going to take me a while to get the hang of this!

For breakfast yesterday AND today (and probably most days) we have the 2 slices of Milton Whole Grain Plus bread with butter and cheese and we broil it so it’s a gooey mess.  YUM!


For lunch we had Grilled 5 spice Flank Steak from the Sonoma Diet Book and ½ cup of Uncle Ben’s Brown and Wild Rice Mix.  It was DELICIOUS!  I'm not sure I have the hang of taking pictures of food yet so you'll have to bear with me!


5 Spice Flank Steak

1 - 1 pound beef flank steak
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 T soy sauce
1 T sweet rice wine
1 T lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 t grated fresh ginger
2 t five-spice powder
2 t ground coriander
1 t toasted sesame oil
¼ t fennel seeds, crushed
Dash cayenne pepper

Trim fat from steak.  Season steak with kosher salt and black pepper.  Place steak in a large self-sealing plastic bag set in a shallow dish.

For marinade, in a small bowl combine soy sauce, sweet rice wine, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, five-spice powder, coriander,, sesame oil, fennel seeds, and cayenne pepper.  Pour marinade over steak.  Seal bag’ turn to coat steak.  Marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 4 hours, turning bag occasionally.

Drain steak, discarding marinade.  For a charcoal grill, place steak on the rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium coals.  Grill for 17-21 minutes or until medium doneness (160° F), turning once halfway through grilling.  (For a gas grill, preheat grill.  Reduce heat to medium.  Place steak on grill rack over heat.  Cover and grill as above.)

To serve, thinly slice steak across the grain.

Nutrition facts for 4 servings (for the Chrono diet actually it would be less servings):  204 cal., 8 g total fat (3 g sat. fat), 47 mg chol., 689 mg sodium, 6 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 26 g pro.

For a snack I had 2 apples drizzled in honey.  I know that is not listed on the diet items yesterday but in several of the sites I was doing research, that was suggest as a snack as the honey could be substituted for dark chocolate. 


For dinner I did not follow any recipe.  We saw some fresh salmon at the grocery store so bought about a pound of that.  Normally Ron will cook the salmon on the grill, but since I made him grill lunch, I decided to try doing it in the oven.  I drizzled mandarin infused olive oil on top,

 sprinkled some sea salt with Herbs De Provence 

and put several sprigs of fresh rosemary on top. 


I bake it in our convection oven at 350° for about 15 minutes.  After it came out of the oven, I sprinkled some fresh thyme and oregano on it.  I think it was almost as good as when he does it on the grill.  Unfortunately, this might mean that I’ll have to start cooking the salmon now myself.  We ate our “unlimited green salad” with it, topped with Blood orange infused olive oil and Tangerine Balsamic vinegar.

If I was an experienced blogger, I would have remembered to take a picture of the salmon when it was done, but I was tired from the bike ride and I was in SUCH a hurry to eat the salmon I forgot until we were almost done eating it.  Sorry!  I will try to do much better!  :)