Monthly Archives: March 2013

Dressed Up Filet

As a 24-year-old on a budget, Filet Mignon is hard to come by. Luckily, Mom and Dad were generous with cleaning out the freezer so Tom and I enjoyed a great steak dinner last night.

I like to spruce up my steak (because throwing it on the grill is just too easy). I added a rosemary and sea salt rub and then served with a red wine sauce. I made similar steak accessories in college and I’ve been trying to recreate them since. (Pinterest didn’t exist back then, so many of my recipes are long lost.) So, I’ve experimented with my own ideas and we enjoyed delicious “dressed up” filet for a classy Wednesday night.

First, I started with the rub – it’s as easy as it sounds. Add your own favorite spices, but I think rosemary and sea salt pair well with a filet.

Rosemary & Sea Salt Steak Rub

dried rosemary, chopped fine
sea salt
pepper
garlic salt

Press the rosemary into the steak and top with remaining seasonings. Rub ingredients into the meat and cook spice side down. Add additional seasoning on the other side.

While I waited for Tom to actually cook the steak (cuz the man of the house likes to cook the meat) I prepared the sauce.

Red Wine Steak Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons Worchestire
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup dry red wine

Sautee onion and garlic in oil until soft (about 2-3 minutes). Mix in Worchestire and tomato paste.

Slowly whisk in wine. Let simmer on low until reduced by half.

Serve underneath steak, or drizzle on top.

And voila! Just adds a little more fancy flavor to an already fancy and flavorful steak. I served with potatoes and broccoli, as well as a quick tomato and cucumber salad (with olive oil, red wine vinegar, sea salt, pepper, and grated asiago).

Peanut Butter Oat Bars

Things I <3 This Week

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I’ve been behind. I’m catching up on my eating, among other things, and now I have a cold. So right now, I just want to share some things that are making me happy this week.

Grandma’s cooking.

Sunday dinner was just what I needed to ~~reverse,~~ um, ~~recover from~~ enjoy after my diet. Grandma didn’t disappoint and sent us home with dinner for the whole week (hence my lack of recipes).

This video my dad sent me.

I have a journalism minor, so I still say paper is not dead.

50 Lifehacks to Simplify Your World

This article reveals the little tricks to make life easier and it will blow your mind. I already do some of them (I thought I invented #9) but many of them will make you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Bend a post-it note to catch dust from drilling.

No more mess from hanging shelves!

Suri’s Burn Book and SEO

This is one of my favorite blogs and it’s how I catch up on my celeb news. Today, fake Suri shared why Kim and Kanye will NOT be naming their baby “North.” I love a good Kardashian jab. Read it here.

Coursera

My friend Danielle introduced me to Coursera, a website that lets you take online classes on almost anything for free! Free knowledge for everyone!

Jon Cozart

…and his musical parodies. I loved his Harry Potter in 99Seconds, and now his After Ever After video is going viral. (Yes, I’m a Gleek.)

And finally, I’m so excited that Tom is working almost-normal hours again and our trip to California is 80% booked (the other 20% hopefully by the weekend). Signs that spring is coming? Well, I’m going skiing this weekend so probably not. But at least I have a lot to look forward to!

Under Construction! Visit Jailavie.WordPress.com

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Hello! J’ai La Vie is currently in transition between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. While we make some updated, please use the old URL http://jailavie.wordpress.com.

Thanks!

Jai

The Cabbage Soup Diet: Day Seven

Cabbage Soup Diet: Day Six

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I’m in the home stretch! Day 6, beef and veggies.

Breakfast: tea
Lunch: spinach salad with fat free dressing
Dinner: cabbage soup and leftover cabbage rolls

And now I’m sick, so I’m not sure if this diet is the cause or if I’m subconsciously trying to come up with a reason to give it up.

Kiley gave up today (I’m outing you) and I’m jealous. Hopefully I can make it through tomorrow… or at least past dinner time. There are social events in the works that I can’t resist so we will see how the nighttime goes.

Next week’s diet

The Cabbage Soup Diet: Day Five

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Diet Day 5: Beef and Tomatoes. Real food!? I am taking full advantage with a special recipe.

Breakfast: cappuccino
Lunch: cabbage soup
Snacks: um… water
Dinner: cabbage rolls

For dinner, we decided to make Grandma’s famous cabbage rolls, or “halupkes”. We made some healthy edits (which I’m including in a footer note below) and they fit in perfectly with our diet day.

You can substitute today’s beef for chicken or fish, so Kiley and I decided to use ground turkey. It’s just like beef, but much leaner so I think this is the opposite of a cheat … extra brownie points? Ugh, I can’t even think about brownies right now…

Fortunately, it’s almost St. Patty’s so cabbage (which is cheap anyway) was only 7 cents/pound! What a great week to be on the Cabbage Soup Diet.

The cabbage rolls are easy, but not as easy as Grandma makes it seem.

Just start with your meat (traditionally they are made with beef, but we used ground turkey), chopped onion, rice, salt, and pepper. Because we’re on the diet, we used homemade cauliflower rice instead of rice. Instructions on how to make it can be found here.

Leave the cabbage whole and cut out the stem on the bottom (our head of cabbage was already cut in half but you’ll get bigger leaves if you leave it whole). Place the cabbage in boiling water and remove leaves one by one with a fork, placing in a strainer.

Spread a little of your tomato sauce (or soup, depending on your preference) to the bottom of a baking dish. Add your meat mixture and roll it up in a cabbage leaf like a burrito. Place seam-side down in the dish.

When you’ve run out of leaves and meat mixture, bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Of course they aren’t as good as Grandma’s, but they never are…

Grandma’s Halupkes

1 head of cabbage
1 lb ground beef or turkey
1 cup rice, cooked and cooled*
1 onion, chopped fine
1 tsp. salt*
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 can tomato sauce or tomato soup (with water added)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together raw meet, raw onion, cooked rice, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Boil a big pot of water. Remove the center stem of the cabbage with a knife and add head of cabbage to the boiling water. Carefully remove cabbage leaves with a fork, one at a time, and place in a strainer.

Add meat mixture to a cabbage leaf, tuck ends of the lead in and roll (like a burrito). Repeat until all of the meat is gone. (You can freeze them at this stage if you’d like.)

Spread half the can of tomato soup on the bottom of a baking dish. Arrange cabbage rolls in the pan and pour the rest of the soup over top.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until meat is cooked through.

*If on the Cabbage Soup Diet, keep salt to a minimum. Leave out rice or substitute for cauliflower rice.

The Cabbage Soup Diet: Day Four

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Today is Day Four of the Cabbage Soup Diet which means bananas and skim milk for me all day. That’s much more limiting than the previous days. Luckily, I was super busy at work and didn’t even think about food. I guess that’s the trick!

Breakfast: skim milk, banana, cappuccino
Lunch: cabbage soup
Snack: 2 bananas (separately, I’m not a monkey)
Dinner: cabbage soup
Dessert: banana smoothie with skim milk

Today’s cheat (I know, I’m horrible at dieting): I added a spoonful of No Sugar Added Carnation Instant Breakfast to my milk this morning and my banana smoothie tonight. It’s full of nutrients and has almost no sugar, so it was like a powdered vitamin. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway.

For dinner, I actually had to make a fresh pot of soup. Since Kiley and I are doing this together, we took turns making it. This batch turned out to be pretty good but I will not be making cabbage soup for a while after this…

I’ve learned a lot so far … one thing being that the last time I did this I must have cheated because I don’t remember it being so difficult. Maybe I didn’t eat as much cheese or drink as much wine back then.

I’ve also learned how to keep on track and not give into the Snickers in my cabinet that I swear moves to the front every time I’m not looking or the perogies in my freezer that are begging me to fry them up in extra oil. (I’ve also given up Food Network and Pinterest this week.) It’s like Lent, but I’ve crammed 40 days of sacrifice into only seven.

Here are some tips that I’ve come up with for trying out the Cabbage Soup Diet and sticking with it through Day Seven:

Get a partner. Convince whoever you eat dinner with to follow the diet with you. It makes it easier to keep each other on track and you won’t be tempted by what else is on the dinner (or dessert) table. If that’s not possible, tell your significant other it’s a good time for them to eat that thing they love which you refuse to eat.
Stay busy. This is the week to get pampered. If you aren’t spending money on lattes and dinners (like I usually am), you can reward yourself with a mani-pedi that can distract you from the unappetizing food waiting at home.
Look at your calendar ahead of time. Don’t diet on a week when you know you have a big social event where there will be lots of food and temptations. It’s just not worth trying a strict diet during a party, wedding, or special occasion. Not being able to eat the delicious food prepared can ruin the night, so do this diet between or leading up to events.
Plan your meals ahead of time. This diet has a very strict meal plan that differs daily. Plan out your menu for the week so you know what you can look forward to (or not look forward to) and you can find a few recipes that work around the ingredients you can and can’t have. (More diet-friendly recipes from J’ai La Vie to come in the next few days!)
Remind yourself why you started it. This has been the biggie for me. A diet is mostly mental and challenges your self control. Little cheats may be necessary to get you through the week (e.g. salad dressing, seasonings, etc.) but sometimes the only thing between you and a big hunk of cheese is remembering that you chose to do this and you will only let yourself down.

Ok, make me feel better… Do you ever cheat your diet? What are your dieting tips to stay on track?

The Cabbage Soup Diet: Day Three

The Cabbage Soup Diet: Day Two

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This is going to be a long week! I’ve made my sister do this diet with me and we will probably spend most of the week complaining about it. It’s only been two days and I want cheese and ice cream. And wine. All at once.

Today’s eats…

Breakfast: coffee with skim milk
Lunch: salad with lemon juice as dressing, California veggie steamer, and lots of water
Dinner: Salad, lots of cabbage soup (since I didn’t have any at lunch), baked potato, baked sweet potato

I had my first cheat (I know, it’s only day two!) – I tried eating my salad at lunch with just lemon juice and I couldn’t even finish it. I don’t know how people do this! So for dinner, I added some Dijon, Italian seasoning, and olive oil to make it into a lemon vinaigrette. It just made this more tolerable.

At dinner, I was also able to “reward” myself with a baked potato. Here is my second cheat – it says one “large” baked potato so I had a small potato and a small sweet potato. I figured it wasn’t a bad cheat considering how nutritious sweet potatoes are. And, they were the best potatoes I’ve ever had.

Now for the soup…

The recipes from Cabbage-Soup-Diet.com and Marie Claire are both good recipes that we were able to work off of. You can really edit as you need to – add peppers, more of the veggies you like, less of the veggies you don’t. Just keep salt to a minimum.

Cabbage Soup

3 large onions, chopped
1 package mushrooms, sliced
1 bunch celery, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
1/2 head cabbage, chopped
1 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole)
1/2 package dry onion soup mix
For added flavor: Cayenne pepper, curry powder, mixed herbs or any other seasoning.