Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto

By this point, the husband and I have both just about given up on doing Phase One of the South Beach Diet (i.e. no carbs). He quit a few days ago, I decided once I hit my pre-Christmas weight I'd go back to having good carbs. However when I did my meal plan for the week, we were both still gung ho about no carbs. None of the recipes I had marked in my South Beach Diet cookbook sounded interesting to me (or not many at least), so I figured I might as well try some of my go-to recipe websites for low carb ideas. MyRecipes.com came through for me with a few ideas. I had recently bought some London Broil and figured I could substitute that for the Flank Steak called for in this recipe. The idea of a cilantro pesto--and a pesto that didn't have olive oil as an ingredient--intrigued me.

Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto
Source: MyRecipes.com

3/4 cup fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons slivered almonds, toasted
1 tablespoon chopped seeded jalapeño pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 garlic clove, chopped
3 tablespoons plain fat-free yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 (1-pound) flank steak, trimmed
Cilantro sprigs (optional)

Prepare grill.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a blender; process until finely chopped (about 15 seconds). Add yogurt and juice; process until smooth.

Grill steak 6 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices. Serve steak with pesto. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Nutritional Information
Calories:209 (47% from fat)
Fat:10.8g (sat 3.9g,mono 4.9g,poly 0.8g)
Protein:24.6g
Carbohydrate:2.4g
Fiber:0.6g
Cholesterol:57mg
Iron:2.5mg
Sodium:152mg
Calcium:36mg

*****

This was ridiculously easy. The only difficult part was grilling the london broil. It's such a thick cut of meat I wasn't realy sure about the cooking time. I think the first side went about eight minutes on the grill, and the second side was around six or seven. It actually could have been on there a little longer because the middle was pretty rare. Of course, it didn't help that it was dark out and I couldn't tell how done the meat was. Note to self: invest in some sort of grill light.

I loved the flavors of the pesto. So did the husband. I don't think the kids tried any of it. We agreed it would be really good smeared on tortillas and then the meat used like fajita meat. This is definitely something I'd make again--low carb diet or not--because it came together really fast and was super tasty! Plus the pesto ingredients (aside from the jalapeno) are all things I generally have on hand.

Some pieces of meat may have still been mooing...


Cilantro-Almond pesto...yum!

Souffle Stuffed Chicken

Before I did my meal planning for our first week of Phase One on the South Beach Diet, I went through the SBD Cookbook and made a list of what recipes sounded good. I was glad there were quite a few. I like to try new recipes (obviously), so I didn't want to do all the same things I'd made during Phase One before. This one sounded interesting. I had no idea what the Stouffer's Spinach Souffle was, but I found it easily enough at the grocery store. I figured it would be some kind of nasty, over-processed junk, but the ingredient list was actually not bad..."modified food starch" was the only thing I questioned.

Souffle Stuffed Chicken
Source: The South Beach Diet Cookbook by Arthur Agatson

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4 inch thickness
1 (12 ounce) package stouffer's frozen spinach souffle, not thawed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
chopped fresh parsley (to garnish)
lemon slice (to garnish)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a serrated knife, cut the frozen spinach souffle crosswise into 4 equal pieces. Top half of each whole breast with one of the pieces of souffle. Fold half of the chicken over the filling and fasten edges with wooden picks.

Heat the oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 3 minutes or until golden. Add chicken breasts and cook for 7 minutes per side or until well browned.

Remove chicken to an oven-proof dish. Bake for 30 minutes or until a thermometer registers 170 degrees F when inserted into the thickest portion.

While the chicken is baking, add broth, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper to the large skillet. Heat to boiling then reduce to low. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the sauce is reduced to 1/2.

To serve, remove and discard wooden picks. Arrange chicken on a warm serving platter and spoon sauce over the chicken. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley and lemon slices.

*****

When I talked to my friend Jen today and told her about the recipe I said that in my head it was going to taste like chicken stuffed with a really yummy spinach artichoke dip type thing. She said she didn't think that's what it would be like and not to get my hopes up. I had the idea of grating some parmesan cheese over the spinach before wrapping up the chicken, but then I forgot to add it. Oops.

Honestly I was surprised how good this was. I figured it would be gross and no one would like it, but we all really enjoyed it. The spinach souffle was a lot more flavorful than I anticipated it being. The husband said he wished he had more stuff to dip into the spinach mixture. And he even had more broccoli so he could dip it. He's never had seconds of broccoli in his life. In fact, until recently, he wouldn't even touch the stuff.

This is another dish I'll be adding to my Phase One repertoire. I'd probably even make it if I wasn't on Phase One of SBD, so that says a lot.

Chicken browning away


Second side of the chicken browning


Ready for the oven


This is what it looks like in the book. I had my misgivings about mine compared to it.


Finished dish. Doesn't look anything like the book really, but it was still tasty. My chicken probably could have been thinner, which would have covered up the souffle more, but it worked.

South Beach Tuna Salad

The husband and I are going back to Phase One of the South Beach Diet to drop the extra weight we gained over Christmas and to help us get to our goal weights. He's training for the Alcatraz shark swim this coming June and wants to lose some body fat before the race. I just want to get down to my goal weight. We unofficially started yesterday. I say unofficially because we did have some carbs, but we kept it pretty minimal. Okay, I cheated a few times and had a Hershey Kiss here and there, but they were sitting out in the kitchen, and I couldn't help myself. But now today I'm on track. I figured out our meal plan for the week--including breakfasts, lunches, and snacks--and we're ready to do this.

For lunch today I made us some tuna salad. It was loosely based on a recipe I've made before that I found on Food.com. They have an entire South Beach Diet section of recipes, which I love. It's a great recipe because it's really versatile and can be modified to fit what you have on hand. I had cilantro like the recipe calls for, but it was questionable. The recipe below is the version I made today.

South Beach Tuna Salad

2 cans tuna in water, drained
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1 tsp lemon pepper (not really sure how much this was...I have a grinder and just ground some up into the mixture)
1 green onion, chopped
2 dashes Frank's Red Hot Sauce
1/2 tsp Tony Chachere's seasoning
4 cups spring mix greens
1-2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Combine all ingredients except greens and vinegar. Mix together. Split greens between two plates, divide tuna mixture in half and place on greens. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

*****

See? Super easy. I find it to be a really filling lunch, too. If I'm making it for myself I just use one can of tuna, and I don't normally eat the whole mixture in one sitting, but we were pretty hungry today, so I figured I'd just go for it. Like I said, this recipe is easily modified to use whatever you may have on hand. I really like the addition of the Frank's sauce to give it a little kick. This is one of my staple lunches when I'm doing Phase One of SBD.

Greek Meatballs

I'm nearing the end of my two week Phase One period of the South Beach Diet. Technically yesterday should have been my last day, but I went off the diet over the weekend while the husband and I had a little staycation at our house while my mom kept the kids. So to compensate for that I'm staying on it until at least tomorrow, maybe Sunday. I'm down 11 pounds since I started, and I'm fitting in to clothes I haven't worn in YEARS, so I'm really pleased with the results I'm getting.

I did some Googling for low carb recipes to get some different ideas for dinner. The SBD website has a pretty limited number of recipes. The actual diet book has some in it, but a lot are beef which we don't eat much of. I found a low carb recipe section on SimplyRecipes.com, a website I like anyway. My kids love meatballs, so when I saw this I thought it would be a great dinner. I love the flavor profile of Greek food, although I used to really not like it. My parents always went to a Greek festival at a Greek Orthodox church in Seattle, and they'd come home raving about what they'd eaten, and it sounded so gross to me. Now I'm kind of sad we don't live there anymore because I'd really like to go!

Greek Meatballs
From SimplyRecipes.com

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
1 large shallot, minced
1 pound ground lamb
4 ounces salt pork, ground or finely minced
Zest of 1 orange
2 tablespoons chopped mint
Freshly ground black pepper
Greek yogurt for dipping

1 Heat a small pan over medium heat and add oil, garlic, jalapeño and shallot, and cook for 1 minute, then let cool.

2 Meanwhile, crumble lamb into a large bowl. Evenly scatter salt pork, orange zest and mint over lamb, and season with pepper. Sprinkle the cooled garlic mixture over lamb. Gently mix until just combined, then form into 1¼-inch balls and transfer to a plate or sheet pan.

3 Heat a large cast iron pan over medium to medium high heat. Working in batches if necessary to prevent crowding, brown meatballs on all sides until cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve warm with toothpicks or skewers with plain yogurt.

Note: Meatballs can also be cooked ahead, refrigerated and reheated in the microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Makes about 20 meatballs.

*****

I used grass-fed beef instead of the ground lamb. I had a bad experience with ground lamb, so I'm kind of turned off from it after that. I also left out the salt pork because I didn't have any, nor did I have anything on hand to use in its place. Instead of Greek yogurt for the dipping sauce I bought some tzatziki at Trader Joe's (actually I'm snacking on it now with some celery).

These meatballs were fantastic!! I love the addition of mint to savory dishes. My only complaint was that these on their own weren't really enough for dinner. They're listed as an appetizer, which they'd be great for. I told the husband I thought they'd be fantastic in my Greek spaghetti. Or I thought they'd be good if you put a little chunk of feta inside them. Mmmmm. These are definitely something I'll make again, I just need to plan better so we're not all still hungry once dinner is done!

Baked Pesto Chicken

I don't know how it's been two weeks since I've updated my blog! Well, actually I do. In looking back at my meal plans we hadn't had much new, so I wasn't posting for that reason. Then once I did have new stuff to post I just never took the time to sit down and write them out. I had planned on using my kids' naptime yesterday to update my blog, but Monday evening I started feeling like I was getting sick. By bedtime I had a fever, and that sucker held on all day yesterday. Ugh. I woke up at some point last night drenched in sweat and the fever was gone. Was that an over-share? Perhaps. Sorry about that.

Anyway, a week ago today I started on The South Beach Diet at the recommendation of my doctor (want to follow my progress? Check out my other blog...Claire's a Fat Girl's Name). I was hesitant about it because I did the whole Atkins thing ten years ago and did not like it. I lost weight, but it got to the point where I wasn't ever hungry, and I constantly felt like I was going to pass out. Not cool. Plus as soon as I started eating carbs again, all the weight I lost returned. I got the SBD book from the library and read through the whole thing before deciding if I wanted to do it. I figured it was worth a try. The book is pretty interesting, as is the diet. It's no carbs for the first two weeks, then you gradually add carbs back in--but good carbs. Whole grains, whole wheat, brown rice, fruit...stuff like that. Once you reach your goal weight you move onto a maintenance phase where you still eat only good carbs but you can splurge on "bad" food occassionally. Really I think it's pretty healthy sounding, and it's not all that different from how we normally eat.

Finding recipes for dinners has been a slight challenge, but I have the SBD app on my iPhone, and I've used the SBD website for recipes. I found a blog that's almost solely SBD recipes, Kalyn's Kitchen, and there's a SBD cookbook on Food.com (formerly recipezaar.com). I found the SBD cookbook on Ebay, but it just arrived yesterday. It's been pretty easy for my family to eat along with me...I just make some kind of carb/starch side dish for them to enjoy, and I stare longingly at it. :)

This recipe was on the iPhone app, and I thought it sounded so good. I heart pesto, and this sounded super tasty and easy--a great combination in my book!

Baked Pesto Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup pesto (from a jar)
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat oven to 375. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Spread 1/4 cup of the pesto in a 9x13 baking dish. Lay chicken breasts over pesto in an even layer and spread with remaining pesto.

Cover baking dish with foil and bake chicken until cooked through, 20-25 minutes. Uncover and top with cheese. Bake until cheese is melted, 5 more minutes.

*****

Seriously, dinner cannot get much easier than this. My whole family loved this...we all gobbled up our portions. It's definitely something I'll make again, diet or no diet. I normally have all these ingredients on hand, so it's a great quick, oh-my-gosh-it's-5:00-what-am-I-making-for-dinner recipe.

I forgot to take a picture. :( Oh, one more thing...I didn't like it as much reheated. The texture of the cheese was weird. I poured all the remaining pesto from the pan into the container I was using, so that might have been part of it, or maybe the olive oil in the pesto on the chicken did something funky to the cheese texture...I don't know.