crimmles.com

We took a little trip this weekend to B&N after not having been for months. I was hoping to find one of the diet cookbooks on my Amazon wishlist- the Hungry Girl one (love that site, btw.) It was m.i.a. But there was one lonely copy of another cookbook on my list, Devin Alexander’s “The Most Decadent Diet Ever.” It’s worth noting that I do not like the word decadent. It’s like scrumptious. Let’s just agree to tasty and good and yummy, and leave those over the top adjectives where they belong, in 1890. That goes for you too, succulent. Go on…shoo. So I snatched it up, but not before all the cushy armchairs in the section were filled. Time to go.

I can’t ride and read well, so I had to wait until home to really dig in. But ever since, I have been glued. Yes, diet food conjures up images of bland bunny chow, cardboard and water. But this book might make you wonder why that ever was. Because let’s face it- Parmesan crusted fries and juicy barbecue burgers are not mainstays of most diet cookbooks. And it’s nice to see that those old standbys of crap eating can be remade into something a little (sometimes a lot) healthier. So I have been planning which recipe to start with all weekend. The Honey-Glazed Spiced Pork Tenderloin almost won, but Brian nixed it (we’re not pork fans, but that recipe looks soooo good. One day, we’re gonna have that for dinner, whether he likes it or not.) So I went with another honey recipe, the Honey-Lime Marinated London Broil. Only Brian couldn’t find a London Broil/top round, so eye of round it was. I don’t know a lot about cuts of meat, so I assume eye of round is fattier. And slightly cheaper. Anywhoo. The recipe is super easy, and the marinade and meat can all be put together the night before (marinade time is at least 6 hours.) I think they intend for you to eat it more the way you’d eat old fashioned roast beef, but we like to live a little. So fajitas it was. Try it now! It’s easy, tasty, and you have no excuse to not try out easy and tasty.

½ cup fresh lime juice

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

1 TBSP plus 1 tsp honey

2 TBSP fresh minced garlic

1 tsp salt

1¼ pounds trimmed London Broil (top round steak)

Whisk lime juice, olive oil and honey in small bowl. Stir in garlic and salt. Place steak in resealable plastic bag. Pour in marinade, seal bag and rotate it so that steak is covered with marinade. Place in refrigerator and marinade 6 hours or overnight, rotating occasionally, if possible.

Preheat grill to high.

Remove steak from marinade and place on grill (discard marinade.) Grill 4-6 minutes per side for medium rare, or to desired doneness. Place on plate or cutting board and cover with foil; let sit ten minutes before slicing. Slice immediately before serving, or refrigerate uncut steak and slice just before serving.

(I served mine on low carb whole wheat 8” flour tortillas with chopped tomato and black olive mix, lettuce and Monterey Jack. Would also be great on a salad.)

Things are getting better, slowly but surely. I’m not really craving meat currently, so that’s a plus. Here’s what’s gone down for the last three days:

Day 11-

• Handful of cherry tomatoes and saltine crackers (we needed groceries)
• More saltine crackers for lunch (I think…)
• Taco Bell- 2 bean burritos and a triple layer nacho (meat free! and only 79 cents!)

Day 12-

• Bolthouse Farms berry smoothie, after some much needed grocery shopping
• Captain D’s- fish!!! I had to pick Brian up at lunch, and instead of being responsible and making lunch at home, we went out, and they were the least crowded (and I hate to say the lesser of all evils, but eh)
• Steamed broccoli teriyaki with water chestnuts, sesame seeds, Simply Asia brand sesame teriyaki noodles, and chow mein noodles. I made a sauce for the veggies, and Brian actually commented that he “really liked” the sauce, and I should definitely make it again He rarely says anything more than “it’s ok/alright” about most of my cooking, so that made me really happy. Plus, he’s not a huge fan of broccoli, so score.

Day 13-

• Lemon yogurt and an orange with a glass of pomegranate lemonade. Love the lemonade.
• Yakisoba brand stir fry noodles. It’s seriously ramen for grown-ups. So easy, so good. Next time I make stir fry, I will serve it atop a bed of these noodles. They are on my buy again list.
• Bean burritos/nachos with pico de gallo, black olives and nacho cheese. I just stirred it all together, baked it for 20 minutes, and served it with tortilla chips and whole wheat tortillas. I like the ww tortillas. They’re kinda sweet, so it adds an interesting flavor to the burritos.
• Sonic sundae with hot fudge, caramel and nuts. I needed ice cream.

I like that I can now see a Popeye’s commercial and not automatically go “mmmmm, chicken…” I feel it’s silly to say it’s getting easier (especially after having fish), but I am feeling so much better about the whole thing. On the menu for tomorrow (hopefully!)- eggplant parmesan subs and mini focaccia pizzas. They will make good little snacks for the next few days, because I still have some olives, and I found my favorite pesto (love) and some sun dried tomatoes. I just hope that I like the eggplant, and that I remember to take pictures. Oh, and I think I have lost 3 pounds. Our scale usually shows me fluctuating between one and seven pounds, but I weighed Monday and Tuesday, and the scale was showing roughly the same number. So yay for that!

Today’s Menu:

• Frosted mini wheats with chocolate soy milk
• Large bowl of strawberries (yummy!), an orange
• Broccoli, red pepper and water chestnut mix in orange sesame sauce by Green Giant, with a splash of teriyaki sauce, chow mein noodles and MorningStar Farms Chick’n strips

Review on the day: Breakfast was better than decent, lunch could have been more than just a bowl of berries (but as one who eats based on mood, it could have been much, much worse.) Dinner- I was so excited to try those chick’n strips. They are seasoned, so they smell really good in the bag. They look like real chicken strip pieces. The taste…not terrible, but the texture, vomit. Imagine a cross between silken tofu and fatty chicken bits. My first bite of it mixed with the vegetables nearly made me sick. I was really disappointed by them (shocker, Brian actually liked them. I’m sure I would have liked them better if I weren’t easily grossed out by squishy food.) So I picked them out and completely enjoyed my veggies and chow mein noodles. I’d make it again, without the chick’n. The vegetables are another one of those “steams in the microwave in 5 minutes” deals, so the whole dinner (the chick’n cooks in 2-3 minutes) took a whopping 10 minutes at the most.

I will make this meal again, perhaps with fresh vegetables, and without the chick’n. If you don’t mind squishy food, then try them, you may like them. The taste was not bad, I’m just weird about food texture