Despite the blog pages not being completed in their entirety I have decided the show must go on.  I have been anxiously awaiting the first post, and I am happy to announce that this blog is active.  I will try to post everyday, however, with a baby on board it might be a little challenging some days.  I will quickly guide you through my blog, I have links at the top which will take you to a particular page where you will find a description of that subject and perhaps some examples of what it is I am sharing with you.  These pages are intended to make it easier for my readers to go out and purchase the items I am particularly fond of or to understand the different elements of my healthy lifestyle.

Today I wanted to share with everyone the most amazing meal, food I dream about when I fall asleep… I introduce you to wine marinated steak, roasted butternut squash and sauteed leeks, followed by a coconut milk slush with pomegranate seeds & home-made macadamia nut butter.

The preparation for this meat is very basic, it is comprised of the following marinade, which you let absorb into a piece of flank steak for an hour or so (we let one batch sit for this amount of time, as it was a last minute idea, and then we made another cut of meat that rested over night — both tasted the same!).  For this marinade we used red wine (cheapest is perfectly suitable), garlic powder, onion powder, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper and honey.  My husband attempted to vacuum seal the meat + marinade, however, the Food Saver did not like this idea – in the future we will just use a Ziploc bag to prevent wasting the precious Food Saver bags.  The flavor and tender meat melts in your mouth, it is unreal.  This idea was inspired by meat purchase at The Wine’ing Butcher in Ashburn, Virginia.

The roasted butternut squash is a breeze to make as well.  First, peel the skin off, then cut the squash into cubes and place the pieces in a large mixing bowl, add olive oil – salt – pepper – thyme (none of these are measured, add oil so that all pieces have a shiny glaze and season to your liking), shake the bowl, pour the mixture onto a cooking sheet that is lined with tin foil, and bake at 400 degree for approximately 40-45 minutes or until they are tender/ slightly mushy.

The leeks, again, are an easy side dish.  Ensure you clean this vegetable WELL with water prior to cooking, the dirt gets wedged between the long leaves, from the outside it may appear clean but once you start slicing the veggie you will soon notice your food covered with dirt.  Slice the entire leek – I’m not sure of the proper disposal of certain parts of this veggie, but the entire thing is edible and tastes exactly the same from the leaves to the root!  On a stove top, add olive oil, pepper and thai ginger flavored salt to a large pan (sautee at a medium to high temp) once warm place the leeks in the pan – stand back to ensure you don’t get splashed with oil!  Allow them to sit for a few minutes then slowly start to move the pieces around with tongs, and repeat this multiple times until they achieve a slight golden brown appearance on the edges.

This dessert is another quick prep and was created by accident and turned out magnificent!  Instead of whipping only the cream in a can of coconut milk, I poured the entire can into the Kitchen Aid bowl with 1-2 tbsp of coconut sugar and watched it attempt to whip… nothing happened.  I decided to put it in the freezer to get a little thicker.  Well as with pregnancy, the sleepless mom days leave me with a forgetful mind, the mixture sat in the freezer through dinner prep and consumption.  We removed the bowl from the freezer and began slowly chopping apart pieces with a whisk.  The coconut milk melts relatively fast so it turned into a slush quite rapidly, which I was not disappointed about!  Instead of a whipped coconut cream over fresh berries it turned into a sundae!  I took two scoops of the slush and added some fresh pomegranate seeds and drizzled over some fresh macadamia nut butter (this seriously replaced caramel sauce, I was completely satisfied with the flavor in this treat).  This dessert had the perfect combination of salty & sweet tastes and crunchy & smooth textures all in one spoonful.

As always:

peace. love. paleo.