Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Sauteed Radish Greens

I went to the farmers market yesterday and got some great vegetables.  The radish greens came from our garden.  My husband loves radishes, I on the other hand do not like them.  Last year he would pull his radishes from the garden and throw out the greens.  I kept telling him to keep them and finally he did and was so glad that he had listened.

Grilled Beef Tenderloin with a Barbecue Rub
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.  Rub mixture all on sides of the steaks.   Place steaks on a 600 degrees Fahrenheit grill for 3 minutes, flip and cook for 3 minutes more. This will give you a perfect medium rare.

Sauteed Radish Greens
Wash the greens and pick off the bottom parts of the stems.  Heat a skillet with a small about of olive oil over medium high heat.  Add greens, toss, and cook until tender and wilted.  Add a little salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Steamed Snow Peas
Place washed snow peas into a steamer basket, place basket over a pan that has about 1-2 inches of water in it.  Cook over high heat letting the peas steam, cook until tender but still crispy.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes
Decided to cook the potatoes whole.  To speed up the process of cooking.  I placed the sweet potatoes into the microwave and cooked them for a couple of minutes.  Then wrapped them in foil and placed them on the grill, indirect heat, while the grill was heating up.  They were the last thing to come off of the grill.  Mike likes his sweet potato with a little bit of cinnamon.

Serve the meal with a side salad of fresh salad greens and tomatoes.

Lunch in a Jar

My daughter gave me this fantastic idea for taking lunch to work.  Her and her co-workers do this all the time.  After she told me about it I thought what a brilliant idea.  Here's the scoop...

You can make a salad in a mason jar.  I used a pint sized jar.  It is really cool once you think about how it is constructed.  You can add any ingredients you want but you should start and finish with the same items.  What you will be doing is making a salad upside down.

Here is what you need to do:  For the bottom of the jar, add your favorite dressing.  Next layer any and all ingredients you want.  I added leftover tenderloin steak from the other night, cheese, dried cranberries, tomatoes and then end with lettuce.

You want the lettuce as the last thing that you add.  I am told that you can make lunch for the whole week this way (so essentially you can make a week's worth of lunch on Sunday to last from Monday to Friday).  It will keep and the lettuce won't wilt.  I was very delighted to be able to reach in the refrigerator this morning and grab lunch.  Once you are ready to have lunch, drop the ingredients out onto a plate.  You can try so many different things to take for lunch this way.  Also, you could easily use another size jar to make a larger salad or to have more room.

As you can see it turns into a large sized salad.  I apologize for the not so great pictures, these were taken with my phone.

This post was shared on The Healthy Home Economist Monday Mania 2/27/2012

Steaks on the Grill

Tonight marinated grassfed beef tenderloin steaks in teriyaki sauce.  Grilled them to a perfect medium-rare.

I took fresh sliced mushrooms and cooked them in a little bit of olive oil in a hot skillet then added some red wine (same wine we will be drinking with dinner) into the pan along with some salt.  Let that cook until the wine had cooked off.  I like to add a little bit of wine to my mushrooms, they pick up the accents from the wine.

I decided I wanted a blue cheese sauce to accompany the steaks. So I took about 1/2 cup heavy cream (leftover from making creme brulee the other day), added about 1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese and heated that on the stove, then added about 1 tablespoon of flour (this helped to thicken the sauce slightly) and then I added a little bit of worcestershire sauce (I use a brand that is Vegan and doesn't contain MSG), continue to cook on the stove until the cheese is totally melted.  Use a whisk to help blend the sauce to make it smooth.

Asparagus on the grill, drizzled with a rosemary infused olive oil and then cooked on the grill.

Grilled romaine lettuce with balsamic vinegar and olive oil drizzle, topped with a little blue cheese.