No Recipe--Flank Steak

No Recipe Flank Steak @livligahome

I am hot, it has been a long day and I wanted to do a dinner that didn't take much thought. I turned to an all time family favorite--marinated flank steak with asian-flavored noodles with french green beans.

Since I wasn't following a recipe in a book but from my memory, this is how I did it:

Flank Steak
Marinade for the flank steak
Ingredients~
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp ground ginger
1 lbs flank steak

Instructions~
Mix all the ingredients for the marinade in a ziplock and place the flank steak in it. Close the bag and let the flank steak marinade for at least 20 minutes. If you want to do this the night before, even better.

Then I took the flank steak out of the marinade and grilled it about 3-4 minutes on each side until cooked to medium rare. Marinade was discarded.

Serves 4. Serving size 4 oz @ 230 calories.

Japanese Noodles
Ingredients~
8 oz of whole wheat pasta, thin spaghetti-style
Cooking Spray, olive oil-flavored
1 tsp sesame oil
1/8 tsp ground ginger 
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced at angle
1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar

Instructions~
Boil the noodles per instructions on the box.
Heat a cast iron skillet. Spray with cooking oil. Add sesame oil. Add cooked noodles. Mix with oil. Sprinkle with ground ginger. Stir in all other ingredients. Mix and serve.

Serves 4. Serving size 1 cup @ 260 calories.

French Green Beans
Ingredients~
16 oz bag of French green beans (haricots verts)
1 cup Chicken broth
1 cup water
Lemon zest from one lemon

Instructions~
Pour the chicken broth and water in the bottom of a vegetable steamer. Bring to a boil. Place the French green beans in the steamer for 5 - 6 minutes. Remove from steamer promptly. Add zest and toss.

Serves 4. Serving size 1 cup @ 20 calories.

Total calories for meal @ 510.

The important part about no recipe meals is paying attention to the ingredients you use. It is always a good idea to measure to make sure you are aware of how much you are using of any one ingredient. The is particularly true of the oils we use. Those calories can quickly add up.

This is a quick and easy-to-assemble "no recipe" meal, good for just about any time of year.

0

No Recipe-- Grilled Chicken Legs

Grilled Chicken Legs @livlighome

There is nothing like grilled chicken in the summertime! These chicken legs were marinated first in a wet marinade, then grilled with occasional basting.

Grilled Chicken Legs
Marinate for at least 20 minutes (check out my marinade choices on previous blogs like http://livligahome.blogspot.com/2012/06/great-marinade-for-chicken.html). Place the chicken legs on a hot grill, grilling 4 sides for at least 4 minutes, or until cooked. Serve 1 -2 chicken legs per person (kids will most likely want one).

Asparagus Vinaigrette
Clean and snap the ends off a bunch of asparagus. Bring water to a boil in a steamer. Stem the asparagus 5 - 6 minutes. Let it cool. Add 2 tablespoons of the light lemony vinaigrette. This can be made ahead of time, even the day before, refrigerated and then served when needed. Serve 5 - 6 spears per person.

Rice Pilaf
The rice pilaf was made with white rice because I wanted it to cook quickly. With forethought you could definitely use brown rice or even a grain like quinoa. After cooking it in chicken broth (1cup) and Water (1 cup), I added 1 tablespoon of chopped dates and 1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley to complete the pilaf. Each person received a 1/2 cup serving. Can easily serve 6- 8 people.

This meal is particularly kid-friendly because both the chicken and the asparagus can be picked up with your fingers. A fun and colorful summertime menu!

1

No Recipe Meal-- Swai

No Recipe Meal--Swai @livligahome

This was the week of no recipe meals. This one was with Swai fish, sauteed spinach and rice pilaf. Again, I had all the ingredients on hand.

The Swai (about 4 ounces a person) was breaded with whole wheat panko that was flavored with a pinch of pepper, salt and garlic powder. It was "fried" a couple of minutes on each side in a cast iron skillet with olive oil cooking spray. I topped it with a sprig of parsley for appeal. That was it.

The spinach which came pre-washed and trimmed was sauteed with about 1/2 cup of low sodium chicken broth and some freshly chopped garlic. Everyone was served 1 cup of the cooked spinach which took maybe 5 minutes to prepare.

The rice was white rice because I wanted something to cook in 20 minutes or less. I used 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water. Once it was cooked I added about 1/4  cup of chopped fresh parsley from our garden and 2 tablespoons of chopped dates. Everyone was srved 1/2 cup each.

This was a super easy meal to prepare, was very flavorful, colorful and light on the calories. A similar meal I have prepared with recipes can be found with this link: http://livligahome.blogspot.com/2012/11/orange-glazed-salmon.html. The total for this meal was a mere 236 calories.

It felt great to fix such a healthy meal without a recipe. We still measured out the servings and I made sure it was a balanced meal with protein, carbs and vegetables. Can't wait for the next no recipe test!

0

No Recipe Meal--Turkey Burger

No Recipe Meal-Turkey Burger @livligahome

Every once in a while I just don't want to follow a recipe. I want to do a meal "free hand", using up what I have in the refrigerator. It is a little scary in that I don't want to add calories where I don't need to, and I want to be able to serve appropriate serving sizes.

I decided to try my hand at a summer-time turkey burger meal. As you can see by the photo, The meal consisted of a turkey burger with bun topped with a slice of tomato, sweet potato fries and a cucumber salad. Everything was on hand in my home.

Because these are items I have cooked before the "recipe" I used to prepare each dish was based off of how I have prepared them before.

The turkey burger was made with 1 pound of turkey meat, 1/2 cup of cleaned and chopped watercress, 2 tablespoons of minced onion, some garlic powder and some cracked pepper. That was it. I kneaded it all together and made 4 patties. These were cooked in a cast-iron skillet about 4 minutes to a side. The burger was assembled with a Rudi's whole wheat hamburger bun, one side topped with a slice of tomato, 1 tablespoon of nonfat Greek yogurt and a healthy teaspoon of Dijon mustard.

The sweet potatoes where cleaned and cut into strips to look like fries. I used 2. Then I sprayed the bottom of a cookie sheet with olive oil flavored cooking spray, placed the sweet potatoes on the sheet and sprayed them again with the cooking spray. I topped them with a sprinkling of garlic powder (California style) and Herbes de Provence with a pinch of salt. These were baked in a 375 oven for about 35 minutes.

Next I put together the cucumber salad. This was really easy. I peeled and cored the cucumber then sliced it into half moon pieces. The dressing was 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar with 1 teaspoon agave and a pinch of salt.

Since I had done recipes many times before for similar dishes it was easy for me to assemble this meal. In looking at the ingredients I included I felt I had not strayed far from the original versions so the calories and portions would be similar.In fact, if anything, the calories were a little less becasue I didn't include as many of the ingredients. My version was simplified. Here is a link to the recipe version: http://livligahome.blogspot.com/2012/05/from-grill-peppered-turkey-burger.html. That meal was a total of 536 calories.

It was fun doing a no recipe meal for a change. It felt good to feel like I knew what I was doing and that I was in control of the choices and quantities. I definitely want to try it again.

0