A Yellow Apron 10!

Beef Skewers with Soynut Butter Sauce

I made this dish awhile ago, but am finally getting a chance to post about it!  The official Yellow Apron Taste Tester (C., the boyfriend) gave this dish a 10.  It was delicious, and super easy.  As you have probably realized by the types of dishes I typically write about, I'm not much a meat eater/cooker.  I always get nervous with cooking meat: is it not done? is it done too much?  But this dish, was a meat dish even I could handle!  I paired it with the Citrusy Sweet Potatoes too and what a combo it was!

PS: I had originally got the idea for this recipe from an Everyday Foods magazine.


Ingredients: (for 2 people)

1 pound of flank steak
Olive oil
Garlic salt
2 tablespoons lime juice (fresh if possible)
1/3 cup chunky soynut butter (PB is fine too, I just love soynut butter)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce


Steps:


1) Brush the steak with olive oil and rub with garlic salt.  (Chef's choice as to how much).  Then cut steak thinly across the grain.

2)  Heat broiler to high and place the rack on the top level.

3) Thread the steak pieces onto skewers and place on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil.  Metal skewers are better to use as they won't burn like wooden ones can.  Set to the side while you make the sauce.

4)  Sauce: In a small bowl mix together the soynut butter, sugar, soy sauce and lime juice.  The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of water, but I'm pretty sure I forgot it when I was making this.  My sauce was just very thick...but still yummy!

5)  Place the skewers under the broil.  I cooked the beef for about 3-4 minutes, flipped the skewers and continued cooking for about 2-3 minutes.

6)  Serve skewers with sauce on the side and Citrusy Sweet Potatoes!

Beef Skewers with Soynut Butter Sauce

Citrusy Sweet Potatoes

~Eat Well and Be Happy~

  

Citrusy Sweet Potatoes

Ok so work is really starting to get in the way of my blogging... Good thing today is Columbus day, and I can finally get caught up.

I made this side dish a few weeks ago as part of a bigger meal.  Timing with my cooking is something I really have to work on.  I thought this meal was going to be quick and easy... easy yes, but quick, not so much!  The sweet potatoes ended up taking much longer than I thought, which threw off my timing for everything else.  (Check back soon for the beef skewers that were also part of the meal!)

The Citrusy Sweet Potatoes are the perfect dish if you have the feeling where you love fall, but are still slightly holding on to summer.  Weird way to describe a dish right??  However, the sweet potatoes make it a great fall side dish, while the pomegranate and lime make it feel more like a summer dish.  Hence the summer leading to fall dish! I originally got the idea for this dish from the Whole Living Blog.  (Seriously, if you don't subscribe to it, it is a MUST!)

Ingredients: (for 2 people)

2 sweet potatoes

1/4 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes 

2 tablespoons cilantro

1 pomegranate

1 lime

Sidenote:  The originally recipe called for toasted unsweetened coconut flakes.  I didn't find the unsweetened coconut flakes until after I made these (Whole Foods bulk section), so I went with just what's in the baking section of my regular grocery store.  I also didn't toast them because of my timing issue.  I will be trying that with dinner tonight though!  The original recipe also used coconut milk, but I am not a fan of it!



Steps:
1)  Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Prick the sweet potatoes with a fork so steam can escape.

2)  Bake on a cookie sheet for about 45 minutes.  (I ended up having to put mine in the microwave for an additional 10 minutes).


3)  While the sweet potatoes are cooking, cut open the pomegranate.  I read somewhere the best way to do this is under water.  I cut the pomegranate in half horizontally, then soaked each half upside-down in water.  After about 5 minutes, it's much easier to break apart the pomegranate (in the water!).  The seeds start to separate from the rind.

4) When the sweet potatoes are done, and have cooled enough so you can touch them, cut them in half.   Slightly mash each side.  If you can't easily do this, then they probably need to cook longer.


5)  Sprinkle the top of each potato with the pomegranate seeds, coconut flakes, cilantro (chopped).  It's really tasters choice with how much you add of each.  Then squeeze the lime juice on top of each potato, about half a lime per potato!

~Eat Well and Be Happy~