Steak!

Ready to Roll!

          
We had steak today!  It’s the third or fourth time in as many weeks that we’ve had steak.  Albeit, they are comparatively small steaks;  only about three or four ounces at the most—they are about five inches in diameter and just less than half an inch thick.   But then (and for those of us who received “health class” in the early 90’s), the food pyramid does state that the average human should only have three to four ounces of meat per day.

          So, we are trying to eat less food.  Or, at least, that is my subtle intention.  I have noticed on the occasions when we do go out to eat (and I hope my readers understand that there is nothing personal in what is about to follow) the people I see who are overweight are always stuffing themselves with gross amounts of food.  I do believe in the intrinsic goodness of food, but really—a 15oz. steak, with a mountain of mashed potatoes, and fries, with an overflowing bowl of ice cream, and brownies!   That strikes me as a bit.

          I remember a vacation I took several years ago to visit my grandparents (in MN), and I was impressed by their eating habits.  They rose before dawn (I could never get up early enough to have breakfast with them) and had a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee; at nine am they had a muffin and a cup of coffee; at lunch they had two sandwiches—roast beef or tuna salad on homemade bread (I think I’ve written about Grandma’s bread before?) and a glass of water; at three pm a few cookies or a bar and a cup of coffee; at six pm one slice of roast beef (or meatloaf, or a steak), a small spoonful of mashed potatoes (or scalloped or boiled) and a small spoonful of green beans (or corn or peas); and finally at nine pm a glass of red wine.  And they have never in their lives had a second serving of anything.  However, Grandma does have problems from not getting enough of the right kinds of fat.

          Point being?  There is a limit to both how much and how little one should have of things.  I mentioned the food pyramid earlier; however, I think man is too individual a creature to have just one standard for everyone.  I could do well with less of the required amount of carbs and more of the fruits, vegetables and meat than they say.  But we’re still poor, and carbs are cheaper than fruit, veggies or meat.

        

  And now we are back to the delicious steaks!  Nick took a teaspoon of chopped garlic for each steak, fried the garlic in oil and then put the steak on top of that.  Bing so thin the steaks only took a few minutes to cook.  When the steaks came out, he put some julienned potatoes in with more oil and seasonings.  Those didn’t take very long either.  And we had lunch of juicy steak and fries.  And one of the best things was that they whole meal only cost us $3.20!





The last BBQ of the year!

          I kid you not.  That’s why the steaks were so small—they were only a dollar each.  One of Nick’s co-workers said that he got his rib-eye steaks at the Dollar Tree, and that they were very good.  We figured it was worth trying at least once.  Now, I’ve started to do some of our more basic shopping there.  I’m not ashamed to say that $20 at the Dollar Tree goes almost twice as far as that same $20 would at Kroger or Wal-Mart.  I can’t get fresh vegetables or dairy products there, but the steaks, some canned goods and pasta isn’t bad.

          We’ll still be doing a lot of pasta and rice since we haven’t won the lottery yet.  And yes, having steak (or meat in general) once a week is a very small step towards eating healthier, but it is a step.  Now I just need to find a local farm to get the produce and dairy from!

Ciao!

--Zizi