Delicious dinner...

 

This is delicious Flank steak, and twice baked potatoes. Both freezer meal items that we love. I usually reserve this meal for Sunday dinners, but I made a mistake this morning, and needed something really tasty tonight.

Okay, here is my mistake story: I got my bountiful basket this morning, and wanted a big healthy breakfast full of fresh veggies. I diced up potatoes, green bell peppers, carrots, and a few other veggies, cooked them up in my new birthday omelet pan, and yum, they looked so good. I threw in some diced ham for protein. Topped with fresh diced tomato. The kitchen smelled great, and they looked fabulous. Usually when I make this type of meal (hash), I use some hot sauce or ketchup depending on my mood on the side for a little extra flavor. I opened the fridge and my Sarachi caught my eye. Yum, I love Sarachi. But it is HOT. Without thinking, I squirted a bunch over the top of my bowl of hash, and then settled in to eat it. It was yummy, but uh, yeah, I forgot the HORRIBLE heart burn I get when I am pregnant and eat anything with too much kick. I paid for that breakfast all day. Tums did not touch it. So I basically avoided food all day, and wanted comfort food tonight! lol

We had this with a big green salad with lots of cucumber, carrots, radish, etc. And my favorite, Italian Dressing. It was very satisfying, and extremely flavorful.

The flank steak is one of my faves because it is easy, and tastes fancy. I made up this rub to use on it, in an attempt to copy a rub I liked. It is a little spicy, so adjust according to your taste. Basically, use the oil to coat the outside, put your rub on, marinate for 30 minutes in fridge. Then broil for 6-9 mins per side based on how done you like it. Let it sit for 5 mins, then slice against the grain and serve. 

Flank steak rub

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (if you do not like spice, cut back here)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon dry oregano
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 25 grinds fresh black pepper
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil- to help the rub stay on the steak!

Freezer meal review: Orange Chicken

Orange Chicken

Okay here is my review: YUM!

My kids loved it, the husband loved it, and I loved it. I followed the posted instructions. I made a few tweaks because I always do. What I did was I seasoned the flour first with some salt and pepper, patted the chicken dry, then dredged it. Then I put a TBS of oil in the skillet and cooked it 3 mins on each side with a lid on. Then I removed it from the pan. Added bag one. Then about a minute later added bag two. It seemed a little runny so I added half a tsp of corn starch, but then after I added the chicken I realized I probably did not need to. So I brought it to the boil, which took about 30 seconds, added my chicken back in, covered it for a couple minutes, then flipped all the pieces so it would be evenly coated, and then took it off the heat. I let it stand about two minutes, then served it with rice and broccoli.

It thickened up nicely. The flavor was good. Maybe a little spicy if you don't like a kick, but you can always reduce the red pepper flakes a little if you do not want spice. It was not Panda Express flavor, but definately orange chicken, and really very yummy. My kids ate every bite!

What I would do differently:
1. For the recipe I only used three chicken breasts, and the full sauce, but I would maybe even do 1.5 times the sauce for the 3 breasts because I wanted extra for the rice, and there wasn't much.
2. Make more. I was really careful about portioning so we would not have any waste, as my family is not big on leftovers, but since Dad was home (He usually does not eat dinner with us), it seemed like we had enough, but not enough for seconds. We had just spent a couple hours at the pool, and the kids were pretty hungry, so on an average night, where they snack between meals, it probably would have been plenty.