This is my first recipe post in a LONG TIME. It’s not that we don’t cook–we actually cook more now, and my lack of restaurant posts is testament to that–but we don’t do much that’s really interesting or experimental. However, we got some really awesome kitchen tools as wedding gifts so maybe that will change! Now, this super easy steak marinade I found on Allrecipes.com was SO good I ate the steak strips for both lunch and dinner (as salad and then inside a pita). Mario nearly fought me for the leftovers. Part of the appeal was the super tender sirloin “stir fry strips” I found at Publix, but the flavor of the marinade was also really amazing.

Steak Salad

My salad was just bagged spring mix topped with the warm steak strips and some Marzetti Simply Dressed Greek Feta dressing I received through the fine folks at Foodbuzz (my ad provider) from Marzetti. I love feta cheese and try to put it everywhere I can (the aforementioned dinner steak pita was topped with feta), so I chose this yummy Greek dressing over some of the other varieties available in the new all-natural dressing line–like Ginger Sesame, Blue Cheese, and Pomegranate. The cool dressing and warm steak were perfection together!

I think that constitutes my “full disclosure”, so here’s the marinade recipe:

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Lately, I’ve been trying to act like the grad student that I am and respect the fact that I should be living and eating on a budget. This means more cooking at home…for now anyway. In addition to being a budget-friendly meal, this is also my “meatless” Lent post for the week. These shrimp tacos were very quick and easy to put together and also crazy good:

Shrimp Tacos

I was purposely looking for a taco recipe with a mango accoutrement after my successful foray into avocado salsa, and these did not disappoint.
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Today was my department’s holiday party at school. There was a huge spread–8 trays of fried chicken, 3 platters of ham, 3 of mac and cheese–and it included some homemade dishes too. I decided to make these stuffed portobello mushrooms (appetizer sized) and forgot to take a picture of them!

These stuffed mushrooms are soooo good!! I’ve made them with large portobello caps once before, and they could honestly be an entree by themselves as opposed to the appetizer Giada suggests. For the holiday party, I found smaller “stuffer-sized” portobello caps, and they came out great.
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When my mom gave me her debit card to go grocery shopping last weekend, I took the liberty of picking up ingredients for a personal favorite from my Rachael Ray cookbook.   This one does easily qualify as a 30-minute meal–simply grill/broil steaks and make a quick and delicious bleu cheese cream sauce to toss with spaghetti.

Steaks on the grill

What the recipe calls for, and what I’ve always done, is to use a broiler pan (basically an oven rack inside a pan) and cook the steaks under the oven broiler for 5-7 min/side.   But my dad has this big fancy grill outside, so why not use it?  After he showed me how to use the grill for future reference, I got started on the bleu cheese sauce.

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Mario's First Bite

Anticipation ran high before Mario sampled these homemade cajun seasoned shrimp skewers.  Don’t forget to soak the wood skewers before grilling–they’ll burn!