my first steak dinner!!

Tonight I decided to have my first piece of steak since my surgery.  I haven't had steak since the beginning of December and that's a real feat for me.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE steak!  I would choose steak over most foods, with the exception of maybe bagels.

Whenever I eat steak at home I make strip steaks.  (And, believe it or not, I get them at Aldi.  For some reason their strip steaks are so tender and flavorful.  Reasonably priced, too.)  When I eat out it's either a strip or prime rib.  Once in a great while I'll eat ribeye, but I find it to be a little too rich.  But my nutritionist said filet mignon is better for WLS patients, because it's much easier to chew thoroughly and goes down easier.  So, I splurged and bought some filet a couple weeks back.  I figured I would try that first and then work my way up.  I'm not a big fan of filet, though; it just doesn't have the "steak" flavor I like.  But tonight I went with the strip steak.  Given that I had both the strip and the filet in the freezer, I just couldn't resist the allure of the strip steak:  the thickness, the light marbling, and that nice ring of fat around the outside.  (My favorite part is when I burn the fatty edges on the grill.  YUM!  Yes, I'm my father's daughter.)

Normally I don't put anything on my steak except salt and pepper.  I believe good steak doesn't need any seasoning to make it taste better; however, I decided to use a meat rub (A.A. Borsari Seasoned Salt), which I bought at Whole Foods last month.  I'd heard it was really good so I figured I'd try it out.  It said to rub the meat with olive oil and then rub the seasoning in.  I then put it on the grill.  On the side I made sauteed mushrooms (for me; Bob is a mushroom-hater), baked potatoes, and buttered corn.

To sum up my first steak dinner since December in one word:  HEAVEN!  I was on cloud nine when I bit into that steak.  I can't even describe the utter joy I felt.  So juicy and tender.  I just sat there, savoring every chew.  And the steak rub made it even better.  It was delicious and I would definitely use it again.  The mushrooms were great.  I sauteed them in olive oil with some salt and pepper, and then added a little butter and Worcestershire sauce at the end.   The baked potato was good, too.  Just better, salt, and pepper. Normally I put french onion dip on my baked potatoes, but I didn't have any.  (Yes, that sounds weird, but it's great!  It's like having seasoned sour cream on your potato.)

So, here's my dinner:  2 oz. steak, a little over 1 oz of mushrooms, and 1/2 a baked potato (3.5 oz) with butter.  And I was able to eat 95% of it.  Obviously, the steak went first.