Delicious Food Week & Healthy(er) Beef Stew

I am officially dubbing the fourth week of January 2012, Delicious Food Week.  I have been eating so much amazing food it is ridiculous.  It all started on Saturday when I headed out to Brighton Beach for Ukranian Food at Cafe Glechik.

In all honesty, I could not tell you what any of those things were, but they were delicious.  My grad school classmates (aka some pretty awesome women who I adore) and I had a slew of appetizers, split several entrees family style and got dessert!  (Did you know pierogis came in a dessert variety?)  I won't tell you just how affordable it was, but I HIGHLY recommend this place.
 
On Sunday, the Giants were gunning for the NFC Championship so I naturally went to dinner at the home of my favorite Giants fans.  I TOTALLY forgot to take pictures of the food, but we had a straight up delicious home cooked meal of chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, sauteed carrots and salad.  You can imagine that, right?

Since I indulged all weekend, I'm trying to integrate some delicious into my healthy weekdays.  Toast with peanut butter, sliced apple and cinnamon?  That makes the cut!

 

Also on the list of delicious goodness: BEEF STEW!  I know, I know, it doesn't sound very healthy, but here's why it is.  

1) I used naturally lean beef from Trader Joe's

2) I used vegan vegetable stock with sea salt (the sodium on this stuff is WAY lower than typical stock & is chock full of delicious herbs

3) I folded in a tablespoon of flax seed meal for some extra omega 3s

4) I added collard greens and kale!

Juiced up/Scaled Down Beef Stew (a made up recipe from yours truly)

Ingredients

1.5 lbs lean beef cubed

1 tbsp olive oil

1 white onion sliced or diced

2 cubes low sodium vegetable stock

4 cups of water

3 potatoes cubed to desired size (I cut em pretty big since you want them to stew a long time)

5 large carrots cubed to desired size

2 tbsp flaxseed meal

1 tbsp flour

3 cups of tough greens (any variety will do)

Brown meat in the pot with olive oil, once lightly browned on all sides add onion, simmer on LOW for 10 minutes.  Add water and vegetable stock cubes (or 4 cups of low sodium vegetable stock), cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add potatoes and simmer for 1 hour on LOW.  Add carrots and simmer on LOW for another hour.  Mix flour with a little bit of water and add to pot, stir until it is completely dissolved.  Stir in tough greens, cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes. 

You don't have to follow my instructions exactly, basically if you put everything in a pot and cook it covered on the lowest possible heat for as long as you can wait, it will turn out delicious.  It isn't exactly a salad in terms of nutrition/calories, but it's a pretty delicious way to get some things that are good for you!

Happy eating :)