Cooking with dog!

Arrroooo! (That's a dog howl...) I don't mean cooking dog meat! I am talking about this fun Japanese cooking show that Kent showed me the other night. The narrator/host of the show is a French poodle, who is voiced by a Japanese guy attempting a French accent. It's ridiculous, but entertaining. This is the episode that we watched, and decided to try to make these ourselves. I'm not going to post the recipe, since it is all clearly spelled out in the video.

We were already familiar with shirataki noodles- pasta made from konjac, a high fiber root, that have zero calories and zero net carbs. We hadn't yet tried to use them for an Asian noodle bowl, but our favorite Vietnamese restaurant recently closed, so we have to do it ourselves now. We had a few differences between our version and the video recipe. We used ribeye instead of sirloin steak. We used splenda + stevia instead of sugar in the sauce. We left out the bean sprouts. Kent added both fresh ginger and jarred garlic to the sauce. It didn't make sense to us to not include garlic! We garnished ours with fresh mint and Thai basil, as well as some fresh jalepeno slices that we let soak in the sauce while the noodles chilled.

Here are our results!

Tasteful noods.

Shirataki Noodle Bowls

2 pouches Miracle Noodle shirataki noodles, drained and rinsed well
2 ribeye steaks (charcoal grilled)
1 cucumber, cut into matchsticks
1 tomato, diced
2 eggs, scrambled into a thin omelette and sliced into strips

Sauce:
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon Splenda
1 Tablespoon granulated stevia
2.4 oz water (we used a 1 oz shot glass to measure this out)
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
3/4 Tablespoon minced garlic

Garnish:
1 fresh jalepeno, sliced
fresh basil leaves
fresh mint leaves

Drain and rinse noodles after removing them from their bags. Boil in water for a minute. Drain and pat dry. In a dry skillet, cook noodles briefly to remove any excess water. Set noodles aside. Mix sauce, and spoon half of it over noodles. Set remaining sauce aside for finishing bowls. Slice the jalepeno and put the slices in the bowl of sauce. Grill steaks and make omelette. Let omelette cool and cut into thin strips. Also slice steak into strips. Set eggs and steak aside. Cut up vegetables. In two bowls, place half of the noodles in each. Top with steak and egg strips, cucumber and tomato. Garnish with basil, mint, and jalepeno slices to taste. Top with half of remaining sauce in each bowl.

The next day, I used the leftover ingredients as part of a delicious Asian salad. Kent turned the leftover sauce into a salad dressing, by adding some vegetable oil and a little more sesame oil to it, then shaking to combine in a jar.

Yum! 

Asian Steak Salad

Grilled sirloin steak, sliced into strips

butter lettuce

sliced cucumbers

sliced radishes

shredded carrots

shelled edamame

peanuts

Asian vinagrette dressing- soy sauce, rice vinegar, minded garlic and ginger, sesame oil, stevia/splenda, and vegetable oil

Shake up dressing, adjust ingredients to taste. Combine all other ingredients in a bowl and toss. Easy!

Copycat Recipe: Applebee's Shrimp and Parmesan Sirloin

Can we match, or even, I dare say, improve upon our restaurant favorites as home? Let's find out, shall we? This week's copycat recipe...

I really love the shrimp and parmesan topped sirloin from Applebee's. But I knew we could do it better! So we made it ourselves at home, using ribeye steak- our preferred fattier, therefore, more flavorfully keto steak, over leaner sirloin. It was also my chance to see how it tasted paired with my favorite way to cook broccoli, which I dreamed up while wishing the side of veggies I was eating at Applebee's at the moment was more exciting.

Our inspiration.

Expectations: exceeded.

Grilled Ribeye with Shrimp and Cheese

2 ribeye steaks
16 shell on, raw large shrimp
Johnny's all purpose seasoning
1 bag of Kraft Touch of Philly 5 Cheese Italian Blend shredded cheese

Peel and thread shrimp onto skewers. Season with Johnny's on both sides. Tenderize both steaks, and season with Johnny's on both sides. Cook steaks on charcoal grill until medium rare. Cook shrimp skewers on grill as well, turning once, until opaque. Top steaks with shrimp and a handful of cheese. Put under the broiler for 2-3 minutes, or until cheese melts and starts to brown. Season with cracked black pepper. Serves 2 (large portions)

Choppin' brocoli, choppin' broco-li-hee!

Steamed Seasoned Broccoli

1 large head of broccoli
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 Tblsp. minced garlic in a jar (including juice)
the juice of one lemon

Cut broccoli into small florets. Put into a large microwavable steamer bag. Add the red pepper flakes, garlic, and lemon juice. Steam according to directions on the bag (typically 3 minutes). When done, shake in bag to combine all ingredients and serve. (Be careful of steam when you open the bag!)

Overall rating: A+ We totally exceeded our expectations, but we should have known- with these ingredients, how could we go wrong? Next time we may add some Cavendar's Greek seasoning to the shrimp skewers. Or try to make our cheese into more of a sauce. I realized later that the Applebee's version mentions white wine in the cheese sauce. But overall, it was totally delicious, and we were once again remarking about how decadent this diet is as we savored it's umami. Winner!