Steak Pitas with Yogurt Cucumber Dill Dip

The other week, I tried my hand at making some homemade yogurt cucumber dill dip. And of course I wanted to make it as healthy as possible. I decided to make it out of non fat plain Dannon yogurt. I decided it would be more cost effective instead of buying greek yogurt. It takes a bit more time and work, but you save a couple dollars in doing so :)

Yogurt Cucumber Dill Dip

Large container of plain Non Fat yogurt
2 TSBP chopped Dill
Four-five cloves of minced garlic (I like garlic so I minced a lot of cloves)
One large cucumber, peeled and chopped up finely
Cheese cloth
Sieve or fine mesh strainer
Salt

I poured out the yogurt into a large bowl, lined the sieve with cheese cloth and poured the yogurt back in, setting the sieve on top of the original yogurt container. Let this sit overnight for a day or two until the consistency is fairly thick. Then add the dill, garlic, cucumber, and salt. Mix and there you have it.



Last night I decided to make some steak pitas to go along with my cucumber dip. I looked up a couple recipes on Cooking Light and decided to do the following.

Steak Pitas

1 lb skirt steak
1 large lemon
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 chili pepper flakes
1/2 onion chopped
Wheat pitas
Spinach
Tomatoes
Feta cheese

I threw this all together and let it marinate for about 2-3 hours. Then set my oven on broil and put it in for six minutes, took it out and flipped the steak over, and set it in for another six minutes. Take the meat out and let it rest for five minutes. After that, just slice and add to pita along with spinach, tomatoes, feta, and the yogurt cucumber sauce.

I almost forgot to take some pictures so this is why the food on my plate is almost all gone!

Portland - The wonders of Food Carts and Doughnuts

Another amazing thing about Portland is the whole food cart scene! Our friends told us that this just got popular in the last couple of years. Picture food vendors, but food vendors with different types of food, from thai, peruvian, sandwiches, crepes, even coffee, all located in one parking lots, well that is the scene in Portland now! Our first food cart experience - we got poutain, (an invention of french fry heaven with cheese and gravy, sounds gross but it is sinfully delicious!) a 1lb pulled pork sandwich and savory pies. For our second food cart, after our extended personal brewery tour, my BF and I found another food cart location (by my request) and got some pad see eww noodles and egg rolls for only $9!

This is the poutain.  French fry heaven!

Next foodie experience, on our tour through Portland, we actually ran into Voodoo doughnuts. This place has been on food network and are known for their outrageous doughnuts. We bought an gianormous banana fritter loaded with real peanut butter drizzle, chocolate drizzle AND chocolate chips!

This fritter was as big as my hand.  After a nutritious day of drinking beer and eating pretzels and street food, this was our dinner.  As my BF always says..."When in Rome!"  We have to make the most of our visit in Portland right?

Portland is also know for their breakfast places. We went to the same breakfast place twice during our week in Portland. It was called le petite provence. It is a small french bakery with a several tables outside on the sidewalk. My favorite thing about this bakery were their huge crossants that were perfectly flakey on the outside so you get that satsifying crunch when you dig into your crossant, but then on the inside, you find the buttery soft dough. It is perfect and how all crossants should be! My BF ordered the best dishes though, our first time there, he ordered the omelette, and then the second time there he ordered poached eggs on roasted tomatoes with pesto sauce.

And though it may be difficult to believe, but we actually did manage to do a couple runs while in Portland.  When we first arrived in Portland, we did a quick run and ran west to the waterfront.  Portland has really done a great job with their waterfront, there is a lot of space for walkers and runners, my only complaint is that there are not many water fountains along the walk.   If you want a 3 mile run, you can run a quick loop around the waterfront.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states//portland

Our marathon training schedule had us running 14 miles on the weekend and we wanted to knock that out before we went rafting in Maupin so we talked to our concierge and he suggested we run north and head toward the industrial area.  I have to say once we entered into the industrial area, it was definitely anything but scenic.  However the up side to that, was that we didn't have to stop for any lights or cars and could pretty much run without distractions for about six miles.  Unfortunately the path ended at an office building parking lot at around 6.5 miles so when we got back to the waterfront, we had to do half a loop around the waterfront before ending at our 14 miles.

I loved my trip to Portland and we are already talking about making our next trip there next summer.  Food carts, you better be ready for me!

Portland - The City of Microbreweries

Last week, my BF and I visited the great state of Oregon. Oregon is in short....AMAZING!


Our friend planned a rafting trip in Maupin, OR, and having always heard such wonderful things about Portland, we decided to make a big trip out of it and visit Portland before heading over to Maupin, OR. Downtown Portland is very walkable, the city is condensed enough that you can pretty much walk the whole downtown in just a couple hours. Like most cities, most people work downtown and the majority of the Portlanders live outside of the city, and those neighborhoods are super cute as well. It is pretty similar how the city of Chicago is structured, except a lot smaller and condensed.

Portland is an awesome city, and if you love beer and wine, this place is the place for you! Portland has a plethora of micro breweries, each with their own beer and distinctive personalities. My BF and I decided to do our own microbrewery tour, which just meant in one afternoon, we took it upon ourselves to go to every microbrewery in the city and check out their beers. We went to three breweries: Bridgeport, Rouge, and Deschutes. Each brewery had their own sample platter which consisted anywhere from 6-8 four ounce samples of their beers.

This is from Rogue brewery, which was our favorite brewery in Portland.

This six sampler is from Deschutes.

This is from Full Sail.  This was actually in Hood River, a hour away from Portland.  We went to Hood River after our rafting trip and stayed with our friend's parents who were the best hosts ever!

I don't have a picture from Bridgeport because we got large pretzels and dip, and I got distracted by the food.  Go figure huh?

Black Bean Spare Ribs

My training run called for seven miles today. Unfortunately the weather did not feel like cooperating with me this morning. Right when I was about to step out the door, the sky turned dark, the wind started whipping up branches, and then came the downpour. So I knew if I waited until lunch time or after to run, one of two things would happen, it would be really hot and humid, or I would forgo my run in favor of lunch. And well...knowing me...I would much rather have lunch than run!

So I headed to my gym and ran on the treadmill. Go me! So for lunch I decided I should treat myself make one of my favorite dishes, black bean spare ribs. And I figured it would be a good way to use up some of my onion and green pepper.

So let's talk about black beans. I am not referring to the black bean you are used to seeing in a black bean corn salad. These black beans I am referring are called Douchi. They are fermented chinese black beans. See link below for more info if you are interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douchi

They smell kind of stinky so you will know if you are using the right ones. They come dried so before I use them, I usually soak them in warm water for a couple minutes. Be careful to not use too much - for a small dish of spareribs, I use probably about 2 TBSP of black beans. A little goes a long way, be careful not to use too much, otherwise it will make your dish really bitter.

Ingredients:

Meat - Spare Ribs

Sauce - Soy sauce, minced garlic, black beans, white pepper, sesame oil, chili sauce, worchester sauce (I didn't have any on hand so I omitted it but when I have it I like to add a bit to the sauce)

Mix in all sauce ingredients with the spare ribs. (I like to use my hands to mix all the sauce ingredients with the meat, that is where the real love comes in :) ) I threw in chopped onion and green pepper for extra veggies and flavor. Then I steamed the ribs for about 10-15 minutes.

Only have eggs...well... make an omelette!

So coming back from the weekend, I haven't had a chance to go grocery shopping. So all I have in my fridge for lunch is eggs, american cheese, parmesan cheese, an onion, mushrooms, and a green pepper. So I figure why not do an omelette for lunch? It's got your protein (eggs), your dairy (cheese), and your veggies. Plus after eating deep dish Chicago style pizza on both Friday and Saturday night, I have to eat something somewhat healthy!

I dice up a quarter of a green pepper and a quarter of an onion, chop up some mushroom, mince up some garlic and throw it in the skillet. I crack three eggs - two whole eggs, and just keep the eggs whites for the third eggs. In the egg mixture, I pour in a little 2% milk and sprinkle in some pepper and salt.

I take the veggies out, pour in the egg mixture, let it cook for a bit and then throw the veggies on one side of the omelette. On the other side, I put in pieces of cheddar cheese and then flip one of the omelette sides over creating the picture below. Not only was it delicious, it took me ten minutes max to make!