Day 5 Week 4 – Walkin on Sunshine

Sunny and 67º on January 29th! Amazing! Such a beautiful day to hang out with my sweet family. We started the day with pancakes then we were off to run a few errands. Errand 1: Car wash. Something about a beautiful sunny day that makes you want to have a beautiful shiny car. With the car cleaned, we moved on to Errand 2: Visit JD and Becky for last time before baby Owen arrives this week. We took our clean car to Germantown for a visit and then it was time to scoot on over to the Commissary for some BBQ. Perfection as always! Then on to Errand 3: Charlie's Meat Market. Oh yeah, on a day like today you have to get some steaks out on the grill. I don't care if it is the middle of winter, you don't take weather like this for granted!

Well, since I skipped Thursday night cooking, I needed to figure out a good and different recipe for tonight's steak dinner. And since we had a super delicious yet heavy lunch at the Commissary I decided to go with Jillian's (of Biggest Loser fame) Grilled Sirloin Salad.

Steve and I started this Jillian's Making the Cut diet last summer after seeing my friend Katie have some pretty impressive results from it. It is a very intense and strict 30 day plan that promises to help you lose those last 10 to 20 pounds. I am not saying that the diet isn't great. Like I said, it worked beautiful for Katie. But I struggled with it. I was able to keep up with the required exercise, but it was the diet that I has so much trouble with. I am an extremely picky eater. The older I get, the better I am about trying new healthy foods, but it is very hard for me. There were a few meals that required me to eat seafood (which is just not going to happen) or cook something called a spaghetti squash and expect the family to eat it. I could not get on board with those. There were, however a few great recipes that we really enjoyed and still make today. This is one of them. It is so delicious, I can't believe it is considered diet food.

And for those of you who are worried about my kids and what they eat. They really enjoyed the steak. I just cut them a few tender bite-sized pieces and served it with cooked carrots (from the can) and cinnamon apples. We were all very happy!

Grilled Sirloin Salad

1 TBSP chili powder

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 lb lean boneless sirloin steak, trimmed

8 cups mixed salad greens

1 1/2 cups red bell pepper strips

1 cup vertically sliced red onion

1 TBSP chopped fresh parsley

1 TBSP red wine vinegar

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 (8.75 oz) can whole-kernel corn, drained and rinsed

1. Combine first 6 ingredients; rub over both sides of steak. Heat a nonstick grill pan over med-high heat. Add steak; cook on each side 5 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Cut the steak across grain into thin slices.

2. While steak cooks, combine salad greens and remaining ingredients in a large bowl; toss well to coat. Top with steak.