{Newton's Fruit Crisps {Apple Cinnamon} - Snack Review}

I adore these as snacks. I always have a couple stashed away somewhere in my snack bag/backpack. The great thing is the crispy outer shell. I love the crunchiness {crunch crunch crunch} and the perfect amount of apple cinnamon filling that is not too sweet. I always found the nutrigrain bars to be waaay toooooo sweet. (obviously personal taste opinion). The other great thing about the snack is that its only 100 calories...

Now the caveat to this snack - not filling! I could eat a few packs in one sitting, hence eliminating the low calorie benefit. heehee.
Give it a try and let me know what ya think!

Tip: Buy it at Target! Cheaper than the sale price of grocery stores...at least in SoCal...

{Juicy Asian T Bone Steak}

I'm a steak and potato lover. I could eat a steak and potato meal at least once a week. Drooool. How I adore slicing into a large piece of steak that is juicy, tender and full of flavor... and then scooping into a hot and buttery salted baked potato. oooohhh....soooo good. I could eat one again right now.

This recipe is an Asian-flavored T bone steak, especially with the sweet soy sauce and green onion based sauce. I love how tender the steak is because of the time spent pounding out the meat with the tenderizer (got stress? this recipe is for YOU!). Now if you notice from the picture, the recipe is slightly modified. Instead of green onions, I used regular onions this time since I ran out of green onions. Also, I added to the sauce an aged balsamic vinegar (which I reduced). Not sure which I like better. The tangy sweetness from the balsamic vinegar is nice and more reminiscent of an American type steak than an Asian style steak. Whatever suits your fancy....But the recipe below is for the Asian-flavored steak sauce.

Steak
1. Pound out your stress on the T-bone steak with a meat tenderizer
2. Rinse the steak off with water and pat dry
3. Season with black pepper and salt
4. Mix 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/4 cup water. Pour over the 4 steaks in a pan.
5. Fry the steaks in a pan with olive oil

Sauce (can use a separate pan if you would like or scrape off the yummy steak pan bits that you used earlier)
1. Chop green onions
2. Saute in olive oil
3. Add 2 T soy sauce
4. Add 1/4 cup water
6. Add 1 T sugar

After fry steak, let the steak rest before slicing it to allow the juices to be absorbed back into the meat. Drizzle the sauce over the steak when ready to serve

Anniversary

My husband and I just celebrated our 1 year anniversary. Yay! What a quick and wonderful year it has been for both of us! In celebration, we each separately planned parts of the day. For lunch, I planned a little pseudo-picnic on our patio. I layed out a beach blanket, topped it with some seat cushions, used some boxes and covered with it with some fabric, few candles, music...voila! Pseudo-picnic! Why did I have it on our patio? Well, because....food....is...important. I felt like the food would have been compromised if I packed it into a basket. Silly me! :) I ended up making lobster roll sandwhiches, roasted fig, gorgonzola, and arugula salad, and brie cheese with crackers. I didn't take any pictures...why oh why! I actually loved the roasted fig salad and will definitely make it again. The lobster roll was wonderfully reminiscent of Maine. After eating, we exchanged our gifts and read our mushy love notes to each other (ahhh...my readers must be rolling their eyes..haha). At night, my hubbie took me to a spanish tapas restaurant in Long Beach called Sevilla (review later with no pics since it was really dark in the restaurant) and then we rented a movie and snuggled on the couch. Being married to my husband is absolutely wonderful and am looking forward to many more years ahead!

Lobster Roll Sandwiches
- Asian white bread - toasted. Smear with a little bit of butter. Sprinkle with garlic powder. (this is what i thought would become compromised if I packed it. Bread would not be nice and toasty and warm!)
- Freshly steamed lobster, chopped into moderately sized pieces
- A tiny spoonful of mayo mixed into the lobster
- Fresh pepper

Roasted Fig, Gorgonzola, and Arugula Salad
- Organic Arugula from Trader Joe's
- Gorgonzola cheese from Trader Joe's
- Fresh black mission figs
- 18 year aged balsamic vinegar (My favorite is Oliver's brand from Sam Clemente)
- Dark Brown Sugar
- Olive oil

1. Chopped off tips of figs and sliced in half
2. Drizzled figs with olive oil, black pepper, balsamic vinegar
3. Sprinkled tops of figs with dark brown sugar
4. Roasted in oven at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes
5. Set out to cool
6. Lay figs on top of arugula salad and sprinkle with gorgonzola cheese
7. Dressing: Balsamic vinegar, Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, A little mustard for binding the vinegar and olive oil