I'm No Great Cook But .....Yum!

Last weekend when I went to the grocery with our house guests, Anna and Noah, the trip was pretty much focused on items necessary to ensure their having the best visit with us EVER. But my eyes wandered a little when I passed the meat section and I saw some giant, beautiful porterhouse steaks on sale. That was the good thing. The bad thing was that even with the nice, deep discount, they were still $17.00. My thoughts ran like this: Mr. Right has been working so hard lately and, although I've tried hard to make sure he doesn't have to do anything at home, he still deserves a special treat. I felt very sure of myself BUT I stilled called him to make sure he thought it was a good idea too.

I bought them and Monday evening when just the two of us were here I thought to grill those steaks. I'm not much of a cook and I'm certainly not much of a griller. I've just kind of figured out a system and used it even though it didn't make a lot of sense. So Monday I looked online for grilling times for porterhouse steaks and started my project.

I stacked my coals and lit them. Normally when the flames die down and the charcoal turns white, I spread it around and get ready to grill. This might explain why my fire loses heat before my meat is done. This time I waited for the fire to die down but started spreading the coals as soon as they were about half white - sometimes even less than half.

Then I seasoned the steaks and put them on the grill. Twenty-one minutes later I took them off and they were awesome!

Here they are just before I removed them from the grill and after I had cut a wedge out of one of them to check for doneness.

Can you believe the size of the tenderloins on these babies?! And those tenderloins absolutely melted in our mouths. That's mostly what I ate of mine and the rest went into Mr. Right's lunch for the next day.

Here's one of them next to the flashlight I had to use to see what I was doing. We tend to eat late and that coupled with the sun going down too early, made for challenging grilling.


So that's it for my most successful steak grilling ever. Except for one little confession. I knew I was going to join the Shrinkvivor Weight Loss Challenge on Wednesday and I always think I have to eat wrong right up until the diet starts.

The next meal is my favorite, low point, delicious diet meal - broiled pork chops.

Mr. Right loves pork chops and I've always browned them and then cooked them in a little water with the lid on but no more. Now I've learned to broil them and they are delectable!

First I spray them with a little no fat olive oil and then season them with salt and pepper. I toss them on the broiler pan and put them on the second to the highest level under the broiler. I watch them pretty carefully to make sure they aren't overcooking and when they start to get brown and the tiny bit of fat on the edges gets crispy, I turn them over. This is after only a few minutes. Once they look browned and a little crispy around the edges on the other side, I remove them and cut one to check for doneness. Here they are:

I calculated the point value of each one based on the calorie and fat content listed on the package and they came out to 3 little Weight Watcher points each. That, with a 3 point baked potato (baked in the microwave in a baggie with a tiny bit of water and an opening in the bag) comes out to a 6 point dinner. Of course I had green beans which are no points and I added spray butter and 2 tablespoons of fat free sour cream to the potato for an extra half point.

This is the best, low point dinner ever. I could eat it every night and it takes about fifteen minutes to throw together.

It almost eliminates all my excuses for fast food.