Garlic Butter Steak Bites with Lemon Zucchini Noodles

I was pretty on the fence when trying this recipe. I had never had zucchini noodles before. I know that probably sounds crazy, but I’ve always been a “give me all the pasta” kind of girl. But this recipe was better than I could’ve imagined! Easy to make and filled me up fast with barely any carbs. Can’t beat that!

Ingredient

1 - 1.5 lbs sirloin steak cut into small cubes

4 medium zucchini, spiraled (or a 24 oz bag of store-bought zucchini noodles)

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons butter, divided

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/4 cup beef, chicken or vegetable broth

1 tablespoon minced parsley

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes, optional

Juice of 1/2 lemon (or ¼ cup)

Marinade:

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon hot sauce (I used Sriracha)

Fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

Juice of 1/2 lemon 

Instructions

In a ziploc baggie, combine the ingredients for the steak marinade (soy sauce, olive oil, hot sauce, pepper, and lemon juice) and add the steak bites. Mix well and marinate for 15 to 20 minutes minimum, while preparing the other ingredients. I let this marinade for an hour, flipping halfway through.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Drain steak bites from the marinade. Keep the remaining marinade for later.  Place the steak bites in the skillet in a single layer.  Do not overcrowd the skillet or meat will steam, so you may have to work in batches depending on the size of your skillet. Cook steak bites for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally until steak bites are golden brown. Repeat with remaining steak bites if needed.

Once all the steak bites are golden brown, add 2 tablespoons butter and garlic to the skillet; cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring to coat the meat in the sauce. Remove the steak bites to a shallow plate and set aside, leaving the juice in the pan.

Add 1 tbsp butter, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, beef broth, and remaining marinade juices. Bring to a simmer and allow to reduce for 2-3 minutes, stirring regularly.

If you spiral your own zucchini: add the noodles and toss for two to three minutes to cook it up. Stir in the fresh parsley and thyme, then allow the cooking juices to reduce for one minute if the zucchini noodles render too much water. If you use a steam and serve bag like I did, cook the zucchini as directed then drain. Add zucchini and coat in the sauce. Push the zucchini noodles on the side, add the steak bites back to the pan and reheat for another minute while mixing. Serve immediately your garlic butter steak bites and zucchini noodles. Enjoy!

Note: I didn’t have any parsley. And my thyme was the dried kind in a shaker, not fresh. I did add a couple extra shakes of red pepper flakes.

No Bake Lemon Cookie Truffles

Ingredients:

16 oz. package lemon sandwich cookies

8 oz. package cream cheese

1 tsp. lemon juice

16 oz. package almond bark (or white chocolate candy coating)

yellow jimmies/sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

Place cookies in a processor and crush until they are fine crumbs (if you don't have a food processor, you can put cookies in a resealable plastic bag and smash with a rolling pin until they are crumbs). Place crumbs in a medium bowl. Add cream cheese and lemon juice.  Mix until well-blended. Roll cookie mixture into 1 inch balls (makes about 48 balls). Place balls on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil or wax paper and stick in the fridge for about 45 minutes.

Melt almond bark according to directions on package. Dip each cookie ball in almond bark and place back on lined cookie sheet. Top with yellow sprinkles (if desired). Repeat with remaining cookie balls and place back in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Store leftover truffles in a covered container in the fridge.

These truffles were easy to make and a nice refreshing spring treat. 

White Chocolate Lemon Cookies

Ingredients:

1 ½ sticks butter, softened

¾ cup white sugar

¼ cup light brown sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. lemon zest

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 ½ cups white chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars together. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix in lemon zest.  In a separate bowl combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture. Stir until combined and gently stir in white chocolate chips.

Form into balls about an inch or slightly more in diameter. Chill for at least 2 hrs or a couple days if you don't want to eat them right away. Preheat oven to 350 and grease cookie sheet. Bake for 8-11 minutes until edges are lightly brown. Do not over-bake. The centers may still look doughy. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes and then cook on wire rack.

These cookies taste like summer and magic! Although they would be great any time of the year, the taste is light and refreshing.  They are a lot of white chocolate chips in this recipe.  If you don’t like overly chunky cookies, scale back to 1 cup instead of an entire package of white chocolate chips. 

Sex in the driveway

Review by Lyndee:

We were looking for a fun summery drink for my birthday party and there’s just something appealing about a drink that’s blue. 

Ingredients:

1 oz blue curacao

1 oz peach schnapps

2 oz vodka (citrus or regular)

Sprite

Mix alcohol over ice and fill the rest of the glass with sprite.  Garnish with citrus fruit if you wish. 

We slice up oranges, lemon and limes and froze them.  When it was time for the party we made a huge batch of this using 12 oz of the blue curacao and peach schnapps, 24 ounces of vodka and filled the rest of the container with sprite and the frozen fruit.  It was a huge hit at the party. Will definitely be making this again! 

Lemon & Sage Flank Steak

Review by Lyndee:

2lb flank steak, silver skin and excess fat removed, thinly sliced against the grain

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp freshly grated lemon zest

1/3 cup finely chopped sage

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

In a large dish combine all ingredients. Mix to combine so all of the steak is evenly coated. Let marinate in fridge for at least an hour, and up to 6.

Remove meat from fridge and let come to room temperature before cooking.

In a large skillet or sauté pan heat 1/2 tbsp over medium high heat. Lightly sprinkle salt over the meat. Working in batches cook the steak and onion pieces about two minutes on the first side, then flip and cook an additional minute, or until steak is cooked to your liking. Remove cooked steak and let it rest on a plate. Add oil as needed until all the meat has been cooked.  Once the meat has rested a few minutes, dig in!

Rob found this recipe on a paleo website and wanted to try it.  I have to say, it was really good.  A bit sweeter/tangier than I am used to when eating steak but it tasted great.  And it was something different than we usually have.  We paired it with some fried rice and enjoyed our “real food” feast.