Skinny Chunky Monkey Cookies

3 ripe bananas

2 cups quick oats

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

Mash the bananas, and combine with all of the other ingredients. Allow to sit for 20 minutes.

Drop by spoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 preheated oven for 10-12 minutes and ENJOY.

Cucumber Salad

Cool as a cucumber? Indeed, if you are this dish. So simple...and so good.

Combine:

1 large cucumber, sliced

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp finely chopped onion

1 tsp fresh chopped dill

1 tsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

1 tsp sugar

1 large dollop (about 1 1/2 TBSP light sour cream)

Allow to sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour to let the favors combine.

Stuffed Chopped Steak

This is very simple - 2 components and a little love.

4-5 Chopped Steaks

6 oz. box of stuffing mix

Oh...and toothpicks.

Go ahead and prepare your stuffing according to the directions on the box, but add more moisture to the mix than it requires (I put extra butter in mine, but you can also just add extra water).

Take each piece of steak and put a generous spoonful of stuffing in the center. Pack it in tightly.

Then roll the steak up over the stuffing, closing with a toothpick.

In a skillet, heat 2-3 tsp of oil (I used olive oil). Sear on all sides (don't completely cook it).

Remove from pan and leave the dripping. Now we're making gravy.

Take some diced onion ( I used about 1/2 of a medium)

2 cups beef broth

2 heaping Tbsp. flour

In the remaining pan drippings, sauté the onion. When soft, add the flour and cook until the onions are done and brown. Add in the broth and let the favors marry and thicken, about 5 minutes.

Return the steak to the gravy mixture, spooning the gravy over the steak. Cover and let the steak finish in the gravy for 10 minutes.

Serve over a bed of extra stuffing and try not to eat too much. :)

Stuffed Chopped Steak, Cucumber Salad and Cookies....oh my!

Sometimes surfing the web when I'm hungry can be downright dangerous. It makes me want to spend hours in the kitchen making every dish I've seen that day, or to pull out my recipe book and start on page 1 and work my way to the end. Ah who am I kidding. I love to cook. And today I just decided I wanted to get my chops (no pun intended) worked back up after a hiatus of being lazy.

For dinner tonight I made a Stuffed Chopped Steak. The was SO easy to make and SO good. Have you ever eaten a dish and had so much of it that even though you're so full you could pop, you still keep eating...all the while thinking "whyyyy am I still eating this?" Because it was GOOD. Chopped steak is one of the most economically friendly types of beef so his dish is also great if you're looking to cut costs or feed a lot of people. 

Accompanying the main event were Mashed Red Potatoes, Green Beans and Cucumber Salad. 

A word about the Cucumber Salad...well two words: nom nom. This is such a light, creamy delicious salad...so simple to make. 

To finish this meal, as if there were any room left in my belly...was Skinny Chunky Monkey Cookies. . These are actually made with good ingredients: no sugar, no dairy, no flour. And they are fantastic. The way I look at it, if you eat a "skinny" dessert, (or drink a diet soda with your meal) it negates the rest of the meal's calories, right? ;)