meal of the week - steak and asparagus

As part of our initiative to work out, eat healthy, and lose weight, my boyfriend and I have decided to devote one day a week to preparing a home-cooked meal together. Not only is it teaching us how to cook, but it's also teaching us how to work together and, most importantly, compromise. We both have different tastes, perceptions of how meals should be, and opinions on what should be cooked. Sometimes, we both have the exact same idea on how to cook something; other times, however, we have to hash out the details until we can agree on ANYTHING.

After discussing our schedules, we decided the best day of the week to cook together is on Friday. When he asked me what we should make this week, I took a leap of faith and asked if we could cook steak. I absolutely love steak, but my parents never made it at home when I was younger, so it became a special occasion kind of thing, something I only indulged in at restaurants. But to my pleasant surprise, he said that was doable. 

The most difficult part was deciding what to eat with it. Usually I love potatoes with steak (the perfect combo), but Brandon said that was too many calories. So I suggested a salad. He wanted asparagus. Why not both? After some bickering, we decided that both asparagus and salad would be good with it. I think the most stressful part of the whole experience was the trip to the grocery store. The grocery store nearest us also happens to be the most popular grocery store in town (HEB, of course). After a very hectic shopping trip, we made it home and began the preparation.

Brandon seasoned the rib-eye steaks with olive oil, salt, and minced garlic. His apartment complex has a grill on the patio by the pool, so we were able to actually grill them rather than use the George Foreman or the frying pan. Meanwhile, I was in charge of the sides. My favorite recipe for asparagus is this one for Parmesan Asparagus. Basically, just place the asparagus on a baking sheet, coat with olive oil, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese, salt, and ground pepper on it, and bake for 15 minutes. So simple! And of course, the salad was easy. We just added tomatoes and used light Italian dressing.

Voila! It actually turned out really good! The steak was a little more cooked than Brandon and I prefer, but it was still tender and juicy. The asparagus was really tasty, too. All in all, a successful meal!

Much love,

Sydney