Steak, potatoes, toast and an egg!

Were I to strictly follow the path of 'good nutrition for old people', I expect I'd be a bit crazy by now. (Don't answer that)! Good health aside, a man's gotta indulge himself once in a while.

Thus it was, on a very cold late November morning, I decided to 'stoke my internal batteries' by throwing together a breakfast that I'd really enjoy for a change. A steak and eggs sort of meal, if you get my drift. And, just so as to stay somewhat sane, I made sure to keep the gram weights as reasonable as possible.

Ingredients:

Breakfast steak    50 grams

Egg   45g  grams

Toast 26 grams

Fried potatoes   56  grams

Milk    100 grams

Total meal = 277 grams

By my figuring, this meal came in at about 390 calories. And, while it was abusive in terms of sodium, cholesterol and carbohydrate levels, I didn't really mind as I don't have this sort of breakfast every day.

The real benefit of starting a day off like this is the good feelings you get and the positive attitude thus generated.

Steak and eggs!

The title above was somewhat misleading. My version of this popular meal also contains fried potatoes and OJ making it not that diet minded! Also, there was only one egg consumed!

Whenever you have meat and eggs together on one plate for breakfast, you are talking a high protein slug of food to begin your day. Add in the fried potatoes and that's a also definite carbo-slammer. So, this is not something for the man or woman who is trying to shed some pounds. That said, it could be a good meal for a young athlete who was trying to bulk up a bit.

The meat I often choose was a cut of top sirloin, a thick hunk of meat that grills up really well. It's sort of like a second class filet mignon.

[Whenever I 'grill' up meat like this inside, I often use two pieces of equipment; a convection tabletop oven and a small Foreman grill. I first heat up the Foreman and cook the steak for just a minute before transferring it to the oven set on broil. That part of the cooking process usually is for about three minutes on a side. When done correctly you get the grill marks, yet have a just barely done interior]!

The fried potatoes consisted of one small Russet that had been peeled and then thickly sliced in to 'dollar' shaped pieces. These were quick cooked in hot oil, then removed to a paper towel and the sprinkled with a salt substitute.

If everything is done in a smooth fashion, the whole cooking process takes only about ten minutes!

OK, so steak and eggs! Good or bad?

A good falling-off-the-diet-wagon would never be complete unless a gut-busting 'steak and eggs' breakfast styled breakfast was involved in there somewhere!

On any morning you could name, I wake up ravishingly hungry. On this particular morning, my fridge produced a Styrofoam-container full of eggs and a freshly purchased package of a (abet very expensive) Rib-eye steak. My mind put two and two together and then added some more stuff. I went in search of some bread and perhaps a potato to make hash browns with... [stomach rumbles a bit]...

Now anyone can throw together a steak and eggs meal – here's one I enjoyed at Charlie's Steak, Ribs and Ale in Forsyth not very long ago! But come on! When a person like myself is at least appearing to be on a diet, it doesn't do for me to site down somewhere in public and shove a butt load of calories down the old hatch. [Far better I do it in private!]

With that in mind, I assembled the following, (in the dark with the blinds closed);

2 eggs, sunny side up - 180 calories

3 ounce Rib eye steak - 170 calories

Slice of rye toast - 90 calories

Hash browns - 160 calories

Glass of water - 0 calories – Hey! I had to scrimp somewhere!

Let me see now, that comes to about six hundred calories!! I eat this and I can't eat anything else for what? Something like two days! [stomach rumbled more urgently]

Rather than mess around with those hash browns, I elected to go for simple fried potatoes or what I like to refer to as British dollar fries. These are easy to make, fast and don't hold as much cooking oil. Also, at the last minute, I went with just one egg. That and the fries switch brought the total calories down to the high four hundreds. A very doable breakfast!

Charlie's steak and eggs platter! Still, a great deal!

Yes sir! I do like A1 sauce!

Forsyth MO. – It's fall down here in southwest Missouri and the trees are just beginning to change color. You'd think it would be cool too, but you'd be wrong! The weather guy was calling for the temps to approach 90 degrees on this 17^th day of October! Wow! Anyway, I thought it would be a swell sort of day to go have myself a steak and eggs platter at Charlie's Steak, Ribs and Ale. (Actually most any day is a good day to eat at hearty breakfast and I have the waistline to prove that)!

View from Taneycomo Terrace!

As I drove to the restaurant, I noticed what a picture perfect day it really was. There was a wonder light breeze with the air a very comfortable 74 Fahrenheit. The sky was clear with just a light touch of high cirrus. And, when I did pull in and exited my car, wonderful smells of food wafted on that breeze. My stomach rumbled in response.

Charlies in Forsyth Mo.

When I entered, I found about 8 to 12 other diners all seeming to enjoy their meals. I made my way to a booth, sat down and was greeted immediately by Lisa Davis, server extraordinaire. In my opinion, Lisa is the sort of person who can always make a nice day even nicer somehow. She was there working all alone, but handled her customers in a deft and professional manner, nonetheless. A cup of coffee, quickly appeared, as if by magic.

Lisa Davis working hard!

Not really needing a menu, I ordered the Steak and Eggs and Lisa recited the way I like mine from perfect memory. 'That would be rare, white toast, sunny side up for the eggs, A1 and jelly for your belly, right? She asked me. 'Why yes, that would be swell.' I answered back respectfully. And then away she flew towards the kitchen.... What a woman!

In short order, (no pun intended), Lisa was back with my order and I dug on in. The food at Charlie's is always near perfect and that day was no different. And, at only $10 for the platter, you get a steak that is well over an inch thick, loads of fantastic hash browns, toast and two eggs that stared and seemed to shout eat me! Which I did...

All in all a great start to a great day!

Beating the cost of eating breakfast out!

These days I like to eat out, especially for breakfast. There's something about rising early and then going over to a favorite eating emporium and then sitting down to a big plate of steak, hash browns, toast and eggs! The thing is, that sort of lifestyle comes with a price!

Where I like to go to eat breakfast, in my small town located in southwest MO, is a place called Charlie's. They serve up one heck of a steak and eggs platter that I really enjoy eating! The trouble is that the cost is around $8. Add a drink and a tip and you've spent a good dime. That fact, and the high calories, were not very agreeable with either my wallet or my waistline....

OK, sure. The steak ain't that thick!

So it was, I decided to see what I could whip up in a similar vein, that might also not totally kill my diet! Here is what I came up with, and at only $2.41. It fit in with what I was trying to accomplish.

You will note that I did not include the traditional hash browns for a number of reasons. Not the least of which was it was a high calorie fried in oil kind of addition!

 At left was a quick look at the breakdown of this meal a deal. At 421 calories, this did fit in nicely with my diet plans while still giving myself a chance to enjoys some of the foods I love!

Left over steak, an egg and whatever~!

I had cooked up a sirloin steak the day before but had not eaten all of it, sooo the next day I exhumed what had become a piece of cold and gray looking meat from the fridge. I held it up to my bloodshot eyes for a closer inspection and then sighed. It was a Sunday morning, I was hungover and not even Portnoy would have found this cold slab of beef very interesting...

I had to face facts! Resurrecting a day old sirloin would more than likely tax even the most powerful priest. I looked again at that listless piece of beef. There was absolutely none of the 'moist tenderness' that I had enjoyed just 24 hours before.

The day before!

Well, never you mind, I thought sourly. I tossed the meat onto a plate and placed it into my microwave. (Even if I had little hope of a holy beef redemption, I felt I could at least heat that sucker up a little).

That done, I then focused on the three other breakfast courses; an egg, 1/2 baked potato (baked the day before) and a piece of bread, that was soon to be toast! Since I was using a convection cooking top, I knew from past experience that the egg and toast would cook about the same time (4 min). I set the Duxtop Induction unit to level two, sprayed a bit of Pam into a stainless steel frying pan and then added the egg (sunny side up) with a dash of water. This was covered with a lid and I then moved over to the toaster and nonchalantly sent my Lilly white slice of bread and brown slab of meat into my convection oven where it could both toast my brad and reheat my steak.The potato was nuked in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

 A couple minutes later, I nuked the steak remnant on high for about 80 seconds. (Just enough to warm it without drying it even more than it already was). I then assembled the meal you see above.

Epilogue: Why did I even post this nonsense? Well, my doctor told me that writing about stuff that no one would be interested in would help me come to better terms with my useless existence. And, you know what? It helped!

Charlie's Steak Ribs & Ale! A true eating experience!

After I read an article in the Washington Post about how the government is about to reverse itself on it's 40 year stand against eating cholesterol-laden food, I decided to revisit a local eatery which serves up a great Steak and Eggs platter!

Charlie's Steak, Ribs and Ale is located on Hwy 160 in Forsyth Missouri near the junction of Y Hwy and while I love both steak and eggs, I'd been avoiding that selection for fear of what it might do to my already high blood cholesterol readings. But, then after reading that and related articles, I've came to the decision that a moderate intake of so-called bad cholesterol was not as bad as consuming too many saturated fatty acids! So, I'd decided to still watch what I ate, but not to restrict myself completely from the foods I love!

On what was a cold morning in mid February, I arrived early and chose a booth near the back of the establishment. (Actually, I was told to sit near the back... something about my appearance evidently scares young kids). I ordered the steak and egg platter and firmly told the server that no, I did not want it as a take out...

I ordered my steak rare, my eggs runny and everything hot – 'just like I like my women', I joked to the wide-eyed server who I think was named Leesa. She grabbed the menu from my hands and hurried off at a pretty good clip. I then busied myself by arranging my cell phone, charger and camera into a neat pile on the table. It crossed my mind that I hadn't received a call on that phone – ever. Perhaps I needed to have it checked out....

Before very long, my food arrived and I dug in forthwith. (The server lingered near my table and eyed me with what appeared to be a look of slight revulsion. Perhaps it was my rather quirky style of eating that she was taking note of). This conduct, however, made me not a little nervous and so it was really not my fault when a good hunk of egg fell of my fork and landed squarely in my crotch! As I attempted to scrap it off my pants, I thought I heard a twittering sound coming out of the server's mouth, who then quickly turned and left the area... I resumed eating in much the same methodical way that a cow chews his cud.

Well, I can tell you my readers, that the food tasted pretty darn good! In short order, I had consumed every morsel on my plate and (just as they do in the Middle East to signify a contented stomach), I belched as loud as I could. Sadly, I doubt that anyone heard as strangely, the entire area where I was seated was devoid of customers. (Over in the distance, I could see other tables with patrons crammed together like sardines). Strange.

Yes, Charlie's is a great place to eat and meet. And while, I've never seemed to connect with anyone there yet, I'm sure that will change in the near term. After all, they even now post a sign outside to notify everyone when I'm there!

Steak and eggs at home at a doable cost!

Not pictured was a glass of orange juice to complete this great meal!

Making food stretch is what the current economy is, sadly, all about. One way I've tackled the skyrocking prices of beef, while also serving up a nutritious meal, has been to limit the portions. The steak pictured here cost $11 and change per pound, so I purchased a small steak costing $5 and which weighted about a third of a pound. This was cut in half to make two meals. The 'eggs' were made from Eggbeaters and so had zero cholesterol! This $3 breakfast hit a lot of marks for me; the cost, cholesterol, the price and even the calories were all in the green! Enjoy!