Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Ten in 2010: Week Three



What to say about week three? Hmmm.... The scale is not so much going down anymore. But that's ok. Losing weight is not my main goal. Getting fit is what I'm shooting for and hubby and I ran five (yes, 5!) times last week. Huge improvement, obviously. As long as I take my inhaler along, we'll be fine. I forgot it today and hubby had to sprint home to get the car and come back for me. He did get a good workout that way but I'd rather not do that again. ;-)

I did well on the blogging front. I posted 6 times last week. I'm shooting for 5 times a week so I'm happy with that. I made four out of the six items I had on my menu plan. I had an ear infection that included a bout with vertigo for a couple of days so hubby took care of dinner for me. The things I did make were fairly healthy choices (and we liked most of them) so that's one for the win column too.

Adding more veggies to our diet was also one of my goals. I can't recall ever eating a Brussels Sprout. My mom doesn't care for them so we never ate them while I was growing up. Hubby has a strong dislike for them so they were just never something I bought. After reading so many of my favorite bloggers rave about Brussels sprouts I decided to give them a try. I'm glad I did. These were delish! I ate half of them myself before they even made it to the table!

Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts Recipe

Recipe courtesy of 101 Cookbooks

24 small Brussels sprouts
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for rubbing
fine-grain sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated cheese of your choice

Wash the Brussels sprouts well. Trim the stem ends and remove any raggy outer leaves. Cut in half from stem to top and gently rub each half with olive oil, keeping it intact (or if you are lazy just toss them in a bowl with a glug of olive oil).

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in your largest skillet over medium heat. Don't overheat the skillet, or the outsides of the Brussels sprouts will cook too quickly. Place the Brussels sprouts in the pan flat side down (single-layer), sprinkle with a couple pinches of salt, cover, and cook for roughly 5 minutes; the bottoms of the sprouts should only show a hint of browning. Cut into or taste one of the sprouts to gauge whether they're tender throughout. If not, cover and cook for a few more minutes.

Once just tender, uncover, turn up the heat, and cook until the flat sides are deep brown and caramelized. Use a metal spatula to toss them once or twice to get some browning on the rounded side. Season with more salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a dusting of grated cheese. While you might be able to get away with keeping a platter of these warm in the oven for a few minutes, they are exponentially tastier if popped in your mouth immediately.

Serves 4.

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