Today, the only reason I feel a bit of stress is because my capstone education presentation is tomorrow to a group of 75 freshmen. I only really take them through two slides, identifying sources of stress and guiding them through a deep breathing exercise. Our capstone is coincidentally about managing stress through coping strategies, and yes, cooking is one of the coping strategies we mentioned as being beneficial. I honestly have the two easiest slides in the entire presentation, so I don’t even really need to feel anxious about it. I do have some stress, though, because speaking to a crown of people is not the most fun thing in the world to do.
I feel like this recipe was the epitome of winging it. I looked at the recipe book I based this recipe off of, and I barely glanced at it after that. I wrote down the list of ingredients I needed from the store, the main one being flank steak, and I changed directions once I got to the store based on prices. Flank steak was $10 and sirloin was only $5 for the exact same amount. I’ve never cooked steak before at all, so I figured that it wouldn’t be too terribly different. I’m sure it was very different than what it was intended to be texture-wise, but taste-wise, it turned out great! I just looked up online how to pan fry a sirloin steak rather than cook a flank steak, but I used the same seasonings and sides. If you are looking for a less chewy steak, go with the flank steak, but otherwise, go with whatever is cheaper.
Stress level: 4/10
Yield: 4 servings
Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
Directions:
I feel like this recipe was the epitome of winging it. I looked at the recipe book I based this recipe off of, and I barely glanced at it after that. I wrote down the list of ingredients I needed from the store, the main one being flank steak, and I changed directions once I got to the store based on prices. Flank steak was $10 and sirloin was only $5 for the exact same amount. I’ve never cooked steak before at all, so I figured that it wouldn’t be too terribly different. I’m sure it was very different than what it was intended to be texture-wise, but taste-wise, it turned out great! I just looked up online how to pan fry a sirloin steak rather than cook a flank steak, but I used the same seasonings and sides. If you are looking for a less chewy steak, go with the flank steak, but otherwise, go with whatever is cheaper.
Stress level: 4/10
Yield: 4 servings
Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 lb sirloin steak
- 1 lime
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp pepper
- ½ tsp salt
- Fresh cilantro (not necessary, but I had left over from a different recipe and it complements the lime very well)
- 6 red potatoes
- 1 sweet onion
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 yellow bell pepper (green if you want more of a taste difference between the two)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- Cooking spray to coat the pan
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 450.
- For the sirloin steak: zest the lime. Combine the zest, chili powder, pepper, and salt in a small bowl. Rub on both sides of the steak, and then set aside.
- Spray a jelly roll pan with cooking spray, then peel and quarter the onion. Open up the quarters and spread them over the pan.
- De-seed and slice the bell peppers into thick strips, place with onions. Quarter the red potatoes, place on the same pan. Pour 1 tbsp olive oil over the veggies, sprinkle with garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Toss with fingers to coat well.
- Cook veggies for 25 minutes in the oven, remove when potatoes are tender.
- Heat a large nonstick pan with 2 tbsp vegetable oil over high heat (cast iron is apparently preferred, but I used a normal nonstick pan). Add the steak when the pan is hot.
- Cook for two minutes on each side. Go back to the first side for one more minute, then flip to the other side for one more minute. Cook to an internal temperature of 135 degrees for a medium steak.
- Remove onto a plate and let rest for 5 minutes.
One of my favorite parts of cooking is being able to share it with the people I love. Sam is thrilled that I am doing this project because he gets to eat food that I make and that is unconventional. We usually make some sort of pasta together, but he was very excited to hear I was going to try my hand at steak! His reaction to my cooking is one of the most encouraging things to me. Multiple times while eating, he turned to me and said “Wow, Jackie. This is really awesome. We need to make this again.” I am an insecure person, so having him reassure me that my cooking skills are mostly decent was a nice gesture. New stress level: 2/10.