I'm starting up another new little weekly series, called #Gh0stEATS - where I'll share my adventures in learning how to cook!
I moved out of my parent's place a decade ago, and only recently did I finally start trying my hand at cooking meals from scratch.
A few months ago, I decided to make a lot of changes in how I managed things in my life. The first and most important was definitely starting to budget/tracking every single penny I made or spent.
After a few months of data and analyzing where my money was going, I found that I was spending quite a bit of money each month on ordering delivery/eating out, etc. This was a huge factor in deciding to give cooking a try.
The other factor was my interest in changing over to a ketogenic diet. It's pretty hard to adjust to (the 'keto flu' is real haha), but after a few weeks of sticking with it, I started to feel completely different, having much more energy and focus, among other benefits.
Anyways, I decided to start grocery shopping weekly (I used to only go monthly since I ate out tons), and planned out my meals accordingly. It's done wonders for cutting back on wasteful spending and I've been able to invest more $ each month (hello, $HIVE 😂).
Tonight's Menu:
For the asparagus, I drizzled 2.5 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil and mixed them in a bowl, so every spear was coated. Then, I laid them back on the baking sheet and used ~1tbsp of lemon juice for some flavor. Dashed with some pepper and steak seasoning (don't ask me why I used steak seasoning, I'm weird 😂), and then wrapped back up to sit in the fridge until ready to cook.
For the steaks, I went simple: a little olive oil and some steak seasoning. I'm looking for some new marinade ideas for next time, so if you have any to share, please do tell!
Next, I decided to make some kale chips!
If you've never tried these, you absolutely have to. I've converted people that absolutely hate the idea of "kale" as a snack, but after I bake some for them, they usually fall in love.
Preheat the oven to 275 -- I bake these for ~22 minutes at that temp (flipping them halfway through).
I start by removing any stalks and tear up the kale to be ~ half-dollar sized pieces. I typically use enough to cover an entire baking sheet in a single layer - after these are done baking, they shrink quite considerably, so you may want to use more (don't stack them on top of each other, though - they won't bake evenly then).
Spread them out on a baking sheet, and then use 1.5-2 tbsp of olive oil. Mix them up so that they are all coated.
Then, I dash sea salt on top, in decent amounts (I like mine a bit saltier) - I ran out of Himalayan Pink, so I had to stick with regular boring sea salt 😞
Throw it in the oven and grab a beer while you wait to flip it!
Sadly, I forgot to take a "before" picture of the kale prepped on the baking sheet - but here's the end result.
They don't look the prettiest, BUT, they are amazing! Baked like this, they have a "crispiness" to them - like eating a super light chip. It's pretty neat!
And, you can snack on this as much as you like - it's keto-friendly, and is very healthy (using salt conservatively, of course). I killed this bowl in ~2 minutes hahaha.
I'm always looking for new foods to cook and try, so if you have a favorite, I'd love to hear about it!
This post will be shared on Twitter with the hashtags #hive and #posh to promote Hive and @ocd "Proof of Share" initiative.
Looks good! Garlic and butter are a steaks best friend. Might not be diet friendly though!
Thanks! I don't know why I didn't think of butter hahah - and going Keto, you can definitely do butter - lots of fats! I'll have to go throw some on there quick ;)
If that's the case, whip butter, garlic and rosemary together. Let it chill again then throw it in while cooking the steak. You'll be in flavor heaven.
I have to try this next time! Sounds amazing.
I learned how to sear steaks tonight, so that was a plus - I've previously never been able to sear/cook a medium rare steak on the stove before, so I'm super happy right now!
Maybe I found my new addiction 😜
Damn it sounds delicious :)