Garlic cloves, Lime Juice, and Sirloin steak

In my previous blog I talked about my lack of kitchen skillz and my ability to see beyond the realm of meatloaf. So, I finally just made myself sit down with a cookbook my mom got me for my birthday (last Jan) called Eat Well, Lose Weight (I've been doing Weight Watchers this year). I know what food is good for you and what isn't, but it's nice to have a cook book that has already chosen things that aren't too fatnin' for ya. I chose 3 recipes that use some of the same ingredients so I didn't end up wasting anything!

I made Grilled Steak Fajitas, Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas, and Spicy Sirloin Steaks. Now if you've ever cooked anything in your life, you're probably gonna say, "big whoop" to any of this so-called cooking that I have done. However, for me, it's pretty big!

I made my list and I got all my new ingredients in one trip. You should have seen the perplexed look on my face as I tried to locate 'beef top sirloin steaks' who knew there were so many types? You would not believe how proud I was of myself this week that I made steak, haha. (Big whoop)

I learned a thing or two about garlic. Did you know the whole thingy-ma-jigger is called a garlic bulb and it's those little itty bitties inside that are called the garlic cloves? Wow, good thing I realized that before I chopped up two whole bulbs when all I needed were two cloves. Common sense kicked in for me there as I held up the whole bulb and thought, "Really, this whole thing?" So I googled 'garlic clove' and that's where I learned some fun garlic facts. I do know that you can buy garlic in the bottle, but I really wanted to try out buying the cloves and smooshing them up myself.

When shopping for tortillas, I am seriously bringing a ruler next time! Recipes always say you need 7" or 8" or whatever sized tortillas, but the bags never ever say the size, and there are a lot of sizes. So, there I am trying to inch my fingers across the bagged tortilla to see if I can figure out how many inches it is. And, it seems to matter, in one recipe, I'm pretty sure my tortillas where way too big. Is it so hard to put the inches on the bag or am I just really clueless.

I also used a few other things that were new to me such as lime juice, ginger, and peppers (I cut up peppers and I felt so chef-like!)

So, here are some pictures from the past two weeks of my 3 new recipes.

Chicken and peppers about to go in the frying pan!

I love the way green onions (Aka: scallions-I learned that too) look when they are cut up, the colors are so pretty.

Num num.

The quesadillas turned out so good!

Bulb vs Cloves...ahhh...now I get it!

I don't have an outside grill, but my Georgie has never let me down!

Ok, I'm not a huge meat person, but this steak was soooo good, in my opinion :)

Oofdah, all that work and we eat it in like 5 mintues :) Maybe I'll get faster as time goes on?

I felt a little weary after the quesadillas. I continued to drop things and make tiny mistakes over and over, it was a wonder those ever got done!

PS: Chris said he really liked all three (however, the steaks were a bit salty, ok, less salt next time :)