"this is one of the best meals ever" said Mike....

I tried out a recipe from an old Cooking Light magazine I found last night.  I served it with bleu cheese parsley mashed potatoes and fresh green beans from our garden.

Balsamic Glazed Filet Mignon

4 (4oz) beef tenderloin steaks

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of freshly ground pepper

cooking spray

2 tsp of bottled minced garlic

1/8 tsp of crushed red pepper

3 tbsp dry sherry

2 tbsp of low-sodium soy sauce

1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar 

2 tsp of honey

1) Sprinkle both sides of steak evenly with salt and pepper.  Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Coat pan with cooking spray.  Add steaks to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.

Remove steaks from pan and keep warm. (I put mine on a plate and covered it with a bowl)

2)Add garlic and red pepper to pan; saute for 30 seconds.  Add sherry to pan; bring to a boil.  Cook 30 seconds.  Add soy sauce and remaining ingredients; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat, and cook 1 minute.  Serve with steaks.

Since I ALWAYS change the ingredients in a meal, I will tell you what I did.

1) I cooked the steaks 4 minutes on each side and they ended up medium-rare (perfect)

2) when adding the garlic and red pepper, I threw in a thinly diced shallot and a can of drained mushrooms.

3) I added 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar instead of one since my husband is obsessed with vinegar.  I had to cook it a little longer than 1 minuted to reduce the sauce a little.

Bleu Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Once again, I do not measure so the ingredients are approximate...

1 bag of small red potatoes

1 cup of bleu cheese crumbles

a handful of finely chopped flat leaf Italian parsley

1/2 cup of butter

2 garlic cloves

3 cooked slices of Wright's bacon

salt to taste

Cut potatoes in quarters.  Cover potatoes and garlic cloves in a large pan with cold water and bring to a boil. Boil potatoes until tender.  Drain potatoes and put in a large bowl with bleu cheese, parsley, and butter.  I mash my potatoes with a potato masher as much as I can before using a mixer.  Once fairly mashed, add in crumbled bacon and salt to taste.  Mix until creamy (we like our with lumps in them though)  If the potatoes need some liquid added, I always use fat free chicken stock instead of milk.

Spicy Green Beans

2 cups of fresh green beans

1 bottle of Stubb's Chicken Marinade

Wash the green beans thoroughly and place in a bowl with Chicken Marinade.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  Place green beans and marinade in a large sauce pan and cook on med heat covered for about 20 minutes.  I stir mine every 4 minutes to stir up the marinade.