Jess's Birthday Dinner....

I told Jess, for her birthday, that she could pick out any recipes in my books and I'd cook them for her.  So what we settled on was...

Steak with Sherry-Mushroom Sauce, Roasted Potatoes with a walnut blue-cheese butter,  and garlic green beans.

The ingredients are below.  One note,  I'm bad at cooking several things at once, so I missed some pictures.  You'll have to improvise!! :)

Steak with Sherry-Mushroom Sauce:  We used two thick ribeye steaks, salt, pepper, butter, mushrooms, shallots, garlic, less-sodium beef broth, dry sherry, corn starch, and water.
Roasted Potatoes with walnut-blue cheese butter:  1lb. baby red potatoes, olive oil, salt, black pepper, chopped walnuts, blue cheese, and thinly sliced scallions.
Garlic Green Beans:  Green beans, butter, salt, pepper, garlic

Start with the potatoes because they take the longest. (And are the one dish I remembered to take the most pictures). Preheat oven 425 degrees.

Spray an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with cooking spray.

Rinse and half the potatoes.  Pour on then olive oil (I had a great picture of it but it wouldn't upload) and salt and pepper.  Toss it all together and turn the potatoes, cut side down in the baking pan.  Roast the potatoes at 425 degrees for 35 minutes until lightly browned and soft.

Coarsely chop the walnuts.  Spread them on a small baking pan and toast them in the oven for approx 6 minutes.

Cool the walnuts then toss them with the blue cheese and the scallions.   I forgot to take the rest of these pictures, but.. when the potatoes have cooked for about 25 minutes, take them out, turn them and sprinkle this mixture over them and put them back in the oven for about 5 minutes.  They come out all gooey and delicious!!

With your steak -- let it come to almost room temperature.  It comes out tough if you take it from the fridge straight to the pan.  So let it come up to almost room temp.  Melt 1 T of butter in the pan and let it heat and melt.  You want  to use a medium high heat.

Salt and pepper once side of your steak and place it seasoned side down and then salt and pepper the other side.  then DON'T TOUCH THEM.

Let them sear for 3.5 minutes without touching them, then turn them over.  Again, let them sear for another 3.5 minutes.  If you like it rare, you can take it out then.  If you like it a little more done, let it cook a little while longer. 

When you take them out of the pan, place them in a covered dish so that you can keep them warm while you finish the sauce.

When you take the meat out of the pan, add 1 T of butter, melt.  Then add the shallots and garlic, stir around.  Add the mushrooms and saute about 3 minutes.

I forgot a few pictures.   But here is Sassy, jealously smelling the food. 

Then stir in 1/2 cup of low-sodium beef broth and 1/4 cup of dry sherry.   

Then mix 2 t cornstarch with 2 t of water and stir into the mushroom mixture.  bring to a boil and cook 1 minute stirring constantly.  It will thicken.

Meanwhile, wash your green beans. I used fresh beans and blanched them for about 3 - 4 minutes in boiling water then drained them.  I then melted 1 T of butter in a skillet and added two cloves of garlic.  I cooked the garlic for about a minute and then tossed in the green beans.  cooking them until they were starting to brown a bit.  I then removed them from the heat.

Then the plating. 

Man oh man, that was AMAZING!!

And Sassy pushed her way up into a chair to try to cute Jess out of some food.

She's really cute, but it didn't work.

FYI:  Steak and Mushrooms:  219 Calories, Green Beans:  approx 48 Calories, Potatoes:  242 Calories.

Total Calorie Count:  approx 508 Calories!!

The steak and Green beans came out of the ""Cooking Light:  Complete Meals in Minutes" cookbook.
The Potatoes came out of the: 'Prevention Best:  Weight Loss Recipes:  145 No-Guilt Meals" magazine.