Recipe Monday - Quick London Broil

This has quickly become my family's favorite London Broil recipe. It's quick and flavorful, and the meat comes out tender. Full of win.

*1 London Broil Cut, 1-2 pounds
*Apple Cider Vinegar
*Sea Salt (about 1/2 tsp.)
*Pepper (to taste)
*Garlic powder (about 1/2 tsp., or sub fresh pressed garlic)
*Onion powder (about 1/2 tsp.)
*Paprika (about 1/4 tsp.)
*Soy sauce

Take London Broil out of freezer entirely too close to dinner. (HAHA, this lady kills me. That is exactly me. See end of recipe for original blog.)

Place in sink full of cold water (still in packaging).

When thawed throughout (about one to one and a half hours), remove from water and packaging and dry thoroughly. Sprinkle both sides of the steak with apple cider vinegar and rub in. Let sit for a few minutes.

While meat is sitting, combine the salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika in a small bowl.

Tenderize the steak. Pound the steak to a uniform thickness.

Sprinkle both sides of the London broil with soy sauce, and then rub both sides with the spice mixture.

Heat a large saute pan (or, if you cut your steak, two large saute pans) over medium heat. When hot, place steak in pan. Cook for about five minutes or until a nice brown is established and the meat does not stick to the pan. Turn over and brown the other side.

Now, how long you cook it after that is up to you. London broil should never be cooked past early medium, otherwise it will be tough.

Move to a cutting board, allow to sit for a few minutes and then slice it very thinly, across the grain. Enjoy!

I found this originally on Dishrag Diaries. Thank you!




 

Moment of the Week - 145: Happy Father's Day 2013

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Here's our, throughout the years.

Happy day, all.


 

Preschool Pointers - 38: Make an Activities Schedule

Problem:

It's summertime. That means hours upon hours of emptiness to fill, minds to stimulate, fun to be had. All this fun and education for your kids can cause wear and frazzle for you (ask me how I know). So, how can you stop the boredom without losing your mind, or frantically rushing around all the time?

Solution:

Schedule it. Obviously you can't plan your whole summer and things are going to pop up or cancel out with nothing you can do, but if you have a general framework in which you want to work, you'll find it's easy to replace or work around those variables.

I do my scheduling on Thursdays. First, I look online for free events for kids in my town. Last week, the library did both a national donut day celebration, and a make-your-own-ice-cream event.

We did both. We also went to a free movie with Jackie from Accidentally Mommy and her kids.

Then I check my "free kids stuff" coupons. My friend and fellow twin mom, Laura, and I took our kids rollerskating for free.

Then I fill the rest of the week up with playdates. Now, being a mom of twins, I automatically resign myself to being the host. Because everyone else has one kid. And I have two. So, yeah, I'm not expecting the invitations to flow like honey over here. But if my kids are entertained, that's more me time, even if they're right in my face. At least, that's what I tell myself. This week, Laura and her twins came over one day, and two little boys from the girls' preschool came over another day.

Nice finger, right? I'm a pro.

Anyway, this coming week looks like this: Playdate Monday morning, didgeridoo Monday afternoon at the library, free swimming lesson Tuesday morning, playdate Wednesday, splash pad Thursday.

Friday? Happy hour. Because, damn, did you just see my week? And then, next Thursday, I'll schedule next week. And there are only like...a billion weeks left, right? Woooo, summertime!




 

Fitness Corner - Couch to 5K Highlight: "Broken, Fat, and Busy"

Today, Jackie from Accidentally Mommy throws her hat into the Couch-to-5K ring, and if you've got any trepidation about trying it, here's your reason to do it anyway.

...

It was about midnight when I went off half-cocked and decided that I was going to do a C25K program. As usual, I was up too late and fiddling around on Facebook. Lo and behold, as I scrolled ever downward in what seemed like an endless feed of new items, an ad popped up that caught my eye.

It was impossible, really, for it NOT to catch my eye. Jumping off my laptop screen was a woman dressed in full running attire, soaked to the skin in bright pink paint. Intrigued, I clicked it. Then I clicked all the clicky links on the website. I was morbidly curious and totally sold. “I can do this!” I thought. “It’s not until October! I can whip myself into shape in no time!” I assured myself.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! I’m hilarious sometimes.

See, I’m fat (duh,) broken (as in, metal plates and screws and pins in bones,) and have zero spare time. My days are spent entertaining two children, one of whom is special needs. My nights are spent at a shitty job that I detest, but pays the bills. This leaves me with exactly eight hours in which to cram in the occasional bit of side work and this new endeavor to make me a better me.

So, gritting my teeth with determination, I began my “training.”

The first night, after I lovingly tucked my children into bed, I put on a pair of denim capri pants, a tank top, my flip flops, and went outside. At a bit of a loss, I realized quickly that I was, umm....not prepared. One can’t run in flip flops, I realized. (Not for lack of trying, though.) Additionally, denim and chub rub is not a good combination. No, not at all. So, shuffling my way back down the street, I scrubbed that attempt and decided to start anew the next day.

After a run to Walmart on my way home from the kiddo’s occupational therapy block the following afternoon, I was armed with yoga pants and a pair of running shoes.  Good to go, right? Yeah!

Wrong again! Remember those pins and plates I told you about? Well, not only am I petrified they’ll fail somehow, they also make wearing shoes kind of difficult. The break changed the entire architecture of my foot, so fit is  huge problem. Additionally, the plate rests just where the top of the shoe does on the outside of the ankle. Ankle skin is very thin, and that makes for a very painful kind of rub.

Still not discouraged, though, I took my shoes off and chucked them to the side. Barefoot running! YES! I’m hardcore in many other ways, why not be all kamikaze about this whole running thing, too?

So, off I shuffled. I’d say jogged, but I’m not going to lie to you, dear readers. It was (and remains,) a shuffle. That goes back to that fear I have of the ankle failing me, or an even older injury in my opposite knee giving me grief.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.

It has been two weeks, and I’m still shuffling around the neighborhood barefoot. I’ll be biting the bullet and getting all spendy on a pair of Vibram FiveFingers, but for the moment, it’s just me and my calluses.

Will I actually be jogging or running the Color Vibe 5K in October? Not a clue. The journey has begun, though. In spite of being broken, fat, and busy, I’m really damn stubborn. IT’S ON, YO.



 

How to Move with Children Underfoot

Change is stressful, and you can't get much bigger of a change than moving, now can you? Add a few little kids into the mix and you could be looking disaster right in its face. But before you freak out (or allow them to) there are some things you can do to quell the panic right from the start.

1) Put them into the process from the get-go.

When we were looking for places, out of necessity, I had to take my twins with me for some of the tours. It's actually because of my children that we found the house we're living in.

Sure, after five tours with four-year-old twins, you're ready to claw your own eyes out, but then when you find that perfect place, they feel like they chose it, too. Because they were there. And getting a child to do something she thinks she has chosen is a lot easier than having to surprise her, like, "hey, so, you know this place we've been living your whole life? Say goodbye and let's go to a new place you've never seen!" It's like this new house was an old buddy of theirs since they saw it first. Instead of being more like a weird guy mumbling to himself who said hi to them at the grocery store and creeped them out.

2) Let them help you pack.

Okay, so I know you're staring at your computer screen in horror right now, thinking that what I've suggested is akin to shooting yourself in the foot in five places, but hear me out. They're only going to be up your butt anyway, whether you "let them help" or not, so may as well be organized about it. Let them help with the small things in the beginning, so that they feel like part of a group. For instance, I let them smooth the tape down as I made the packing boxes. Then give them the some of the boxes that they helped make and have them throw all their crap into it. Sure, it will look like this:

But, honestly, are you even doing that much better of a job? And once you unpack all that stuff you carefully molded to fit just right into the box, they're just going to throw it all over the floor anyway. Plus, this way the boxes aren't too heavy, and if something breaks, well, you have an excuse to throw out one of their beloved-but-rarely-used toys, right? Most importantly, though, they're busy. They're busy packing up their lives as you pack up yours. It involves them in the process and keeps them out of your hair at the same time. Winning.

3) Get rid of stuff. Listen, you just don't need it, okay? I can't tell you how much stuff I'm getting rid of now as I unpack. I just didn't need that bent plastic french fry, or the painted popsicle stick. Turns out I actually don't need the 70 pairs of undies I have somehow acquired throughout my life. I only learned that after having survived for two weeks on just ten pairs (I mean, I do laundry every week anyway, so this should have been logical). The others are still in a box somewhere, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I just haven't needed them. Knock me over with a feather. I also have no use for the mismatched dishes and mugs I was so sure I couldn't do without. Get rid of stuff.

Now, to our credit, our house is smaller than our apartment, so we did downsize in some ways. We got rid of a ton of books, for instance, bringing only about two-thirds of our library with us, and leaving this to a used bookstore owner who basically did a back-bend in glee as we cried our literary tears.

I also parted with my impressive collection of pantsuits from the 1990s which I had used to get jobs in my early 20s and also whenever I had to go on camera (in my former life as a television reporter...days long gone now. Time to give up the ghost. And the Godawful suits.)

4) Have friends take your kids for a day while you clean. (If you don't have friends, make them right now for this specific purpose.) The only reason I even did this (I'd have just barreled through, making them suffer in boredom in an empty house while I cleaned) is because our landlady decided she needed to replace our downstairs carpet due to "excessive" wear and tear. And that I needed to have it professionally cleaned with receipt in order for her to consider not doing that.

Yeah. Right.

This is the carpet in question:

Replace it on my dime? I don't think so. But I couldn't have cleaned it like this, or gotten the fridge and cabinets like this:

without someone taking my kids from me for a few good hours straight. Thanks, Laura and Jackie!

5) Make the differences into cool things your kids will want to be on board with. For us, this was easy. The house has an ice-maker for crying out loud. That's like a child's dream. And the girls are back to taking baths without complaint because we totally have a jacuzzi tub.

Now, not everyone is as lucky as us / can move into a house with a ton of cool toys already set up, so you may have to get a little creative. Does the new place have sidewalks? Emphasize rollerskating or bike riding.

This is the first time they've been able to use their bikes for real since we bought them two years ago.

Do you have a yard? Does it have sprinklers? Instant fun.

How about wildlife? Anything different about it that you could make interesting?

We've lived in Florida for a while, so it's not the first time they've seen geckos. But it is the first time they've seen one on their toy house.

This is also a great time for transitions. For example, our children have a fear of a "witch" that comes at night, apparently. I told them she stayed at our old house, and they believed me. Miracles of miracles.


And there you have it. Five ways to make moving with kids slightly less painful. Good luck!