Date Night...at Home

Friday nights are “officially” our Date Nights. That doesn’t always mean we have to go out and spend lots of money on a nice dinner. Sometimes we decide to stay home and have a rather inexpensive one. 

But cheap doesn’t mean tasteless. 

Here’s a tasty steak dinner you can make for a fraction of the price it’d cost you at any steak restaurant in town…and it’s for TWO!

Start with two good-sized sirloin steaks and the following (for marinating):

• 4 cloves garlic – 2 chopped, 2 whole and peeled
• 1 large sprig of rosemary, chopped (or used dried rosemary, about 2 tsp)
• EVOO

Cover bottom of plate/dish with olive oil. Place steaks in dish and salt and pepper both sides, coating them in the olive oil. Sprinkle chopped garlic and rosemary on top of and around steaks. Place whole garlic in dish next to steaks. Cover and refrigerate.

After a couple hours of marinating, get the grill (or cast iron grill pan, stovetop style) nice and hot. Sear steaks for about 6 minutes on each side (only turn ‘em once)—this gave me a nice medium-rare temp inside with a crisp outer sear. (If using pan on stovetop, place the whole cloves of garlic in the pan while steaks are cooking.)

For one of the side dishes, I prepared Onion-Roasted Potatoes. I found this handy-dandy recipe on the back of the Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix box! Here’s how I made it to serve two:

• 1 envelope Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix
• 2 small-to-medium potatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
• ¼ cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425°. In a large roasting pan, combine all ingredients. Bake for 35-40 minutes, stirring frequently. Potatoes will be nicely golden when done.

 For the other side, I made sweet glazed carrots. Here’s a quick recipe for two:

• 1 Tbsp brown sugar, packed
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup crinkle-cut frozen carrots

Combine brown sugar, butter, carrots, and just enough water to cover the carrots in a medium sauce pot. Place over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and continue cooking for 7 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to serve; use remaining liquid to pour over carrots if desired.

Balsamic Glazed Salmon

Here’s a recipe I borrowed from campbellskitchen.com (search for same name as blog title). You’ll see their recipe as prepared serves eight; I had three salmon fillets, and I reduced the other ingredients’ measurements by half to make the glaze.

Follow the Campbell’s Kitchen recipe and all should be fine. However, I will use more cornstarch next time I prepare this; the glaze was a little too runny.

If you’re like me, you don’t like that scaly skin on the salmon while you’re eating it. So here’s an easy way to fix that—DON’T grease the baking dish before you put the salmon in it. Yes, I just said that. And here’s why…when you use the spatula to remove the salmon from the baking dish, slide it just underneath the fish but on top of the skin. This way, the skin sticks to the dish, and your salmon comes away nice and skinless.

I served the salmon on a bed of wild rice with a couple of twisted orange slices.

Tilapia with Oven Roasted Tomatoes

The tilapia is so easy to make. Although I didn’t follow a certain recipe, you can add basically anything you want to get the most bang-for-your-buck outta this fish. I actually prepared this earlier in the day so, once I arrived home from work, all I have to do is pop it in the oven.

The tilapia is baked at 350° for about 15 minutes. I seasoned these fillets with garlic, olive oil, and parsley.

 

It’s the roasted tomatoes that are the star, here, though. And here’s how you can make them:

• 2 Roma tomatoes, cut in half from top to bottom
• 4 cloves of garlic (unpeeled)
• EVOO
• basil
• pepper

Preheat oven to 400°. Coat a small baking dish with olive oil. Place the tomatoes in the dish, face up. Place the garlic cloves around the tomatoes. Add basil generously then add pepper to taste. Drizzle with more olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes.