Blackened Steak and Mashed Potatoes

Steak time again - trying to get those iron levels up. So I thawed out these thin steaks I had in the freezer, from who knows how long ago. I drizzled some EVOO in a skillet, dumped plenty of chili powder, some curry powder,salt and pepper in, then put the steaks on it.  More chili powder S&P on top and left them to cook. I eventually flipped them and left them to brown up a bit with the lid off.

I also threw some Yukon gold potatoes in a pot of water to cook. These will be the only potatoes I ever boil again.  I usually use the brown ones, but they take SO LONG! I fully expected these to take that long and they were, shall we say over-done? I intended slightly stiff potatoes and these deteriorated to mashed - no mashing or draining required.
The moral of the story is that these cooked fast and had kind of a creamy texture anyway, which saved on the butter poundage :)

For dessert, you're gonna luv this, lemon Jello cheesecake. I don't remember exactly where I got this recipe - it was years ago when I was first diagnosed Celiac and was combing through cookbooks to figure out what to do. In any case, it called for some kind of gluten free cookie crust, which I promptly nixed and I just make this in a (couple) bowls.  It's basically instant but it requires a mixer so I consider it "baking".

Mix 1- 6oz (or 2-3oz) lemon Jello with 2 cups boiling water until dissolved. Then add 1 cup cold water and put it in the fridge for an hour...call your mom or whatever.
Then, blend (with a mixer) 8 oz cream cheese, 8 oz sour cream, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract - until smooth.  Dump in the jello and mix it up smooth again.  Chill until it's set.

I hafta tell ya, it can be the most satisfying thing you ever eat! It's sweet and creamy and chewy all in one. Yum! I sub out Neufchatel for the full fat cream cheese, you can even use fat free cream cheese and sour cream if you want to.  I don't because of all the fillers that stress me out. So I choose the least number of ingredients. You can also use sugar free Jello, but you still have to sweeten the dairy stuff so I figure, why bother?

And I'll be eating on this for the rest of the week.  I'm also dedicated to my daily spinach salad until I get bored with them. When they look like this I start to wonder:

This one happened to be totally delish though. Spinach, pecans, cranberries and Parmesan cheese w/ balsamic vinegar, of course! In my opinion - the perfect mix of sweet, tangy and salty. All of the nutrition none of the guilt.