Thai Beef Tacos with Lime-Cilantro Slaw

After the lasagna earlier in the week, I was in the mood for something a little lighter with more exotic flavors.  I decided to make Thai Beef Tacos with Lime-Cilantro Slaw using a Cooking Light recipe I found on myrecipes.com.

Photo: Becky Luigart-Stayner; Styling: Jan Gautro

 Although the recipe calls for marinating the steak for only 20 minutes, I let the steak marinate for a couple of hours in the refrigerator.   I grilled the steak over a charcoal grill using indirect heat.   I like to arrange the charcoal in a ring around the grill leaving the center open.   I place the meat in the center area and move the meat to the outer edge for searing when needed.

 Ring of Fire

My wife made the slaw for the tacos using the Cooking Light recipe and we used Smart and Delicious Light Flour Tortillas from La Tortilla Factory.  

The slaw was great and the combination of the cilantro, lime juice, ginger, and steak was wonderful.   We really enjoyed this dinner.

Spicy Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

In one week, I will have recorded two months of meals I have made for my family.   After I hit the one month mark, I realized that it would not be too difficult to go two months without repeating the same meal over the two month period.   Now, I am shooting for three months.   My goal is to use a unique recipe every time I cook, over a three month period starting from when I started this blog.

So, far I have cooked 32 meals and we have either gone out to dinner or ordered take out 3 times.   Since I generally cook 4 dinners per week, in 3 months, on May 16, I will have made 53 meals (assuming we do not go out to dinner on a night I would normally cook).    Even if we do go out once or twice, it will still be over 50 different main dishes.

In order to meet this goal, I am going to have to try several new recipes.   Tonight was a new recipe and it turned out great, although it did not make enough for left overs for tomorrow night.

Tonight I made Spicy Thai Coconut Chicken Soup.   This is a Cooking Light recipe from myrecipes.com and it is very easy to make.   Chop up some bell pepper and mushrooms, mince some garlic and fresh ginger, stir fry, throw in coconut milk, chili paste, fish sauce, and chicken broth and simmer for a bit.   Then throw in some roasted chicken breast and then put green onion and chopped fresh cilantro on top.   Squeeze a couple of limes and put the juice in.   That's it.   It is super good. 

The recipe is supposed to make 4 servings, but each serving is only 1 and 1/3 cup.   My wife and I had close to 2 cups each for dinner along with some fresh spring rolls I picked up from Thai Orchid in Campbell, California.   So, like I said earlier, there was not enough for leftovers for dinner tomorrow night.   I might cook something else tomorrow night or it might be an "on your own" night. 

I was going to make the spring rolls myself, but Whole Foods in Campbell did not have any rice paper for the rolls.   The rools look like they might be pretty easy to make.   If they turned out looking anything like the spring rolls from Thai Orchid, they would be impressive.   Spring Rolls are definitely going on my "learn how to make" list.   The peanut sauce from Thai Orchid was also really good.   Peanut sauce makes these rolls great, so if I decide to make the rolls at some point, I will also need to make the peanut sauce!

Thai Beef Salad

A Thai salad is often a great choice when we feel like we want something "different."   The combination of fresh mint, cilantro, and fish sauce give this Thai Beef Salad a really fresh and exotic set of flavors and aromas.   This is another Cooking Light recipe from myrecipes.com.

I made this dish once before and it turned out well.   Tonight's version was probably a little better than the first time because I marinated the steak a little longer and I used New York Strip instead of flank steak.   I also added rice noodles to the salad which makes the meal more filling.   Its a little too light without the extra calories added by the rice noodels.

When I grilled the Tandoori chicken the other night, I banked all the coals in my charcoal grill around the outside of the grill which seemed to create a more optimal grill temp in the center of the grill.   I did that with the steak for the Thai salad tonight and it worked well with the steak cooked almost perfectly on the inside and just a little charring on the outside.   I think I can do even better with the grilling if I continue to work on it.   I realize now, after the last two meals, that I have been putting way too much heat on the meat.

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