Halibut Wrap with Angus Top Sirloin and mixed veggies

Fat: 16
Carb: 49
Fiber: 17
Protein: 85
Calories: 646
Cost: $9.40

• Halibut Wrap
  
• 6oz Halibut
  
• $6.50
  
• Angus Sirloin
  
• 5oz
  
• $1.75
• Mixed Veggies
• 3 servings
  
• $1.15

I picked up the Halibut without checking the price, not expecting it to be $16.00 per pound, but it was well worth it. That wrap was sooo good. The best item I have made maybe in forever, the halibut was the perfect choice. I used a great new flat bread that I just discovered from FlatOutBread, I used the light Italian Herb and it is the most tasty flatbread/tortilla I have ever had. Inside the wrap is nothing more than the halibut steak, some spinach, and a little tartar sauce. The combination was perfect. The steak looks a little small in that picture, but was just enough to add to this great meal, and on manager's special, the Angus was worth the upgrade.

I am definitely going to be trying some new things with the Flatout Flatbread. Any suggestions are welcome. Each wrap is 90 calories: 2.5g fat, 16g carbs, 9g fiber, and 9g protein; this is easy to work into a healthy meal.

Beef Tenderloin and Pollock fish with Lima beans and Baby Corn

Fat: 14
Carb: 23
Fiber: 7
Protein: 75
Calories: 530
Cost: $6.39

• Beef Tenderloin
  
• 6oz
• $3.40
  
• Pollock
  
• 6oz
  
• $1.00
• Lima Beans and Baby Carrots
  
• $1.99

For the price, I am not sure that Pollock fish can be beat. I seasoned it with some garlic and paprika and baked it, it was delicious. At only $2.66 a pound, 90% protein, 4% omega-3, and very low mercury as far as fish go - this just went up on the menu frequency. Tenderloins are always a great steak option, and I picked these up on managers special for $9.08/lb. Lima beans aren't my favorite for taste, but they have lots of minerals and I like variety in sides - and for that I mixed them with baby corn.

Beef Stir-fry and Swordfish

Fat: 18
Carb: 21
Fiber: 6
Protein: 83
Calories: 562
Cost: $5.15

• Steak
  
• 5oz
• $1.20
  
• Stir-Fry
  
• 8oz
  
• $1.20
• Swordfish
  
• 5.5oz
  
• $2.75

This was a filling meal packed with protein. The only downfall was that I slightly overcooked the meat, choice top round - not the best cut to start with; by grilling it then putting it into the stir-fry too early. Not too bad though, and the stir-fry and fish were great

Salmon Cakes, Beef Cakes, and Brussels Sprouts

Fat: 31
Carb: 31
Fiber: 10
Protein: 116
Calories: 876
Cost: $4.34

• Salmon Cakes
  
• 2 cakes
• $1.29
  
• Beef Cakes
  
• 8oz
  
• $2.38
• Brussels Sprouts
  
• 3 servings
  
• $0.67

I never really call them "Beef Cakes" but since I cooked them with salmon cakes, I thought it was appropriate. I make bunless hamburgers quite a bit, and around here we just call them hamburgers. The buns don't add enough to the meal to be worth the calories they add. The salmon cakes are easy as can be to make: canned salmon meat, an egg, and a little flower; mixed into patties. They were pretty gooey, so I fried them on the stove for a few minutes then baked while I cooked the burgers.

This is about the perfect meal: cheap, very filling, easy to cook, high protein(over 50%), plenty of fiber, a good fat profile, and most importantly, very tasty. I mentioned the fat profile, one of the best aspects of this meal; due in large part to the salmon, and using omega-3 eggs. It has over 4,000mg of omega-3 with less than 1500mg omega-6. Both omega-3 and omega-6 are essential fatty acids, but typical American diets are very high in omega-6 compared to omega-3; up to a 20:1 ratio but typical recommendations are that the ratio should be in the neighborhood of 5:1. Fatty fish are one of the best ways to get a god dose of omega-3.

Pork Loin Ribs, Breaded Shrimp, and Cheese Veggies

Fat: 58
Carb: 46
Fiber: 6
Protein: 101
Calories: 1134
Cost: $4.97

• Pork Loin Ribs
  
• 8oz
• $0.97
  
• Breaded Shrimp
  
• 12 large shrimp
  
• $2.50
• Cheesy Vegetables
• 12oz
• $1.50

Pork: the other white meat? For me, taste puts it on the red side with beef(I'm not a big fan of chicken) and at 56% fat, it isn't as lean as you would normally associate with a white meat - wordplay and marketing? Perhaps! I will write about this soon.

That is actually my wife's plate, I passed on the shrimp. As good as they were yesterday, I didn't need the extra calories; but my wife knowing they were there, had to have them again. The cheese covered broccoli, carrots and cauliflower make a good low calorie filler, but because of the breaded shrimp, this meal was still a little on the high side as far as calories are concerned. But the price is right. The pork ribs were 33% off on Manager's Special, their wording for about to expire. But when you shop almost daily, these make great bargains.

Roasted Sausage and Pear, Breaded shrimp and Salad

Fat: 84
Carb: 95
Fiber: 18
Protein: 87
Calories: 1455
Cost: $9.45

• Roasted Sausage and Pears
• 1 pear
• 1 large sausage
• some onion
  
• $4.50
  
• Breaded Shrimp
  
• 12 large shrimp
  
• $2.50
• Fat spinach salad
• 2cups Spinach
• 30g Walnuts
• 1/2 Avocado
• 40g Craisins
• $2.45

Wow, what a calorie bomb. I probably should have done without the salad today, but I had all the ingredients sitting around waiting to be finished off from the other day. I got the recipe for the roasted sausage and pears from Cooking with Amy, and glad I gave it a try. It was delicious, and my wife loved it too. I didn't know what soaking the pears in vinegar would do, but wow, it was perfect. Thank you Amy.

The only bad news is that after the last few days, I am going to have to hold back on the calories and come up with some light meal to keep the pounds from creeping up on me. I am also going to try to go a little cheaper the rest of this week. But I am not going to sacrifice taste, you will see.

Chocolate Strawberry Dessert Wrap

Fat: 10
Carb: 58
Fiber: 4
Protein: 4
Calories: 338
Cost: next to nothing

I got this idea from a great food blog: MattBites(his picture is much more appetising than mine). Spread some chocolate frosting on a tortilla, cover in strawberries, and wrap! I also toasted the wrap to give it some crisp and to melt the frosting a little.

I am not a big desert person, but this was the perfect option; it tasted as good as you can imagine it would. My only mistake was making 4 of them for the 2 of us. It was good enough that I stuffed both of mine down - even after todays large dinner and some fruit afterwards, my wife had enough control to save one of hers for tomorrow. This is highly recommended next time you have a reason to celebrate.

Thank you for the idea Matt.

Monkfish and Filet Mignon with Asparagus

Fat: 16
Carb: 5
Fiber: 3
Protein: 76
Calories: 480
Cost $11.27

• Monkfish
• 9oz
• $5.62
  
• Filet Mignon(98% fat free)
• 6oz
• $4.50
• Asparagus
  
• 200g
  
• $1.15

They call monkfish the poor man's lobster, but at $9.99 per pound, I'm not sure that is the nickname I would have come up with for it. But baking it and eating it with a lemon butter sauce does make a great substitute. And it is simple to do, add some garlic, paprika, and butter then bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
The filet is always a winner, and just as easy to cook. Marinate in some Dale's sauce and rub with some garlic pepper. Asparagus went great with this meal. While it was on the expensive side, this truly was a meal for a special occasion. Still cheaper than any nice meal out, and without a doubt just as tasty as anything you could expect to get anywhere - and the cooking was easy. It was planned for Saturday, but didn't happen till today. Now it is time to go make some desert, something we normally do without.

Baked Flounder and Fat Spinach Salad

Fat: 54
Carb: 48
Fiber: 12
Protein: 56
Calories: 871
Cost $6.05

• Baked wild caught flounder
• 9oz
• $3.60
  
• Fat spinach salad
• 2cups Spinach
• 30g Walnuts
• 1/2 Avocado
• 40g Craisins
• 1tbsp Olive Oil
• $2.45
  

Might as well just call this a fat salad. It was a good sized salad(that is a very large bowl) but it still had 48g of fat, all from good sources though: avocado, walnuts, and a bit of olive oil for dressing. The craisins are Ocean Spray brand dried cranberries, and they gave a great sweetness to the salad. They also provided most of the non-fiber carbs for the meal.

I baked the flounder with a little butter, garlic, and pepper; and ate it with a bit of light tarter sauce. It tasted great! Baked flounder is such an easy to make high protein(88%) dish. With the flounder being so low in fat, the walnuts saved me for getting my omega-3s for the day. This meal ended up with 3.8g Omega-3 with a 4.1:1 ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3. This is the high end for optimal daily intake, but since I had salmon for lunch, I had a great ratio today.

Peppercorn Pork Tenderloin, Primavera Shrimp, and Mango

Fat: 21
Carb: 52
Fiber: 6
Protein: 50
Calories: 597

• Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin
• 8oz
• $2.72
• Primavera shrimp from SeaPak
  
• 8oz pack
  
• $3.98
• Mango
• 1/2 medium fruit
• $0.79

$7.49 per plate, for a big plateful of food. My wife only ate half of her pork tenderloin, saving the other half for tomorrow's breakfast. The meal was still plenty for her, and with only a 4oz portion of meat her total calories were 437.

The prep for this meal was as easy as you can get. Put the pre-seasoned tenderloin into the oven at 400 for about 30 minutes, drop the bags of primavera shrimp into boiling water for about 5 minutes, and slice up the mango. I added just a little bit of Dale's sauce to the tenderloins before baking, but that is all I added. I choose the mango over a vegetable because there are some veggies in the primavera shrimp and I was craving some juicy fruit. Having a fruit in addition to the primavera shrimp brought the carbs up on this meal more than my typical meal, but there was still a pretty decent macro balance.

The taste was great. It is hard to beat tenderloin, and the mango is always a great choice. The primavera shrimp seemed a little light on the shrimp, but the taste was good, and the farfalle pasta tasted great - it has been a while since I have had any pasta.

I usually won't complain about paying $7.49 for dinner. A 5 dollar footlong with a drink and chips will put you right around there, as will a large combo from most fast food joints. Try to get an 8oz steak and shrimp for anything close to that - there will be a 30 minute wait time regardless.

Eat Surf N' Turf Gets Off To A Roaring Start

Yesterday's meal ended up tasty enough after as much of a learning experience as it was, that I decided to commit to focusing my first real attempt at a regular blog on my dinners. I am sure that my wife won't mind since it will help keep me motivated to continue the cooking habits of the last few weeks. Those habits have centered around creating a dinner of meat, fish, and veggies. Sometimes there may have been too much fish to have any meat - but it has been surf and turf almost every night. Most of these meals rate 5 stars in the nutrition department, but have reputations of being expensive. Every time I tell someone what I had for dinner the night before, they ask what the special occasion was. But the meals I cook are usually easy, almost always nutritious, and less expensive than most people would think; and for the taste, they cannot be beat.

I hope this blog can become a database of surf n' turf dinner meals with a bit of info about taste, nutrition, preparation, and cost for each meal. Most of the surf n' turf meals are low in carbs and high in protein, and I would like to discuss nutrition at a higher level and how these meals can be incorporated into a larger diet plan.

I'll tell you about last night's experience in the future, but I am excited to get this blog started. I hope you enjoy. Comments, questions, suggestions, and requests are always welcome. Thanks for reading.