It's back to Health Monday!! Flank steak with Mango salsa

What a perfect weekend! So, much to be thankful for. I am hoping that everyone had a fun filled weekend with family and friends.

 Warm Spring days are here and there is one thing I can hardly wait to taste. Luscious, sweet mango's!  Today, I am offering Flank steak with a peppy, sweet mango salsa, and guess what! It is so easy to prepare! This figure friendly recipe is just in time for the sweet mango's that are coming into our super markets. I recently bought two six packs of champayne mango's at Costco, JACKPOT!!

 A comfort food. Mango's really can make you feel better! Beyond being delicious and rich in vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants, mango's contain an enzyme with stomach soothing properties similar to papain found in papayas. These comforting enzymes act as a digestive aid and can be held partially responsible for that feeling of contentment we experience during and after our daily mango ritual. I have a mango every morning with raspberries and blue berries. Yes, it is quite natural to crave those mango's!

 To tell if your mango is ripe, check the area around the stem. If this area appears to be plump and round, the mango is ripe. Beware! Most mango fruit sold in stores are not quite ripe. Leaving the fruit on the counter for a few days at room temperature will help to ripen the fruit.

 Grilled Flank Steak with Mango Salsa

I love experimenting with different spices. Garam Masala is a Indian blend of sweet, warm spices and is available at most markets.

1 tsp. Garam masala

1 tsp. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Combine these ingredients; rub evenly over both sides of steak. Let the steak stand at room temperature for about 10 minutes.

1 1 1/2 lb flank steak

1 C. diced mango; I like the champayne or Keitt (champayne is in season now, Keitt is a late August-October)

1//4 C. diced English cucumber

1 T. Fresh cilantro

1 T. fresh lime juice

1/4 tsp. minced peeled ginger

salt

Pre-heat the grill.

How to dice a mango: Some friends of ours, who recently visited, did not know how to dice a mango. I had learned when attending cooking school, from Eva Kenly. It occurred to me, maybe others do not know. If you know, just skip this segment and move to making the salsa!

Champayne mango

You will notice there are two flat sides to the mango. Lay the mango on your cutting board and slice close to the seed, turn over and repeat. Put the seed aside.

Carefully cut a cross hatch pattern into 1/2 of the mango, being careful NOT to cut through the skin.

Place your fingers under the mango, on the skin side and gently push up...inverting the mango half.

Carefully cut between the skin and the pulp. PRESTO! You have your cubed mango, ready to eat or use in a recipe. Cut the remaining skin and pulp from the sides of the seed, and cut off the pulp.

Now lets make the salsa....yum yum!

Combine the mango, cucumber, cilantro, lime juice, fresh ginger and salt. Cover and chill.

Remove leaves on parsley and cilantro by holding the stems in one hand and using your chef's knife, at an angle, to shear the leaves off.

Use this new kitchen gadget to easily mince your herbs. It has four blades that rotate, you roll back and forth over your herbs. Then reverse direction.

Easily cleaned by taking the white part off, revealing the blades. OXO Good Grips makes this herb mincer, it's available at Kitchen Kaboodle, Sur la Table and Williams Sonoma.

Grill the steak:

Spray the grill with cooking spray or brush on oil. Place the steak on the grill rack; grill 5 minutes on each side or until desired degree doneness. Remove steak from grill; let it stand 5 minutes to rest, cut steak diagonally across the grain into thin slices. Wee Bear is such a great helper in the kitchen, he is my hero, best friend and cheerleader!!

Serve with the salsa. Calories- 225 per 3 ounces of steak and 1/4 cup salsa. Fat-11.1 gram, sodium 399 mg., fiber 12 gram.

I served my flank steak with mango salsa and Wild mushroom risotto (risotto on this coming Wednesday's blog, it is so good!!) and garnished with Italian parsley from my garden pot.

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Smoothie of the Week for my Smoothie Fans!!

Mango-Acai- continuing with the mango theme!

Blend two 4 ounce packages frozen acai berry puree, 1 cup chopped mango, 1/2 cup orange juice and 2 cups ice. This is so Yummy!!

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Meal Snap- a new app

($0.99; mealsnap.com; for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)

This app analyzes a pic of your plate, then gives you a ballpark calorie range. I tried it on a steak, rice, and roasted asparagus plate at the local steakhouse, which clocked in at between 329 and 434 calories (a nicely modest splurge).

Why didn’t we think of this before?

Fooducate

(free; fooducate.com; for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android)

Use your phone’s camera to scan barcodes of foods mid–shopping trip, then find out their grades based on ingredients and nutrients.

It steered me away from a honey wheat bread (a mere C+, thanks to refined flour) and toward an equally tasty 100% whole-wheat loaf (A-).

If you know of a great app. e-mail me and I will share!

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Keep your pups healthy too- Some pictures of our pups snake training in Desert Mountain. Clyde was bitten by a small Rattlesnake a couple of weeks ago in the driveway of his home. Clyde is a Jack Russell Terrier, who belongs to a good friend of ours. Clyde was rushed to the animal hospital, where he was treated overnight, he was lucky, he survived. Little did they know, Kathy Wykoff, director of member services, was working with, Partner's, http://www.partnersdogtraining.com/, to do snake training, in Desert Mountain. It was a huge success! 20 dogs signed up and I snapped a few pictures.

Bandit went to snake training. Moose had been trained two years ago, he knew right away what was happening, he reacted just as he should. Bandit was a first timer.  Here are a few pictures. 

The training is done with a shock collar. When the dog gets the scent , the trainer give them a zap, just enough to get their attention in an uncomfortable way. The snakes are hidden in several places, in cages as pictured above. 

    Bandit is headed toward the snake cage, he get's the scent.

The trainer zaps him, and doesn't want to go near the snake again. (It is a small zap, enough to get their attention) We are successful! For more information go to the Partner's web site. The trainers are the best! Thanks Kathy, for getting this lined up for us, in Desert Mountain! And to Leighton, for coming!

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                        Have a great week! Remember
                     YOU ROCK!!! LOVE THIS LIFE!