What's on your Menu today (Thursday) RNYers?

Good morning menu crew! Its snowy and FRIGID here in Toronto, Ontario Canada!  Temps are -8C (17F) but with the windchill feels like -17C (1F)! I had to do the sprint from the nice warm bed to the cold bathroom at 4:50am this morning, my hot shower was glorious! 

QOTD: What small luxury to you treat yourself with? Do you buy expensive makeup? Do you get regular mani & pedi's?  Do you drive a fancy car?  Do you buy a new article of clothing every week/month? Do you go out to a fav expensive restaurant regularly? Oddly I was trying to think of what "small luxury" I treat myself with and I am drawing a blank!!!! There are three things that I know I spend my money on so these must be my "things".  One is good coffee. You all know I love my coffee. I have no problem buying Keurig Kcups by the boat loads to fuel my caffeine addiction!  I also have no problem treating myself to a Vanilla Latte (made with Lactose free milk) at Starbucks when I want, its not cheap and they charge extra for the lactose free milk so a Grande ends up costing around $7.  I treat my dogs to specialty dog cookies.  Because I have Labs they are very prone to being allergic to a lot of food, its just in the breed (they are allergic to chicken, dairy, wheat to name a few) so they get this one brand of treats that are wheat free/grain free and made with liver or duck and not cheap! Lastly I consider my health super important, so I use the PatchMD vitamin Patches, last night I put in an order for 5 different patches and did the "auto" 30 day ship thing to lock in the 40% discount.  Well being from Canada I have to add on $12.99 in shipping (UGH!!! ) and convert it to Canadian dollars and well let's just say all said in done its not cheap but I chose this WLS lifestyle and I am not about to let my health go down the tubes so I pay for the patches and I could not be happier!  So tell us what is your "small luxury" treat to yourself ?

Time since surgery: 3 yrs + 1 month - I have been having a super small/picky pouch the last few days and have been skipping breakfast and last night I didn't eat dinner. I have no rhyme or reason for this because who knows next week I will want to eat the world probably!

B: vanilla greek yogurt/fresh raspberries & 1 tbsp of bran buds

L: 1 greek chicken skewer and 3/4 cup of greek salad (take out at work)

S: 2 babybel cheese & 1/3 cup of dry roasted peanuts

D: 1 greek chicken skewer & 3/4 cup of greek salad (lunch leftovers)

S: vanilla greek yogurt/fresh raspberries & 1 tbsp of bran buds & 2 babybel before bed

TOTALS: 924 calories, 97 protein, 42 carbs

V: patches are on!

L: coffee all day and water with SF cranberry juice all day

E: hiking the dogs in the snow when I get home, it will be so cold that I am sure I will burn a million calories just getting dressed to go out and hike them LOL LOL

PHOTO FRIDAY TOMORROW menu crew - open topic, post whatever suits your fancy! 

Have an awesome day, be fabulous! 

Morning DD2. My pouch has been grumpy lately. I ate very little rib-eye night before last, and last night's steak tips sat like lead pellets. I think it's probably detoxing from the GIANT REESE'S CUPS someone left here.

QOTD. I guess I have odd luxuries. There are books that come out periodically that I pounce on, and some tools as well. Then there are the trips to the wood store . . .

Hope you get to feeling better!

Thanks, I feel fine. It's just those odd big pouch/small pouch days.

So tell me more about the 'steak tips'... last night I stopped at our butcher to talk about beef tips, and I kind of confused him I think. He decided I was looking for a tri-tip roast, and that it's supposedly a 'wonderful' roast (at $10/pound I would hope so)... but I wasn't so sure that's what you guys up in the NE region are talking about. I've learned one thing living around the country, and that's that some regions use different cuts of meat, or even label them slightly differently.

So, I want to know about your steak tips... which cut of meat is it, and how do you cook it?

Tri-tip is great, but pricey. These are sirloi steak tips. They are usually found in strips about 8 inches long. They can be pretty narrow, or up to about an inch and a half thick. There isn't much fat, so the calories can be a little lower.

In Chicago, we used to go to this place that had buckets of rib tips... I don't even know if they were beef or pork - I can't remember, but I do remember them being oh so freaking awesome...

I think when ya'll talk of steak tips, I keep thinking of those.

I'm going to hunt around more again... So do you cook them like a roast, or maybe in a gravy? I'm assuming since they are sirloin and lean, that they need to be cooked for a while to make them super tender?

What I really want are those damned rib tips from that greasy little place in Chicago... I need to get those out of my mind! LOL

Pricing around the country is so odd to me.  I eat tri-tip ALL THE TIME!  It's about $6 a pound, but gets down to $3.99 on sale.  Grim seems to be able to get ribeye for a better price than I can . . . 

You would think, that being in Oklahoma, and with all of the beef that is raised here, it would be cheaper! But noooooo... our beef isn't cheap at all (at least I don't think so).

We can, on occasion, get good deals on ribeyes and t-bones though.

I'm going to pay more attention to tri-tip, and damnit, I'm going to find the (sirloin) beef tips as well!

Periodically, rib-eye will get down to $6.99 for boneless, and $5.99 bone-in. Steak tips and New Yourk strip are often $5.99. I dislike t-bones and other cuts. 

Petite sirloin is $3.99 on sale. Technically, there is no such thing. I think it's what they call slabs of bottom round.