3 Year Anniversary Dinner

For dinner on Sunday night Michael and I made this recipe that I found. Sunday was our official anniversary, but we aren’t celebrating until next weekend. I bought steak at Trader Joe’s–not filet mignon but that’s only because TJ’s didn’t have it. So far in my experience the meat I buy at Trader Joe’s is a million times better than anything I’ve gotten at any other grocery store. There’s little to no fat or gristle on the TJ’s steak and it just tastes better. It tastes healthier. It’s worth the extra few bucks in our opinion.

Since we’re celebrating officially next weekend we didn’t do anything fancy Sunday except for the dinner. And dinner was so good I wanted a second dinner!

Filet Mignon Recipe with Caramelized Onions and Gorgonzola

Ingredients

• 1 lb filet Mignon, (about 1-1 1/4 inches thick), trimmed and cut into 4 steaks
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 1/2 cup fat free beef broth
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp light butter (I used Brummel & Brown)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1/3 cup Gorgonzola or blue cheese, crumbled

Instructions

1. Heat 1 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and brown sugar and cook, stirring often, until the onions are very tender and golden brown, about 15 minutes.
2. Add broth, vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until the liquid has almost evaporated, 3 to 4 minutes more. Transfer the onions to a bowl; cover to keep warm. Clean and dry the pan.
3. Sprinkle the remaining salt and the pepper on both sides of each steak.
4. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon butter in the pan over medium-high heat. Add the steaks and cook until browned, 3 to 5 minutes.
5. Turn them over and top with cheese. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook until the cheese is melted and the steaks are cooked to desired doneness, 3 to 5 minutes for medium-rare.
6. Serve the steaks with the caramelized onions.

Preparation time: 10 minutes  |   Cooking time: 30 minutes    |     Number of servings: 4    |    Serving size is 1 steak, Each serving = 7 Points +

PER SERVING: 280 calories; 12g fat; 11 g carbohydrates; 36g protein; 2 g fiber

First, I think the calories on this recipe are way off. When I went to count my calories in the MyFitnessPal App it calculated it as closer to 600 calories, which is what I used. I bought the Gorgonzola at Trader Joe’s as well and it was excellent–and cheap!

We halved the recipe for just the two of us so we used half of a large onion instead of two large onions. I could have used more onion so I think in the future we’ll use the whole onion.

Caramelizing the onion was pretty simple and didn’t take very long. We’ve done it only once before, when we made homemade French Onion Soup for my birthday dinner. I love caramelized onions! And it went so well in this recipe. While Michael cooked the onions (adding broth, salt and brown sugar) I prepped broccoli to steam as our side.

Michael grilled up the steak the usual way but instead of marinating it he just used salt and pepper to season it. I steamed the veggies and then he topped the steak with the Gorgonzola to melt it a bit.

I topped the steaks with just a little bit of additional cheese so it had the texture of the crumbles too. I was glad I added the broccoli because it went nicely with all the other flavors (I used Goddess Dressing on my broccoli).

The dinner turned out PERFECTLY. All the flavors complimented each other in a surprising way. You wouldn’t think the sweetness of the onions would go well with a strong cheese but it did. The onions tasted liked candy (which I love, of course) but the cheese made them less sweet so they weren’t overpowering.

Everything was so tasty that I was sad when the food was gone. I wanted an entire new dinner just so I could enjoy it again. This recipe is a total winner–higher in calories than the author calculated but still a winner. (Maybe filet mignon is a lower calorie cut of meat? Not sure.) This recipe will mostly definitely be a repeat in our house!

QUESTION: How do you use Gorgonzola cheese? Any other recipes out there I should try?