Grilled Fajita Salad

Tonight I had a Good Idea. Fajitas. We had a really big piece of meat still left over from the gigantic piece of meat from Thai Lemon Beef night. It needed to be used. Wouldn't want it to go bad and be wasted... that sort of thing makes me sad. And of course it needs to be grilled. It was just That Sort of meat. I probably should have marinated it properly, to tenderize it, but... I didn't. So, fajitas were the obvious choice- I could have mine in a romaine lettuce leaf instead of a tortilla. My year of low-carbing taught me some tricks.

Anyway, fajitas need onions (peppers are good, too, but I didn't have any.) Grilled onions, of course. Hubby (the Grill Master) told me to slice them up and toss them in a bowl with some olive oil. That's when I got my Good Idea. Bacon fat. I tossed the onions with bacon fat. Added a touch of salt, and handed them out to the hubby.

Soon after that, he came in to tell me "You have to smell this. Onions, in bacon fat, on the grill."

I stopped my chopping. "Yes. Yes, I do."

I love the smell of onions in bacon fat. I love the smell of grill. Together they are... phenomenal. Mmmm... I am a genius.

Then it was time for me to make the "sauce." Since I hadn't marinated the meat, I wanted some way to get the same flavors involved. I googled up some inspiration, and decided to base mine on this one. This is what I did, pretty much, since I didn't actually measure:

1/4 cup olive oil

juice of half a juicy lime, divided (I used almost the whole lime, which was too tart)

1/2 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp salt

some freshly-ground pepper

2 tsp jarred minced garlic

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp ancho chili powder

2 tsp arrowroot powder (optional)

Put about half the lime juice in a small bowl with the arrowroot powder, set aside.

Mix the other ingredients together in a small sauce pan. Warm gently over low heat, while the fajita stuff cooks. When everything else is ready, whisk the lime juice-arrowroot mixture and add to sauce pan. Remove from heat and whisk! It thickens up quickly. If you don't want a thick sauce/dressing, don't bother with the arrowroot. I wanted it to cling to the meat well.

I think next time I'll skip the arrowroot and the heating, and toss the stuff in the blender with the grilled onions.

When it came time to separate out the good romaine leaves for being my "tortillas," I got another good idea. Skip the whole messy thing of stuffing into a lettuce leaf, and just make a salad. So, I chopped up the lettuce (getting a lot more veggie this way), and topped it with the sliced, grilled steak, some sliced avocado, grilled onions, and the sauce- now the dressing.

It was sooooooo yummy.

Hours later update... I felt so good all evening after eating this! I didn't get hungry for a snack like I usually do. Someone suggested I crunch the numbers on the meal, to see what ratio of fats, proteins, and carbs it had. To the best of my guess (didn't weigh the steak, the website I used was really opinionated on serving sizes), it was 71% fat, 21% protein, and 8% carbs. Sheesh! I knew I liked fat, but... that number is high even for me. I told hubby I was sure to be hungry in 10 minutes, because I didn't have enough carbs. Silly me. Looks like my bod likes not having carbs.