BBQ in Chiberia

Well hello there, friends!

It is like Celebrity Fit Club over here at Chez Morrell/Dunn-Rankin. CDR and I are trying to get ourselves in shape and so have been working out daily and watching what we eat. The majority of my extended family are on a similar path, so for cousin Mikey’s birthday, I made some low-calorie cupcakes.

TWO INGREDIENT CUPCAKES.

Yup. You read right.

All you need is a box of cake mix and 15oz can of pureed pumpkin. THAT IS ALL YOU NEED, FOR SERIOUS.

Spice Cake mix with Pumpkin.

Put ’em together.

Mix and bake.

For a glaze for these yummy pumpkin spice cupcakes, mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar with the juice of 1 lemon.

Just about 120 calories in these bad boys.

Now, if you live in Chicago, or the mid-west for that matter, you know how flippin’ cold it has been. We awoke to a cozy -11 degrees this morning, and CDR suggested we do something BBQ themed to warm our bones. I was totally down, and we made sure to do an intense to work out before dinner.

We picked up a sirloin tip roast and did something mighty fine to it.

We rubbed it down with a Carolina style BBQ rub.

Drop it in the pan, which has about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in it. Pop it in the oven at 375 for 20 minutes, then cover it, and let it cook at 225 for 3 hours.

We also made roasted potatoes, and a broccoli slaw with a lemon-dijon vinaigrette. See:

Buttery potato goodness.

Broccoli slaw with pecans and scallions.

And when the timer goes off…

Remove this baby from the oven. Let it rest, while you add tomato paste, garlic, brown sugar and molasses to that juice to make a yummy sauce.

Get your plate ready…

And then garnish with a healthy helping (about 4 oz) of delicious BBQ roast.

Do your thang, Chiberia, and I’ll do mine.

And that’s dinner.

Stay tuned for the Weekly Cocktail tomorrow.