Healthy Meal: Sirloin Beef Burgundy (Boeuf Bourgignon)

All right, here comes another one that’s more than 400 calories. Told you I don’t starve myself! This recipe clocks in at 588 calories, which is totally doable if you’re not pigging out the rest of the day. Not at all bad for a beef-based meal!

And oh, substitutions… you are my friends. (That means there are lots of them tonight.) Let’s start with no bacon (you’re eating beef – do you REALLY need to top it with bacon?). Sauteed the mushrooms/onions in olive oil instead of butter. I doubled the amount of mushrooms and onions, because I like mushrooms and onions, and it makes the meal a lot more filling without adding many calories. Used Pinot instead of burgundy wine (does that makes this a Boeuf Pinot Noir?) because it was still left over from last night. Finally, dried herbs instead of fresh, because fresh herbs/spices are expensive and I can’t really grow a garden in my 20th floor apartment with no balcony (yes, yes, I know, the Aerogarden is amazing… but it’s expensive and I don’t really trust that it’s not just some infomercial crap). I also quickly boiled up some asparagus to round out the plate and make it look more green and less brown.

Nutritional results:
588 calories for the beef/mushrooms/onions/gravy (recipe here)
16 calories for the asparagus
110 calories for the ice cold glass of skim milk

Review: 4.5/5
Really yummy, but fairly salty (due to the beef broth). If you can find low-sodium beef broth, props to you. Otherwise, I think next time I’d use half-broth and half-water to cut down the salt some. Pretty easy though, and a nice treat to have beef without necessarily killing your diet for the day. Plus it’s nice to sound all fancy and say you cooked “boeuf bourgignon” 🙂 If you want to be decadent, use yesterday’s tip and pour yourself a glass of whatever wine you used to cook this – it will definitely bring out the flavors.