You can Eat your steak and enjoy it too for less calories!

 












James and I went to the 22nd Annual Magnolia Blossom Festival and 21st Annual World Championship Steak Cook-Off this Saturday. It was a lot of fun. They close off the whole down town of Magnolia, Arkansas and there are teams set up with every kind of grill you can imagine. They are all around the square and lined on both sides of the streets.



You get in line at one of the four corners of the square about 5pm and believe me, you better be in one of those four lines early.

We  meet some interesting people in our line and was entertained by this one little girl who was really sweet. It was hot and with the threat of rain we stayed in our chosen line until 6pm. You don't dare get out of line because it wrapped around the block.  The object is for the teams to cook and serve 6000 steaks in only one hour. When the line finally gets moving, you carry your cardboard tray where you are given a plate, roll, and serving bag which included a napkin, a real steak knife, fork, one tap butter , a Twinkie, and a dinner mint. 
Of course James and I do not eat  this much food any more, nor all those calories in one meal. We cut out that center right under where the knife in the photois and which would sit in the cupped palm of my hand. That would be a weight of about 4 ounces. The baked potato was a small with that one tablespoon of Shedds spread butter. The roll was homemade and a medium roll. The tea was unsweet. Total calories we would have eaten in the past for this meal would have been 1343 calories. That is horrible for such a great meal!  Our total calories were 601 and we got to enjoy a great steak, potato, homemade roll, and tea……..are you kidding? You ask about that Twinkie? There are so many better things I can eat that are better for me and I can enjoy just as much! Right, my NM friends reading this? ok, back to the cook-off….
You then grab an unsweet tea and race off to the line of the team you are supporting. Champion Technologies was our booth of choice and wow, what great steaks they cooked. They rated right up there with Moon’s Steaks!
A special Thank you to Berry S. and Terry M. and Congrats on your winning three different categories!!!!