Rouladen, Mashed Cauliflower and Brussel Sprouts

I've been eating Rouladen as long as I can remember. My Oma makes it and so does my mom. They both make it a little different from each other, and I make it even different from that. However, the end result is always delicious!
Start with some thin sliced top or bottom round. Usually if you tell a butcher that you are making rouladen, they will know how to cut it. I tell them it is about as long as a slice of bacon, as wide as a small pickle and almost as thin as they can slice it without shaving it.
Lay the slices out on a cutting board (or a clean countertop), spread some yellow mustard on each slice, sprinkle them with pepper, lay down a slice of bacon (I bought reduced fat and sodium--I know this is exactly healthy!), then put some diced onion and a dill pickle spear (or some diced pickle)at the end. Roll them up starting with the end with the onion and pickle. Poke each one with a toothpick to hold it together. Then brown them on a hot skillet. The next thing I do is mix together one packet of Onion Soup mix with about a cup and a half of water. I put this is a small baking dish and add the browned meat to it. Cover it with foil and bake for about an hour in 375 degree oven.

I also made some mashed cauliflower as the alternative to mashed potatoes. Oma almost always serves her rouladen with mashed potatoes and gravy...yum! This time I didn't put any potatoes in the mashed cauliflower. I just cut up the head, put it in boiling water and boiled the hell out of it until it was tender. Then I drained most of the water, mashed it with a potato masher, stirred in some chopped parsley, Mrs. Dash table blend, pepper and a little plain Greek yogurt.

Last but not least, I steamed some frozen brussel sprouts. These aren't my favorite, but I do like them once in a while as long as they have lots of pepper on them!
My food choices this weekend weren't great but they weren't horrible either. It was hard, but I resisted the burgers and steaks at the brewery and at the Chena Hot Springs restaurants. I had a jalapeno chicken salad (and didn't eat the taco shell) from the brewery and a spinach chicken salad that had walnuts, tomato, red onion, mandarin oranges and Gorgonzola cheese from the hot springs. We're pretty darn tired after our trip, but we had a great time. I'll leave you with a pic of me in the ice phone booth at the Ice Festival....there sure were some amazing ice carvings there!