No-cook leftover make-over, and purple cauliflower

It is 86F and HUMID.  I try very hard to avoid creating extra heat in the house when the weather gets like this (so for 3 solid months, I try not to turn on the oven).  So for dinner we had no-cook steak salad, electric kettle-blanched cauliflower and microwaved rice. 

If a salad has chunks of steak in it, it's a manly salad, right?  Leave out the lettuce and only use toothsome veggies, and it's really manly (as well as being as perfect vehicle for no-cook cookery).  Since there's no lettuce to wilt, this salad can be prepared and even dressed well in advance.

Blanching the cauliflower using water boiled in an electric kettle saves energy, heat and anti-oxidants...colored cauliflower (orange, green or purple) should be cooked very lightly, if at all, to preserve the color and nutrients that the unusual color brings to the party.

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Marinated London Broil and Carrots with dill butter

I hate the lack of standardized nomenclature for cuts of meat at the grocery store/butcher/farm processor.  Makes me crazy.  A "London broil" cut is basically a thick top round steak, but might be labeled "top round roast", "london broil", "round steak", "top round"...you'll know it when you see it though...about 1 1/4" thick and kind of rectangular.  This is adapted from the South Beach Diet cookbook.  The nutritional info is skewed a little high for calories, sodium content and carbs because the SparkRecipes website doesn't allow you to discount nutritional content from a marinade which doesn't get completely consumed as part of the final dish (or if it does, I don't know how to make it work).

I like this carrot dish (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens) since it jazzes up cooked carrots and can be frozen as a kit...no need for last-minute shopping to insure there's a vegetable side dish to go with your roast.  You can make this with fresh carrots, but if you plan to make a freezer kit, you'll still have to blanch the carrots to keep weird enzyme things from happening in the freezer.

Also, I don't know if I've ever mentioned that when I use butter, I use unsalted butter.  Makes a difference regarding sodium content and how strongly the dish tastes of salt if you add more.
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