Peach & Pepperoncini Steak Salad

& my secret AI-hating folder

Hi! Welcome to “good mood food” from Kale Me Maybe’s Carina Wolff. If you’ve made it here and aren’t yet a subscriber, come join! You can expect recipes, musings, and faves in your inbox every week! Paid subscribers get even more on Saturdays — right now I’m doing a 30-minute budget meal series! Learn more about the paid tier of my newsletter here. You can also try a week for free!

CATCH UP!

Good Afternoon and Happy Thursday! I am truly flabbergasted that it is about to be June and summer is around the corner. It can’t be true! It was just summer! I had my baby yesterday! I am excited (it’s my favorite season) but startled at the quick passage of time.

I was sick last week, so I didn’t have a chance to film any more “Meal Prep for Food Snobs” content, but it’s my goal to get one out for you next week!

I decided this is the week I’m going to let you in on the little folder I keep on my phone called “AI Sux.” Now, before you jump down my throat, I know AI is here to stay and certainly has its benefits. I’m not against all AI, but I have deep concerns about much of it. I am probably more anti-AI than most people I know, and it’s not because I’m a luddite but because I’m worried about its potential for existential and societal harm if it remains unchecked and unregulated. I think people use it too flippantly and too recklessly. I think tech companies don’t care about safety or wellbeing and release things too early. I could go on about this all day, but instead, I’ll share a few pieces of content this week that have stuck with me that I’ve saved to my “AI Sux” folder.

• 1.2 million children had their photos turned into sexual deepfakes last year, according to a study done across 11 countries (that’s 1 in 25 children). Where did these photos come from? Their parents’ social media accounts. AI needs as little as 20 photos to generate deepfake content which then gets circulated on forums used by predators.

• Shuttered startups are selling old Slack chats to train AI. This one is pretty self-explanatory—it raises major, major privacy concerns.

• Utah residents are protesting a massive AI data center project that could take up around 40,000 acres of land. Residents are concerned about the environmental effect, including how much energy and water it would use.

THINGS I’M LOVING

My friend Ileana is a stylist, and she came over last month to help me clean out my closet and refine my personal style. It felt amazing to get rid of what was no longer serving me, and she is helping me redefine how I dress in this new era of motherhood and my career. She made me this incredible PDF that she calls the “Expansion Edit” which included better-suited swaps for the pieces I got rid of and a styling section that shows how I can pair old and new pieces together. Our focus is on prioritizing women-led brands, independent designers, and secondhand sourcing, which I love!

If you live somewhere where it’s not so easy to get your hands on some really good, true sourdough, I can definitely recommend Bittman’s. The bread arrives frozen, and you just stick it in the oven to finish baking it. I am so impressed with how well the bread bakes and how tasty it is! I had the focaccia this week toasted with some whipped bone marrow, and it was divine.

White is my favorite color to wear, but I’m also a notoriously messy eater (and cook), and throw a child in the mix, and my stains are getting worse than ever. I’ve been whipping out my Branch Basics Oxygen Booster like there is no tomorrow. I pre-soak my light-colored clothes before throwing them in the wash, and it’s amazing how much comes out. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten out matcha stains using this stuff!

DISCOUNT CODES

Supplements

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• Use my link to get 30% off your first order and a free gift from Thrive Market

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RECIPE!

In the past year, I’ve started enjoying steak, and it’s because I shirked the idea of a fat buttery slab in favor of steak dishes that focus on vegetables and herbs. Not that there is anything wrong with a big buttery steak—it’s just not my preferred preparation. I’ve discovered that I enjoy thinner cuts of meat like flank steak, skirt steak, and hanger steak, especially when they go into a salad or bowl.

This is a riff on a viral steak salad that’s going around that’s filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, and lots of cilantro. I’m not sure where it originated, but I discovered it from @itsisabelmarie.

I added some peaches, pepperoncini, basil, and cotija cheese and whipped up a simple hot honey lemon dressing. This salad just screams summer, and you could make plenty of easy swaps to make it again and again. You can use any stone fruit or even mango in place of the peaches, and feta would work really well if you don’t have cotija (but if you buy some, make last week’s corn and bean salad with it too). I used skirt steak, but you can pick your favorite cut to use! I like steak, but I am no connoisseur.

Peach & Peperoncini Steak Salad

Ingredients (serves 2 as an entree, 4 as an appetizer)

Steak

• 1 lb skirt steak

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

• 2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

• 2 cloves minced garlic

• Salt & pepper

Salad

• 1 1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes

• 2 yellow peaches, diced

• 1 avocado, diced

• 1/2 English cucumber, chopped

• 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion

• 1/4 cup sliced pepperoncini

• 1/2 cup crumbled cotija

• 1/2 cup minced cilantro

• 2 tbsp minced basil

Dressing

• 1 tbsp hot honey

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

• 1 garlic clove, grated

• Pinch of salt & pepper

1. In a small bowl, combine your steak, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and a few good pinches of salt and pepper. Let marinate for 30 minutes while you chop up your ingredients.

2. Heat up a large cast-iron skillet on medium-high heat. Let it get really hot for a few minutes, and then add the steak. Cook for 2-4 minutes on each side, depending on how thick your steak is. Mine was on the thinner side, so I did 2 minutes, but if it’s more than an inch thick, opt for closer to 4 minutes. Remove from skillet transfer to a plate or cutting board. Cover with foil for 10 minutes before cutting into cubes.

3. Prepare your dressing by whisking together ingredients in a small bowl or jar.

4. In a large bowl, add the steak, tomatoes, peaches, avocado, cucumber, red onion, steak, pepperoncini, cotija, cilantro, and basil. Add the dressing and toss together. Serve immediately or chill in the fridge!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!

There have been two 30-minute budget meals that have gone out since this week’s newsletter! The first is a sheet-pan veggie gnocchi with feta and arugula, and the second is a black bean corn, and mango scoopable salad.