Cajun Steak Sandwiches with Sweet Potato Fries and Creamy Spinach

I've been making lots of recipes from Better Homes and Gardens lately. The reason: I recently went through the recipes accumulating in my BHG recipe folder. You see, rather than keep stacks of old magazines around to clutter the house or my cabinets, every few months I go through the magazines that are fanned out on the bottom shelf of our coffee table. I tear out the pages that interest me. Decorating ideas, party tips, gardening, and of course, recipes all find a home in labelled file folders that I keep on my cookbook shelf. Once you've gleaned the content that appeals to you, you can recycle the magazines, donate them to a school (ask a teacher if they need magazines for projects), or just throw them out. I love clutter busting! I pulled the recipe file when making my last meal plan and as a result, I've been making more recipes from the past year of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

This one caught my eye because it appeared to be quick, easy, and flavorful. It was!

You just toss sweet potato fries in the oven, then give your steak a healthy sprinkle of Cajun seasoning. Sear them on a hot skillet for 3-5 minutes on one side.



Then flip and sear on the other side until the steaks reach the desired amount of doneness.



While the steaks cook, stir together the sauce. I was a little skeptical about this sauce, but I decided to give it a try. It's just mayo, ketchup, and a little molasses.



Slap the steaks on a split, toasted, ciabatta roll. Top with the sauce and some chopped green onions. The ketchup/mayo/molasses sauce on top was surprisingly complementary. The recipe called for sliced tomato too...but the tomato I planned to use seemed a tad on the slimy side. Ewww. Even without the tomato, this was a delicious sandwich and made for a yummy dinner served with sweet potato fries and creamy spinach.



About that spinach, I had baby spinach leftover from the Spinach, Bacon, and Tomato Salsa Wraps that I needed to use. I found a recipe for creamed spinach and then opted to lighten it up by using fat free half and half rather than heavy cream. I have to admit that I was the biggest fan of this side dish. The rest of the family just tried it and went back to the steak and fries. I'll let them off the hook. I don't recall the desire to shovel down spinach when I was a young un'. More likely, I wrinkled my nose and took the required taste just as my children did. Maybe cooked spinach is an acquired taste, because these days I love the stuff. This was really good, even with the fat free half and half.

A quickie side dish, just drop fresh spinach into boiling water and cook for a minute. Then drain, squeezing excess water from the leaves. Coarsely chop.



In a skillet, melt a tablespoon of butter. Add minced garlic and saute until golden.



Stir in spinach. Add fat free half and half.



Bring to a boil and cook for a couple of minutes until the half and half is slightly thickened.



Enjoy!



Cajun Steak Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries from Better Homes and Gardens
Start to Finish: 25 minutes

Ingredients
1 20-oz. pkg. frozen french-fried sweet potatoes
2 8-oz. trimmed rib-eye steaks or boneless beef top steak, cut 1/2 inch thick
3 tsp. Cajun or blackening seasoning
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. ketchup
1 tsp. molasses
2 ciabatta rolls, split and toasted
1 tomato, sliced
Sliced green onion (optional)
Directions
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Spread sweet potatoes in 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Bake 18 to 20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cut steaks in half crosswise. Coat both sides of steaks with 1-1/2 tsp. seasoning. Heat a cast-iron or heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Cook steaks in hot skillet for 3 to 5 minutes on each side.

3. In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, ketchup, molasses and remaining seasoning.

4. Place one steak on each roll half. Top with some of the sauce tomato slice, and green onion. Serve remaining sauce with fries. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Facts
Calories 583, Total Fat (g) 29, Saturated Fat (g) 6, Monounsaturated Fat (g) 3, Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 7, Cholesterol (mg) 55, Sodium (mg) 856, Carbohydrate (g) 59, Total Sugar (g) 10, Fiber (g) 6, Protein (g) 24, Vitamin C (DV%) 24, Calcium (DV%) 10, Iron (DV%) 24, Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Low Fat Creamed Spinach

Ingredients
1 10-oz. bag spinach
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup fat free half and half
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a large pot of rapidly boiling salted water cook spinach for 1 minute. Drain well, squeezing out excess liquid. Pat dry with paper towels. Coarsely chop; set aside.

2. In a large skillet cook garlic in hot butter until golden. Stir in spinach. Add fat free half and half, salt, and pepper. Bring mixture to boiling; cook, uncovered, until cream begins to thicken. Add spinach. Simmer, uncovered, about 2 minutes or until cream is slightly thickened. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper. Makes 4 servings.

To print this recipe click here!

Steak and Potatoes

It doesn't get more basic than a meat and potatoes meal. This post is no fuss, much like the recipes that I used tonight.

Here's whatcha need for the steak: Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing, Steak Sauce, brown sugar, garlic, a sirloin or flank steak, olive oil, and an onion.



This one is so simple, there's really no need for me to document the step by step. I found this recipe in the latest edition of food & family from Kraft. I've been getting this magazine completely free for a few years, but this latest issue arrived with ATTENTION: FINAL-ISSUE ALERT stamped on the cover and subscription information and cost included inside. Bummer. Well, they've got me hooked now. I love their nothin' fancy, quick, easy, and above all family pleasin' recipes. If you're interested in a subscription you can sign up at www.kraftfoods.com/mag

Here's the recipe from Kraft Foods:

Marinated Steak with Caramelized Onions

Prep Time: 10 min Total Time: 1 hr 36 min Makes: 4 servings

What You Need:

1/4 cup KRAFT Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
3 Tbsp. A.1. Original Steak Sauce, divided
2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 boneless beef sirloin steak (1 lb.) 1 Tbsp.
olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced

Make It!
MIX dressing, 2 Tbsp. steak sauce, sugar and garlic until well blended. Pour over steak in shallow dish; turn steak to coat both sides. Refrigerate 1 hour to marinate.

HEAT oil in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add onions; cook and stir 5 min. Cover; cook on medium-low heat 15 min. or until onions are golden brown, stirring occasionally.

MEANWHILE, heat broiler. Remove steak from marinade; discard marinade. Place steak on broiler pan. Broil steak, 4 inches from heat, 8 min. on each side or until done
(160ºF). Remove from heat; cover. Let stand 5 min. before cutting across the grain into thin slices. Stir remaining steak sauce into onions. Serve with the meat.

This was good. Just a couple of notes: The recipe suggests marinating the steak for 1 hour. However, you'd be fine to marinate it overnight or all day. I put mine in the marinade this morning and broiled it for dinner, a little over 8 hours later. The flavor was good, but certainly not intense. So don't be afraid to put this in the marinade the night before you intend to eat it and return home from work the following night to grill or broil it. My other suggestion is to salt and pepper that steak before broiling. I sprinkled mine with some kosher salt and ground a little pepper over the top. It was delicious served atop the caramelized onions, swimming in steak sauce.

And what goes better with steak than potatoes? I served this with a quick version of cheesy garlic potatoes. Quick because I didn't peel or quarter a single potato to make these. Nope, I cheated and used (gasp!) potato flakes from a box. I'm not usually a fan of potato flake mashed taters, but with the addition of cream cheese, garlic, and American or cheddar cheese, these are SO good! Just prepare the potatoes according to the package directions and then stir in the other ingredients until the cheeses are melted. YUM!



The recipe for these potatoes also came from Kraft food & family. Remember the Easy Shepherd's Pie that I made last October? This is the recipe from the potatoes used to top that pie. I like to use shredded cheddar in this recipe, however, as I rummaged through my fridge tonight, I realized that I was out of luck. So, I threw in a couple of American singles instead. Still really good....

Here's the recipe:

Easy Cheesy Garlic Potatoes

1 envelope instant potatoes, prepared according to package directions or two cups of leftover mashed potatoes, heated
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed
1/2 cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced

Stir the cheeses and garlic into the hot mashed potatoes until the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

Steak: It's What's For Dinner

In the summertime, we eat a lot of steak in this household. For one thing, it's free. What!? Free steak? Yep. My grandparents raise beef cattle in their pasture. We can it, freeze it, and whenever I'm running low I bring a little cooler along on my visits to my hometown and stock up. For another thing, I LOVE steak cooked on the grill. I know that I've described my carnivorous tendencies on this blog before. Tonight's selection was a rather large T-bone steak. I like to rub it with a combination of Herb ox instant beef bouillon, seasoning salt, and Montreal Spicy steak seasoning. Tonight I went the extra mile and sauteed a skillet of onions and mushrooms in a little olive oil. I really enjoy sauteed onions and mushrooms with my steak, don't you? We enjoyed garden fresh lettuce and tomatoes and some chunks of Italian bread (leftover from the gazpacho)drizzled with a balsamic dipping oil with our steak. And that's dinner. Hope yours was delicious too!

Steak and Potatoes

It doesn't get much more basic than steak and potatoes. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I LOVE STEAK. It's a weakness. If you put a heap of delicious, juicy steak in front of me, I could eat indefinitely. The law of diminishing demand almost doesn't apply to me when it comes to steak. Heck, I'll admit it, and some of you may think less of me...I've been known to gnaw on the bone to get that last bit of steak. Classy, huh? Tonight, I was strong. I weighed a cute little 4 oz. portion and stopped there. Hey- I can't count on that anti-cellulite cream to do all of the work.

Before cooking the steak, I put the potatoes in the oven. I had planned on plain old baked potatoes wrapped in foil, but I got home late. Instead I cut up some little new potatoes, drizzled with olive oil, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little Cajun seasoning. Those went in for about 20 minutes and I turned my attention to the steak.


I thawed a couple of T-bone steaks from my freezer.


Seasoning is nothing fancy. First I lightly sprinkle both sides with some beef bouillon powder. Then I follow with a sprinkle of seasoning salt and spicy Montreal steak seasoning. I rub the seasoning in and let it sit while the grill heats up. That's right, I said grill. The high temp today was 57 degrees and it didn't rain. Hooray! This posts documents the maiden voyage of our grill in the 2009 grilling season! It's been too long, baby.


Here's my own personal grill master. He walked through the door after work and I handed him a plate of steaks. My husband's culinary repertoire has grown to 5 specialties: mac n cheese with sliced hotdogs, Hobo dinners (hamburger, potatoes, onions, carrots, seasoning salt and barbecue sauce all wrapped in foil and cooked over a fire)that he learned how to make in Boy Scouts, the perfect egg sandwich, sausage gravy and biscuits, and anything that you can grill. Hey, at least he wouldn't starve if my plane went down.



He seared these steaks over high heat for a minute or two on each side and then turned down the flame and cooked them for 4-5 minutes per side. This left them a perfect, pink-and-juicy medium. We've finally compromised. When we were first married, he preferred his "good and done". This conjures up images in my head of cardboard or shoe leather. Hey, it's his "ruined" steak, but the fact that he could eat his steak in such an unappetizing state really got my goat. I prefer mine medium rare...just the other side of rare. Hey, if I'm eating red meat, I like it red. I am such a carnivore. I remember once when I was a kid asking my dad to dump some more of that "sauce" from the platter onto my steak. "Um, Krista..." he pointed out "that's not sauce. It's blood." It didn't deter me. Anyway, a nice pink and juicy medium is where we're both happy. Besides, I can't serve my kids raw meat. That'd just be crazy. : )



Here's dinner tonight. Steak, potatoes, and some delicious, buttery Green Giant Brussels sprouts straight from the microwave.