Sunday Dinner: Multi Use Steak

Fall is prime comfort food time. Everything warm and gooey is good to eat when the weather gets chilly.

Last week I made steak. It's so easy to cook things exactly the same way, but a tiny bit of effort will usually get you something you want to eat again and again that's also different enough to keep you interested.

My easy-way steak includes a simple salt and peppering, maybe some onions and a good stint in the oven. But, I found an easy recipe in Real Simple that I was able to turn into something that I think was even better.

Multi Use Steak

1 steak
pineapple juice
low sodium soy sauce
salt & pepper
1 medium onion, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 pound or more baby carrots, halved lengthwise
about a 1/4 cup butter or margarine
about a 1/4 cup whole wheat or regular flour
rice or pasta

Salt and pepper your steak and marinate it in equal parts soy sauce and pineapple juice, enough to at least cover the sides of the steak. Marinate for at least two hours, turning over half way through.

Bake, with juices, covered with foil on 350 degrees until done. For my medium sized steak it took 40 minutes.

Drain juices into sauce pan, add butter and heat on medium until melted. Stir in flour until you get a thick gravy. Cover and take off heat.

This can be eaten by itself with mashed potatoes, but you can get more creative. I sliced onion and green pepper and sauteed them with a bit of cooking spray until they began to caramalize. While that was cooking I roasted some baby carrots with olive oil, salt and pepper. Slice the steak thinly, add it to the skillet and you can pour this, with the gravy and carrots over cooked rice or pasta.

Or, (and this is how my husband ate it) you can add cheese sauce to the pepper/onion/steak mixture, put it on some hearty bread and have cheese steak sandwiches.

See? One steak easily gives us three different meal options. Not bad, huh?

What foods do you cook and reuse in different ways for multiple meals?