Cooking For A Better Tomorrow: Balsamic Steak and Spinach Salad Sandwich

Beef it's what's for dinner. At least tonight. Is this a motto in your house? I try not to eat a ton of meat and not always make meat the star ingredient of the meal - meaning a slab of meat with a side of potato and a veggie. I know that is the American way, but as a country, we eat way too much meat. One source, states “meat consumption in the U.S. is 270.7 pounds per person a year...eating more meat per person here than in almost any other country on the planet.” We were at a friend’s house last weekend and one of the guys had just gone to a steakhouse for his anniversary and ate a twenty two ounce steak. I can’t even comprehend what that would look like. That is out of control, but many people do that. We do eat meat at our house (and thoroughly enjoy it when we do), just try not to eat it all the time. When I plan my meals for the week, I try to do a different type of food each night and vegetarian is almost always one. There is even a nation wide movement of people going meatless on mondays. Consider giving it a try! Enough about why we don't eat a ton of meat, because today we are!!

So, while we do eat meat, I don’t love to cook meat. I wish my husband was Bobby Flay’s brother, but he isn’t, so I am usually cooking the meat as well. We do occasionally get out the outside grill, but not as often as I would like. That leaves me in the kitchen with a grill pan and I am not really confident with meat cooking. I am trying to stop being the person that cuts through all the meat to check if its done. Practice makes perfect right?

You may have heard me talk about how Zach and I buy our beef from a friend’s family farm. We started this awhile ago and bought a huge deep freeze, which is now housed in an unfinished part of our basement. We love always having it on hand and of course supporting a local farm and well raised/fed cows. I don’t think I realized though the ratio of ground beef to steaks and roasts. You get way more ground beef or at least we did. We don’t mind this because we eat Mexican like crazy, but still wish we could get more steaks.

So today, since my husband loves sandwiches I thought a steak sandwich sounded pretty good, using up the last of our steak from our freezer. You could make a pretty simple steak sandwich with your favorite steak sauce (which I have done), but today we are restaurant styling it up. Give my Balsamic Steak and Spinach Salad Sandwich a try for an easy, but delicious weeknight dinner! I was so anxious to try mine, I accidently ate mine before my husband got home from work. He had to eat his by himself..opps!

Balsamic Steak and Spinach Salad Sandwich
Serves 2

Ingredients:
Sirloin steak, ½ lb
Bread, your choice (we just did two whole wheat hoagie type buns)

Marinade:
Balsamic vinegar ⅓ c
Soy sauce, 2 T
Dried thyme, ½ tsp
Garlic, 1 clove

Spinach Salad:
Cherry tomatoes, ½ c diced
Red onion, ¼ c sliced
Spinach, ¾ c
Balsamic vinegar, 1 T

Herb Mayo:
Mayonnaise, ⅛ c
Basil, 1 T

Mix marinade ingredients and pour over steak. Let marinade a minimum of 30 minutes, flipping half way.

Remove stems from spinach leaves and chiffonade. If you forgot how, check out here.

Slice red onion and chop up tomatoes. Mix all veggies with balsamic vinegar and set aside.

Mix mayonnaise and chiffonade pieces of basil.

Cook steak to your desired level of doneness, making sure you flip halfway through. Remove from heat and let rest for at least 5 minutes.

Better Bonus Tip: There are a lot of varied opinions on what temperature equals what level of doneness. Timing is difficult due to the varied thickness of the meat, so I am trying to use a meat thermometer as much as I can. This is what temperatures I took away from my references: