Leftovers Redone: Steak and Cheese, Please!

A Philly cheesesteak isn’t something to mess with, so we didn’t. Instead, we created our own variety of steak sandwich, topped off with a mound of fresh grilled vegetables and a simple chipotle mayo for a bit of kick. It is the combination we keep coming back to. The vegetables balance the steak and cheese and serve to lighten things up a bit. I even topped mine with some iceberg we had sitting around taking up space to give a little crunch.

For these we’re using leftover bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin steaks. We have actually started grilling more of these than we eat so that we have enough to make this meal and Ole has one or two to bring to work for lunch, but we also use leftover chunks of steak from other meals. If we don’t have enough steak to feed the whole family, we’ll pair these with other leftover items from the week on a Saturday evening or add leftover chicken to the vegetable mix. If we’re really short on things, we may even feed the kids grilled ham and cheese.


Mushrooms are one of those like it or don’t types of ingredients. Just ignore them if you’re not a fan. These got a few extra onions added that we had sitting in the fridge from a few nights earlier.


The bacon on the tenderloin will grease the griddle to prevent anything from sticking, and because we cook our steaks to a medium they can withstand another heating without becoming tough like a piece of Bubbalicious you’ve had in your cheek all afternoon while you rode your three-wheeler up and down the block, your Star Wars’ ewok strapped to the back.


Give your buns a bit of butter so they brown while they’re toasting. These are ciabatta rolls from Costco again. The first time I attempted this post I had some lovely bollilo rolls, but then I somehow managed to come out of that sans photos of final product.


And then stick them right on that same griddle.


This is sliced havarti cheese from the deli section at Super Target. I don’t usually buy deli cheese because it’s overpriced (in my opinion), but THIS cheese happened to come free with my dry salame and turkey breast lunch meat purchase. Hello, pre-sliced cheese. Welcome to my home.


Then there’s the mayo matter. This gives the sandwich a bit of zip that it is otherwise lacking. You could use regular Tabasco sauce for a less “roasted pepper” taste, if you preferred. We happen to have Chipotle Tabasco because we marinate the burrito meat in it.


This is sort of the color my kitchen walls were when we bought the house.


Assemble.





And eat.