Steak Omelette, Italian Beef, and Sesame Ginger Squid

This weekend was chock full of Christmas parties.  Friday was the ADNET company party, which was a great success and due to the extremely large portions served by Oliverio's, I was able to re-purpose my leftover steak for a breakfast Steak Omelette, which Matt and I shared on Saturday morning.  Saturday we traveled to Parsons for a family Christmas party - a lovely time.  Sunday was our chore/wrapping/cooking day and I managed to get just about all of the wrapping 'wrapped' up.  YAY!

Steak Omelette

4 oz. Steak, sliced thin
1 Red or Green Bell Pepper (approximately 1/2 cup)
1/2 Onion (approximately 1/3 cup)
1 Jalapeno
1 Mushroom
1/4 cup Cheese (your choice)
1 1/4 cup Egg Whites or 5 Eggs, beaten

Saute onion, peppers, mushrooms, and a little garlic powder.  Add steak to warm through after veggies are soft.  In another skillet begin cooking eggs, season with salt, pepper, garlic powder.  When eggs are set, add steak and veggies, top with cheese. Note: I would have added blue cheese if we had it, because steak and blue cheese is the BEST!

Happy Saturday Breakfast!!

Italian Beef

Note: Picture is steamy because it was reallly hot.  See how the garlic popped out!!

1 Beef Roast (I think we used a round roast - I'm not sure as I have yet to master the intricacies of cuts of beef)
1 packet of Italian Dressing Seasoning
1 cup of Brown Vinegar
2 -3 cups of Beef Broth (or bouillon) - enough to cover the roast 1/5 of the way up
Oregano, Thyme, Basil, Red Pepper
1 Bay Leaf
Garlic Cloves
Garlic Powder
Pepper

In a crockpot, mix beef broth, vinegar, 3/4 italian dressing, 1/2 teaspoon each of oregano, thyme, basil, pepper, red pepper, 2 tbsp of garlic powder, and 1 bay leaf.  Cut small slits in the roast and stuff with garlic cloves.  Place roast in crock, season with remaining italian dressing, 1/2 teaspoon each of oregano, thyme, basil, pepper, 1 tbsp garlic powder. Cook on high for 2 hours or low for 4 or a mix of high for 1 hour and low for 2 (my preference).  I like to cook most dishes in the crockpot on high first because it gets it heated up and going and then on low for the remainder so that it becomes extra tender. 

Italian beef is the start to what should end up being a sandwich, though that isn't how we ate it this night.  The remainder of the recipe is as follows:

Bread
Provolone Cheese
1 cup hot giardiniera
2 Green Bell peppers
1 Red Onion

Toast bread, saute onions and peppers with a dash of salt and pepper.  Chop giardiniera mix up fine.  Layer bread, cheese, steak, peppers/onion, giardiniera, and top sandwich with juice from the crockpot.  For the bread, I suggest a very thick hoagie bun or some type of substantial bread, since you'll be putting juice over it.  Delicious sandwich!!  We will be making this without the bread for leftovers. 

Sesame Ginger Squid 

This is a picture of everything we had for dinner, but the only picture that I took of the squid. Canadian chicken on left, beef in the middle, cracked pepper chicken on right, and squid at the top.

Due to the fact that squid is relatively hard to find, and even harder to find in rings and cleaned, we have probably 13 or more bags in our freezer because Matt's theory is that if we keep buying it, they'll keep stocking it.  Of course, it is no longer necessary for them to stock it because we have enough squid to last us until next year at this time.  I foresee a lot of squid and spaghetti squash in our future - I will need to create a recipe that combines the two!

1 package of cleaned Squid Rings (currently available at Walmart for $5/bag) 
3 tbsp Powdered Ginger
4 tbsp Sesame Seeds
1 tsp. Salt

I used a prepared Sesame Ginger seasoning - but you can easily make your own. I supplement the mix with additional powdered ginger and sesame seeds.  Thaw, rinse, drain, pat dry squid rings. Spray your foil lined cookie sheet with non-stick spray, set oven to 475-500 (I usually would do 500, but I also had chicken cooking at the time).  Place all ingredients in a bowl and toss to coat.  Put squid on cookie sheet and you can sprinkle additional ingredients on the squid if you want them more coated.  Don't burn your sesame seeds!  We dipped these in a prepared Sweet Thai Chili Sauce - yum! 

I also made two different kinds of chicken, Canadian Chicken and Black Cracked Pepper marinated Chicken - both prepared seasonings/sauces. 

Not everyone is a fan of squid - but do you like Fried Calamari?? The above recipe isn't a far stretch from the fried version - if you're kind of iffy, you can always try coating the calamari/squid in bread crumbs and baking - this is DELICIOUS!  And then get more adventurous the next time.  Just keep tasting!!