Mid-week Recipe

We aren't going to wait for the weekend for this one. We made a stir-fry for today's lunch (and 2 more meals each) and it was awesome.

As usual, we started with a recipe but modified it as we went to fit our tastes and what we had on hand in the kitchen. But now we need to write everything down before we forget what we changed.

Makes six servings @ 328 calories each.

• ¾ lbs chuck roast, cubed (approx ¾" cubes) (480 cal)
  
• 1 Med yellow onion, chopped (50 cal)
• 1 Tbs minced garlic (1 cal)
  
• 6 oz pkg frozen snow peas (70 cal)
  
• 1½ C cauliflower, broken into florets (25 cal)
  
• 1 C carrots, chopped or sliced (52 cal)
  
• ¼ C soy sauce (80 cal)
  
• 1 tsp ginger powder (0 cal)
  
• 1½ Tbs corn starch (45 cal)
  
• 1½ C beef broth (22 cal)
  
• 8 oz can water sliced water chestnuts (50 cal)
• 1 Tbs olive oil (119 cal)
  
• 4½ C cooked rice (approx 1½ C pre-cooked) (972 cal)
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 Tbs brown sugar

That is a grand total of 1965 calories. When portioned out, we ended up with six servings for a total of 328 calories per serving. Not bad for a full lunch with a decent amount of vegetables and way more nutrients than the kind of thing we would have made before. Plus we have two lunches each left for work days.

The only thing I did was cut up stuff. After all, that is the most manly part of food preparation. ;-)

Cube the beef roast while trimming out the bigger bits of fat. You can use beef that is pre-cut for soups, stews, stir-fry, etc. but we usually aren't very happy with the size of the bits. Plus it costs quite a bit more per pound than a big chunk of roast. Then chop the onion and the cauliflower (actually for the cauliflower it is more breaking than cutting I guess.) Carrie did the rest so here's her instructions:

Starting with a 12" cast iron pan on med/high heat (I love my cast iron pan!) Add the olive oil, beef, minced garlic, and onion. Fry on med/high heat until beef is cooked through.

There should be some bits of yummy goodness stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add about 1/2 cup beef broth to that and scrape all it off the bottom and into the broth. You want all that flavor to end up in your mouth, not the sink/dishwasher.

Add the raw veggies to the pan along with the soy sauce and ground ginger. Cover and let sit for about 7 min or until the vegetables start to become tender. I used some carrots we canned this fall so those just needed to be reheated. I left them out until the other vegetables were done. Add water chestnuts, stir and cook another 5 min.

Stir every now and then until everything is nearly done and as tender as you want. Take a cup and mix the rest of the beef broth and the corn starch together. Pour that in the pan and stir well. The the mixture will start to thicken almost immediately. Remove from heat.

Scoup ¾ cup of the stir-fry over ¾ cup white or brown rice and enjoy :D