Sunday: Beef & Broccoli in Black Bean Sauce

Black bean sauce is one of those ugly duckling ingredients; it looks (and smells) no bueno, but smear it all over some meat and stir fry it? Gor-geous. Maybe it's the whole fermented thing that turns people off, no matter, give it a try! Smear your meat with it! You will not be disappointed.

You will need:

8 oz flank steak
1 tsp sesame oil
8 oz broccoli, cut into florets
3 Tbsp water
1 small onion
1/4 green / orange / red pepper

For the marinade:

2 Tbsp black bean sauce (can be found in the Asian section of most grocery stores)
2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp brown sugar
1 garlic clove, sliced thinly
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced

For your prep, first slice your steak across the grain. Flank steak is awesome when you cut it that way and not so great when you don't. Like one long string for your teeth. I find the easiest way is to cut it into 4 pieces first.

This is a big hunk of meat

In half...

Flank steak trims so easily

Slice as thinly as possible

Place all your marinade ingredients in a shallow non-metal dish, add the sliced steak, stir, cover and keep in the fridge for up to 6 hours.

Onto the rest of the prep! Floret-tize your broccoli, slice your onions, peppers, whatever ya got. When you are good and ready to go, drain the steak and reserve the marinade. Heat the second teaspoon of sesame oil in a non-stick frying pan and cook the steak for 3 minutes-ish and then remove to a plate.

Add the broccoli to the pan with 1/4 c water, cover and let steam for 5 minutes. Add in the onion and peppers, cook for a couple of minutes until the onions seem soft-ish.

Return the steak and the marinade back to the pan, stir and cook until everything is heated through.

I separated this into 3 portions (because my husband stole all the meat) at 223 calories per serving.

 Enjoy!

 

Friday: Orange Beef with Noodles

I may have fibbed a little to my husband and told him this is almost exactly like ginger beef (it's totally not) but it is a nice asian-ish meal. I've read other versions of this that require tangerine peels and being as I have a hard time getting anything more exotic than your basic navel orange, I am going to go in that direction. Should you have access to tangerine peels, have at 'er!

You will need:

1 lb lean beef ( I like to use flank steak as it is very lean and cuts perfectly for strips. It is crazy expensive these days, so get it on sale and freeze it if you can)

Zest and the juice of one orange

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp cornstarch

1 inch piece ginger

1 large carrot, cut into 2 inch strips

2 green onions

First, start your marinade. Cut your beef into strips across the grain:

I find it easier if I cut it in half first

Then cut each piece cross ways

Place the beef in a bowl and sprinkle with the orange juice and zest. Marinate for at least 30 minutes. 

While you are waiting, prep your veggies. You will want to cut your carrots julienne, which just means in little matchstick shapes. 

First cut into two-inch chunks

Then each piece into slices, then each slice into littler shapes until they look like this. Ish.

They don't have to be perfect, the most important thing about cutting things julienne is that you want all the pieces to be relatively the same size. Then they will cook evenly! In theory.

Do 'em all!

Chop your ginger finely and your green onions thinly. Back to the beef!

Drain the meat, reserve the liquid, then mix in the soy sauce, cornstarch and ginger. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan and stir-fry the beef for one minute. 

Add the carrot and cook for another couple of minutes.

Stir in the reserved marinade and green onions and cook, stirring until boiling and a bit thickened. 

This would be a good time to add in a little extra orange juice, if you have some and you like your  dishes a little saucier

Serve over egg noodles or brown rice. I have been a-ricing it up all week, so I am going with noodles. I portioned this into 3 servings and came up with 277 calories per. I really meant to do it in 4 servings but I got ahead of myself. I added noodles and salad and steamed veggies and called it a meal. Done!

Enjoy!