Table Talk: Stir-Fried Beef & Broccoli

Welcome to week two of Table Talk.  This week we did a beef dish.  I made a mistake with this recipe and didn't realize it until I pulled out the recipe to type the correct name for the recipe.  When I got to broccoli I realized I forgot the Classic Brown Stir-fry sauce.  Opps!  It was still really tasty, after I put some salt on it.  :-)

The recipe calls for the beef to be marinated in low-sodium soy sauce and Chinese rice cooking wine.  I didn't have Chinese rice cooking wine and I've never had occasion to use it and have never read a recipe that does use it.  So I decided I wasn't going to buy it for the 2 tsps in the marinade (there's some in the the stir-fry sauce too but only a quarter of a cup).  Instead I used white wine vinegar.  I know vinegar is just wine that has "turned" so I figured it was close enough.  :-) 

While the meat marinated I got started on prepping the vegetables.  I couldn't find any scallions in the tiny little grocery store I go to between monthly trips to Lancaster so I used an onion.  I also don't like ginger so I decided to leave that out. 

The first step was to mix the scallions (onion), garlic and ginger (if I'd been using it) with 1 tsp of oil.  I set that aside, cut up the brocolli and the red peppers. 

Once the veggies were prepped I cooked the meat. 

Next I dumped the broccoli in with a little water found a lid (it was too small but I picked a pan I don't have a lid for!) and let the broccoli steam for a couple of minutes. 

Once the broccoli was done I let the the water evaporate and then put in the red peppers and cooked those for a couple of minutes. 

Then the onion mixture went in.  At this point I realized I should have picked a bigger pan!

I managed to get all the veggies mixed together with only a little mess.  I let it cook until the onions were soft. 

Finally the beef went back in the pan.  At this point I was also supposed to add the classic brown stir-fry sauce but I totally missed that!

After one bite I thought, "this is really bland"  I got up salted the whole dish and it was very tasty at that point!  I didn't miss the sauce at all. 

I really liked the ratio of veggies to meat in this dish.  At only 290 calories per serving (if made according to the recipe) it's very low calorie for a main dish.  Check out Amanda's blog for the full recipe.  The calorie details below are for how I made it.