Easy Beef with Broccoli

So if you know anything about me, you know that I look forward to each meal as if it were my last. At night, I’m dreaming about what I’m going to have for breakfast; after breakfast, I immediately start thinking about lunch; after lunch, I’m daydreaming about dinner; and after dinner I’m contemplating dessert, and then the cycle starts all over again.

At restaurants, I agonize over what to order, sometimes sending the server back two or three times before I can make up my mind, and if what appears on my plate is anything less than perfect, I’m seriously disappointed. It’s a total downfall of mine, but I can’t help it.

Over the last month, I’ve had a serious craving for Chinese takeout. I kept finding reasons not to order it, but after Kevin and I decided to stay in last Friday and watch a movie, the perfect opportunity arose for it. I perused the menu for the better part of a half hour, we called our order in, drove the 15 minutes and back while I anxiously tried to control my excitement and stop myself from breaking out the chopstick mid-car ride. We turned our movie on, turned off the lights and settled in for the perfect meal… Except it wasn’t perfect – it was borderline awful. I swear to you, never have I been so disappointed in a meal. I begrudgingly ate the food anyways, because there was no way I was just going to waster $30 worth of food, but I thought to myself in that moment that I could not only do it better, but I could probably do it cheaper and less fattening.

This beef with broccoli hits all those notes. Not only is it super quick to throw together, but it’s seriously inexpensive compared to its takeout out counterpart. Bonus? It’s pretty healthy too.

Lean sirloin is crisped up in a screaming hot pan, tossed with freshly steamed broccoli and a super quick sauce made up of soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, rice vinegar and ginger. A little bit of chicken stock and corn starch is thrown in to thicken up the sauce and then a handful of green onions are thrown on for garnish. The whole meal comes together in under 30 minutes, way less time than it took us to go grab take out in the week prior.

Head on over to Laura’s Lean Beef to get the full post and recipe!