This Week in Dinner...

Due to my complete inability to say no, I said yes on Monday to a colleague who needed a chaperone. He had an outside choreographer coming in to help with this year's musical, and he had a meeting he had to go to before the session was over. He needed an employee present so she was just a "visitor" instead of a "chaperone." The paperwork is different. We'll set aside that I think he found this woman at the Joseph Stalin School of Dance, and fast forward to dinner, which I picked up from Mr. Goodcents on the way home from school at nearly 7:30.

On Tuesday, Brad and I went to our awesome new gym and worked out. I introduced him to the joy and wonderment of the Ancient Roman Torture Machine, my affectionate name for the Precor Elliptical.

I had an eye of round steak that I got out of the freezer. I was going to use it to make pot roast, but I was out of dry onion soup mix. Instead, I used it to make some very delicious stir fry.

Beef Stir Fry
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup plum sauce
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 pound boneless beef sirloin steak, cut into thin 2-inch strips
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
1 cup snow peas, edges trimmed
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup bean sprouts
5 green onions, chopped
1 small onion, sliced
3 cloves chopped garlic

Hot cooked rice


In a small bowl, whisk cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Stir in the plum sauce, ginger, soy sauce and pepper flakes; set aside.

In a large skillet or wok, stir-fry beef in oil until no longer pink; remove and keep warm.
In the same pan, stir-fry the mushrooms, carrots, onions and garlic until tender. Add the snow peas. Return beef to the pan.

Whisk the plum sauce mixture; stir into skillet. Cook and stir until slightly thickened. Stir in peanuts. Serve over rice.