A Return to the New

It's been quite some time since I lasted posted a recipe. I hadn't realized just how long until I went to start this post and the blogger dashboard told me that my last post was in February! Wow. I don't want to leave you with the idea that I haven't cooked in 4 months because I have. It's just that my pregnant body wasn't liking any kind of food for quite a while during that and then I just wasn't feeling up to trying something new. It sounded too hard. After a while it was easy to just continue going back to my old standards but really...how fun is that? It's time to break out of my mold (and once again remember to document my efforts).

Orange-Beef Stir Fry
from Better Homes and Gardens

12 oz beef top round steak
1 tsp finely shredded orange peel
1/2 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp instant beef bouillon granules
1 Tbsp cooking oil
4 green onions, bias-sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
6 cups coarsely shredded fresh spinach
1 can (8 oz) sliced water chestnuts, drained
2 cups hot cooked rice

1. Trim fat from beef. Partially freeze beef. Thinly slice across the grain into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
2. For sauce, in a small bowl stir together orange peel, orange juice, cornstarch, soy sauce, sugar, and bouillon granules. Set aside.
3. Preheat cooking oil in a wok or large skillet on medium-high heat. Stir-fry green onions and garlic in hot oil for 1 minute. Remove green onion mixture from wok.
4. Add beef to wok. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or until cooked through. Push beef from center of wok.
5. Stir sauce and add to center of the wok. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add spinach and water chestnuts. Stir all ingredients together to coat with sauce. Cover and cook for 1 minute more or until heated through. Serve immediately over hot cooked rice.

Serves 4.

The ingredients (minus the orange juice).

The beef. I know that I definitely used more than the 12 oz of beef that was called for in the recipe. I couldn't think of a good side to go with this (that I wouldn't have to purchase too many ingredients for) and I wanted to stretch it a bit. I think this was more in the 20 oz range but I don't remember exactly now. I also bought the top sirloin steak because it was what we found in the grocery store (and it wasn't overwhelmingly expensive).

A horrible picture of the sauce.

The final product: this was really pretty good. The sauce had a nice orange flavor but wasn't as overpowering as you find in most restaurant versions of orange chicken. The flavors complemented each other well and the water chestnuts added a good crunch to the overall texture. I still felt like it was missing something to make it go from "good" to "ooo, wow I need some more." I think I might mess with the vegetable combination to see if we could add some color and a bit more interest to this solid, albeit boring, meal.