Fake Out Takeout

I miss the occasional Chinese takeout meal. Avoiding peanuts, nuts, and seafood make it pretty much impossible to eat out.

Tonight I fixed beef and broccoli for 7 people and made two take home plates.  Not only was it free of my specific allergens, but it was also far less expensive than taking 9 people out for dinner.  My costs came up to under $24.  The bulk of the cost was actually the beef and the Bragg Liquid Aminos. (Soy sauce is less expensive if you can use it.)   I altered the recipe to use frozen broccoli, which I just thawed and lightly stir fried.  If I had it to do over again, for this number of people I would have used 3 bags instead of two.  Two worked, but the last couple of servings did not have as much broccoli as I would have liked.

 

This is the recipe I used.  The Best Easy Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

 

As usual I made a few changes.  I doubled the recipe.  Added extra beef.  Used thawed broccoli florets (from Aldi). Used Bragg Liquid Aminos in place of the soy sauce.  Since one of my children has texture issues with onions I used onion powder (1/4 tsp.).

 

Since my broccoli was previously frozen, I opted to stir fry it separately.  Then I added it to the meat and sauce just before serving.

 

Only one child was not crazy about this -- describing it as "just okay."  However, he is not a huge fan of steak in any form.  Everyone else loved it.

 

This dish was a freezer and pantry asset type meal.  Everything for the stir fry from the rice to the broccoli came from my "stash" of on hand foods.  I added some of the on sale carrots and a 99 cents cantaloupe for sides to help round out the meal.  (I cooked the rice in the pressure cooker and started with 3 cups of long grain rice.  The amount was perfect for that many servings.)