Stir fry - it's not just for take out anymore!
In the grand scheme of meal planning, nothing is handier than recipes with flexibility. And stir-fry dinners are one of the most flexible, and least expensive, recipes to have in your arsenal. The basic formula is this:
Heat oil in pan (in my house, oil gets lonely without 1 or 2 cloves of garlic)
Add 1 to 1.5 pounds (insert meat here)
Add random veggie #1 - appx 2 servings
Add random veggie #2 - appx 2 servings
Season to taste
Cover and cook through (appx 10 minutes)
Serve over rice/noodles
Because I wait for the best prices on meat (max $2 per pound), and use frozen veggies wherever I can ($0.25 per serving), with the rice ($0.40 per cup) any combination of ingredients is going to make an entire 4 serving meal for $4.60! And stir-fry doesn't have to be asian, you can use whatever spices and seasonings are handy and come up with your own flavor combinations!
Below is the supper I made tonight, it went over like gangbusters!
Beef and vegetable stir fry
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 pound london broil, sliced thin and cut into 1-inch strips
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 bag frozen broccoli
2 med tomatoes, diced
1 Tbsp ground pepper
1 Tbsp onion powder
1/2 Tbsp chili powder
2 Tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in 1 Tbsp cold water
4 cups cooked rice
Put london broil strips and soy sauce in a ziploc bag, seal and let marinate 20 minutes to 2 hrs.
Heat oil in large pan. Add minced garlic, cook until just beginning to brown.
Add contents of ziploc bag, cook london broil just until it starts to brown.
Add broccoli and tomato, pepper, onion powder and chili powder. Stir to mix. Cover and cook appx 10 minutes on medium heat, or until veggies are heated through.
Uncover, keep simmering. Add dissolved cornstarch and stir to mix well. Let simmer uncovered for 2 more minutes to allow sauce to thicken a little.
Serve over cooked rice
Total cost:
London broil - $2.20
1/2 bag frozen broccoli - $0.50
2 med tomatoes - $0.55
Rice - $1.60
Grand total: $4.65
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7.30.2008
Stirrin' it up
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2 comments:
I wish my daughter would eat stirfry! That would be a great way to save money. I've bookmarked your site and cant' wait to have time to sit down and read some more.
I do the same thing as you, except for the cornstarch at the end to thicken the sauce -why didn't I think of that? :) You're right, it's a very economical and EASY dish to make, even when I'm in a hurry.
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