Dead Easy Dinner: Beef Teriyaki Stir-fry

Per the theme of keeping things “dead easy,” both this post and this dinner will completed in less than 30 minutes.

I buy stir-fry beef from the grocery store. It is already cut up into strips. This saves me time.

First I start some rice in our rice cooker. You can also use a pan, and choose whatever rice you prefer. I have recently converted my “white rice only” offspring to brown rice. (I think they think they’re getting something extra—which they are…vitamins, fiber, something—I know brown is healthier, so, yay, parent win.) I find that a small rice cooker is a pretty convenient piece of technology because I put in rice, then I put in water, and then I press a button. That is literally all I do. Dead easy.

Next I put a bit of olive oil, with maybe a touch of sesame oil for flavor, into the pan and saute the beef.

Next I add vegetables. Sometimes I use fresh or frozen broccoli florets. Today I had some leftover green beans, so I tossed those in. By the way, I made this video with Dr. Lillian MacNell, a former public health professor at the university where I used to teach. Since then, I have been a frozen vegetable convert. This isn’t like captivating film or anything, so I’ll just give you the short version: frozen vegetables are often frozen at their peak freshness, so they are an easy way to get veggies into your diet in a way that is easy and (lovely for the immense mental load that many of us carry) very little preparation. I stock up when frozen veggies are on sale and then they are waiting for me in the freezer making me seem really on top of things.

If you want to keep things super simple, you can then add a store-bought teriyaki sauce, or other stir-fry sauce of your choosing. I was out this time, so I made this sauce from Budget Bytes. It’s still pretty simple, with only six ingredients: ginger (I also keep this in the freezer and then break off pieces as needed), brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, corn starch, and water.

Serve with rice. Dinner is now done. Dead easy.