Sunday Dinner: Teriyaki Beef

One of my goals for this school year is to make better dinners on Sunday night. Not that I don't usually cook on Sunday nights...but lately it's been thrilling stuff like quesadillas, or pancakes, or even (hanging head in shame) Cheerios. I'm do this to make our Monday nights easier (left overs!) and to give us more time together as a family, eating dinner. My job requires that I work one evening a week, and between that and everyone's various activities and school things, family dinners are growing rare around here. And I don't like that!

The strange way my mind works means that if I add "blog about" to a goal, I'm more likely to do it. So that means I will be sharing a few more recipes on my blog during the upcoming months. I'd say I want to make it a weekly feature but, well, you all know how well I do at weekly features. (See my "Use Your Stuff" challenge for proof. Note that there's exactly ONE challenge there.)

Here's what I cooked this Sunday.

Teriyaki Beef (based on this recipe from my friend Jamie's blog) (adjust amounts based on your family!)

6-ish pounds roast beef
2 cups pineapple juice
1 cup soy sauce
1 can ginger ale
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 bottle of plum sauce
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
6 garlic cloves, pressed

Cut the roast into chunks. Pam your crock pot, then mix the juice, soy sauce, ginger ale, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic together right in the crock pot. Add the roast chunks. Cook on high for 1 hour, then low for about 5-6.

About 45 minutes before you want to eat, pull the chunks of meat out of the broth. Strain the broth through a cheese cloth. (This is to get out any offending little bits of gristle or fat. If that sort of thing doesn't bother your eaters, you can skip the straining.) Stir together:

2 T corn starch
2-3 T of broth

Return the broth to the crock pot. Whisk the corn starch/broth mixture into the bigger batch of broth. Set your crock pot back up to high.

Remove the fat, then shred the beef with two forks. Put the meat back into the broth in the crock pot. Cover and let simmer while you cook the rice.

Start the rice. I always cook sticky rice, and for this dish I substituted one can of coconut milk for an equal amount of water. (I used to do this more often, and with two cans instead of one, back when my favorite grocery store sold coconut milk for .50. Now that it's almost $3.00 a can...I don't do it as much.) The coconut milk adds a creamy, slightly-sweet twist to your rice. (Translation: it's so delicious this way it makes me weep.) You can also make it with your traditional rice preference.

When the rice is finished, serve the shredded beef over it. We had it with biscuits and grapes as sides, but any sort of fruit would be good.

I loved this recipe, and get this: every. single. child. loved it too! Even Kaleb, who is the pickiest eater. (He did not, of course, eat any grapes, which are "disgusting.") It was simple and fast, and I cleaned out the three different bottles of almost-gone soy sauce in my fridge. Sweetness!

What did YOU make for Sunday dinner this week?

Comments

[elizabeth]

I don't know if my children would eat this or not... I might try it, though. I'm right there with you on family dinners--we've *always* managed to eat together more often than not, but this year with team gymnastics at a slightly different time and Matt's schedule, we can only make it happen Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays (once in a while on Mondays, but rarely). Sigh.

I made a made-up soup tonight that was really good, though! Orzo, white beans, mild Italian sausage, a little sauteed onion, chicken broth, what was left of the little half and half carton. It was good. It turned cold and nasty on us this afternoon while we were hiking and soup really hit the spot : )

[Jody]

We had Walking Tacos. It's very easy. 1 lb. browned hamburger - 1 can refried beans - 1 c. green enchilada sauce. You can cook it on the stove top but I put it all in the crockpot on low for half the day. You serve it over Fritos and top with salad and ranch dressing. It's been one of our favorites for years but I don't know about picky eaters.

Thanks for a new recipe. I'm always on the look out for new ones.

[michele in la]

Everyone together for a home-cooked meal is a priority in my house also. And yes, as the children get older and more involved, it is a challenge, but we still manage it most nights.

Well, I was extra lucky last night. :) My "boys" (husband and 17 year old son) went to our camp over the weekend and came home with crabs and fish so we had boiled crabs, fried fish and some leftover jambalya.

[Jamie]

We had BBQ chicken cooked in the turkey roaster in the garage as to not heat up our non-air-conditioned house which I then seared on the BBQ after it was done just to give it that grilled taste w/out all the work, skillet scalloped potatoes which was an "OH CRAP" baked potatoes won't fit in the roaster w/the pan of chicken what can I do with these scrubbed potatoes, look up on the internet for some kind of skillet potato and it turned out great, tomatoes and watermelon/cantaloupe. It was yummy.

[Melissa Kaiserman]

Yum--I'll have to try this recipe!

I love to substitute coconut milk for part of the water, too. Soooooo good. I need to get back to the Asian grocery store in our area so I can pay <$1.00 a can.