Quick and Easy and Healthy and Paleo friendly dinner

I went away for the weekend, on my own, which I highly recommend for any busy hard working mama. It was a pleasure to drive a long distance in the car all by myself. I could listen to the music of my choice, or boring radio (which isn't boring to me)and not have anyone else bother me with their needs. Oh, lovely loveliness!

Having said that, I am refreshed and very happy to come home to my lovely family, who, by their delightful reactions to my arrival home, obviously missed me and were happy to have me come home. It sounds like I was away for a week, but it was only two nights!

 Anyway, I stayed with my dear friends, the Gospers, on Friday night and Rhiann made a really delicious Vietnamese chicken recipe for us. It was divine. But I am not posting that recipe today, I will save it for another day. However, she inspired me to try cooking Vietnamese food more often. It is so fresh and flavoursome. So I had some beef stir fry strips, and found a recipe on the net. I am sorry I can't credit the original site I got it from, as I can't remember. I added some bok choy I had from the garden, and I didn't have time to marinade the meat for long, but it was still very tasty. I served it with rice for the kids, but had it sans rice myself, which makes it Paleo friendly apart from the honey, but I'm not worried about a bit of honey. I also skipped the chili because of the kids, but I reckon it would have been nice with some chili in it.

Here it is:

 Vietnamese beef stir fry

 Serves 4

Ingredients: 500g thin cut beef sirloin without fat or sinew
1/3 cup honey
 4 Tbs soy sauce (2 for the marinade, 2 for the stir fry)
2 Tbs shao hsing wine or sherry
2 Tbs minced ginger (2 for the marinade, 2 for the stir fry)
1 Tbs oyster sauce
2 Tbs chopped hot red chillies
2 Tbs orange juice 2 tsp five-spice powder
1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil
Coconut or macadamia oil
1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
 cloves garlic, minced
200g fresh snow peas
4 Tbs spring onions, slice


Method:
Slice the steak into thin strips, making sure to cut the strips against the grain.

Set aside in a plastic bag mix together the honey, soy sauce, shao hsing wine (or sherry), ginger, oyster sauce, chillies, orange juice, five-spice, and sesame oil.

Add the thinly cut beef and massage to be sure all the beef is well coated. Refrigerate for two hours, or overnight.

 Once the beef has marinated heat a wok, or large skillet, over medium-high heat.

Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and heat until it shimmers.

Add half the beef and allow searing for thirty seconds before stirring. Cook until the beef is brown, about 1 min, remove from the pan.

Add the remaining beef and cook until browned.

Return the first batch of beef to the wok and increase the heat to high. Cook until the beef is coated in a sticky, caramelized glaze, about two min.

Remove the beef from the pan and rinse the wok.

Return the wok to medium-high heat and add the remaining oil. Heat until it shimmers then add the carrots and onions. Cook, stirring constantly, until they begin to soften, about two min.

Add the ginger and garlic and cook for thirty seconds, or until fragrant.

Add the snow peas and the soy sauce and cook for two min or until the snow peas are bright green and tender.

Add the beef to the wok and toss well.

Serve over cooked jasmine rice with green onions as a garnish.

Enjoy!