A Better Bag of Groceries

Lifesaver Recipe: Pepper Steak

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 07:32 AM

It’s officially Crunch Time.  I can tell.  I took my favorite Kettle Bell class at the gym this morning.  It is usually packed – at 5:45 a.m., mind you – because Gail, the instructor, is incredible.  But this morning, there were less people than usual.  Christmas Eve is only 1 week from tomorrow and the heat is on.  That means that people are staying up late, trying to finish up the shopping and wrapping.  It is so hard to get up early when you’ve been up late.

Now that my kids are getting older and more aware, I’m feeling the crunch too.  It used to be that I could wrap gifts from Santa almost under their nose and they wouldn’t really notice.  Now, however, we have everything very well-hidden, we have to stealthily buy different wrapping paper that is not like the paper used to wrap Grandma’s gifts, and we can’t wrap the kids’ gifts until well after bedtime.  That means that bedtime needs to be early.  And that means that dinner needs to be quick.

So, it’s time to bring out the Big Gun.  That’s right – Pepper Steak!  You can make it in 10 minutes, cook it in the Crockpot all day, and it takes just a few minutes to finish it up prior to mealtime.  Pepper Steak has been in my family for years.  My grandmother (a working mom) taught it to my mother (a working mom) who taught it to me (a working mom).  It’s what I make when I have late meetings or if I have to travel for the day.  I cook it ahead so that my husband can just put it on the slow cooker when I go out of town.  It is truly a lifesaver.  It is also cheap!  You can use a very inexpensive steak (like London Broil), but the meat will come out so tender, almost falling apart.

Pepper Steak

1 Tbsp. canola oil

1 tsp. Gravy Master (you find it in the spice section of your supermarket and it helps to brown the meat)

1 1/2 lbs. London Broil (or Top Round) steak, sliced thin against the grain

1 envelop onion soup mix

3 cups of water

2 Peppers, red or green, or one of each to make it Christmasy, sliced into long strips

1 Tbsp. corn starch

1/2 cup water

Heat the oil and Gravy master in a large frying pan.  Add beef and saute until brown. 

Add water and onion soup mix.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer on low.  At this point, you can transfer the mixture to a slow cooker if you are using that option.  Simmer anywhere from 3 hours (in pan) to 8 hours (in slow cooker).  Just before serving, add peppers and cook until they are crisp-tender. 

Mix corn starch and water in a measuring cup or small bowl until corn starch is dissolved.  Add the corn starch mixture to the pepper steak to thicken.  Sometimes, I do this last step twice in order to achieve the desired consistency.  Serve over rice.

So how does this recipe score on the NuVal scale?

The family recipe calls for “London Broil”.  When I was researching beef and NuVal scores, I had to check what type of beef London Broil is because the scores vary by cut of beef.  I found a helpful site, www.askthemeatman.com, which states that London Broil is technically a cooking method, not a cut of beef.  Supermarkets usually sell Top Round, Bottom Round or Chuck as “London Broil.”  Top Round and Bottom Round are the more nutritional choices, both coming in with NuVal scores of 34.  Chuck only gets a score of 26.  This time I used Top Round, and believe me, it was super-tender and falling apart.  The peppers are NuVal superstars:  Red Peppers, score of 96 and Green Peppers, score of 94.

Historically, this recipe was served over white rice.  My grandmother (who also drank instant coffee) served it over Minute Rice (not my favorite).  My husband and I own a rice cooker and for years we’ve made Jasmine Rice to accompany Pepper Steak.  That is until we learned that Jasmine Rice only scores a 48 on the NuVal scale.  That’s much lower than other rices:

• White Enriched Rice:  57
• White Parboiled Rice: 82
• Brown Rice: 82

When I visited Price Chopper last week with my new colleague, Tina, she suggested that I try Success Brown Rice. 

It takes only 10 minutes to cook and it scores the same as regular brown rice:  82!  I tried it out and there were no complaints from my Peanut Gallery. 

We haven’t scored the Lipton Onion Soup Mix or the Corn Starch yet.  Truth be told, I never think of Pepper Steak as a super-healthy meal.  It’s comfort food to me.  However, you can make it with the leaner cut of beef and the peppers are great.  What makes it healthy is that it’s quick, which leads to earlier bed-time for the kids, which means that you can finish up your night-time Christmas to-do list earlier, which means that you will be able to roll out of bed early to make that 5:45 am Kettle Bell Class.  That is what makes it a Healthy Dinner!

Congratulations to the Winner of yesterday’s Oatmeal GiveAway!

Commenter #11, Maria of TwoPeasandTheirPod.com.  She will be getting some Oatmeal in the mail to keep her warm!

Posted by: Melissa 4 comments

Posted in: Uncategorized

Tags: Beef, Dinner Recipes, Peppers