Plague Food

The plague hit our house this week in a big way. There is nothing more exhausting, heart breaking, and pitiful than sick children. John and I were tired, crabby, and in need of some good comfort food. Enter beef tips and noodles.

I got this recipe out of Cooking Light Magazine. They have a section devoted to fast, fancy dinners in 40 minutes or less. It was rich, flavorful, and tasted like it had cooked all day, even though I literally slung it together in no time. And, I changed some of the stuff in it. Because when your children are sick and you look like you just got hit by a Mack truck, there is no need to run to the store for 2 tablespoons of minced shallot. Bitch please.

Steak Tips with Peppered Mushroom Gravy
ingredients:
-2 c egg noodles
-cooking spray (I hate cooking spray. Shit burns when you use cooking spray.Use olive oil. Trust me on this.)
-1lb top sirloin steak, cut into bite size pieces
-1 TBSP butter
-2 TBSP chopped shallots (or be ghetto like me, and mince half of a small onion)
-1 (8oz) pkg sliced bella mushrooms (or be ghetto like me, and use regular ol' mushrooms)
-1 tsp minced garlic
-1 TBSP soy sauce
-3TBSP flour
-1 1/2 c. fat-free beef broth
-3 thyme sprigs (or be ghetto like me, and dig waaay in the back of your spice cabinet for the Thyme that you bought in 1982).
-salt
-pepper

1. Get some water boiling on the stove, and throw your noodles in.
2.Heat a big skillet to medium high, and throw your olive oil in, just enough to coat the pan. Add steak, and saute 5 min., or until browned on all sides. Remove from pan.
3. Melt butter in the pan and add the shallot and bellas (or the ghetto onion and buttons), saute 4 minutes, or until it looks done. Add garlic and stir a bit longer. Add soy sauce. Sprinkle flour over the mixture and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly.
4. Gradually add the beef broth, stirring constantly. If it looks too thick, add some more broth. We like it saucy around here.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste, and then add the thyme...about 1/2 tsp. Add the steak back in, and cook until warmed through. Hopefully you've cooked and drained your egg noodles by now.

I served it with a side of broccoli, because it's good for you and it's pretty. Oh, and a side of wine. Red. From a box. Because I'm classy.

So here's the final result: A nice meal that makes you look like you slaved over a hot stove all day, instead of a hot humidifier filled with Vicks Vaporub.

Red wine. I contemplated making this my dinner, but the food smelled too good to pass up.

JT approved.

Sloaney approved, too.

This is a rare sighting. Sam eating something for dinner other than Tyson Chicken Nuggets. I wrote it down in his baby book.