Beef and Broccoli Lo Mein

I hopped on the computer early this morning to get a nice, thoughtful post published today, but alas, I underestimated the extent of my ambitions. I leave you, therefore, with another food post. Who doesn't love food, though?

It's a pet peeve of mine that some bloggers make you read pages and pages of ooing and aahing about their dishes before they finally get to the nitty gritty of the recipe. So: this meal is delicious, easy, and the next best thing to calling up the Lucky Bamboo and running out 10 minutes later to pick up an aromatic brown bag of American Chinese goodness. 

Beef and Broccoli Lo Mein

Ingredients

(will probably feed a family of five...we needed to double it!)

8 oz. lo mein or spaghetti noodles

3 cups broccoli florets

1 Tbsp. olive oil

8 oz. flank steak, sliced against the grain

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium carrot, shredded

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

2 tsp. sesame oil

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp. pepper

Instructions

Boil noodles in a large pot. Add broccoli to the boiling water during the last five minutes of cooking until broccoli is tender. Drain the noodles and broccoli.

While the pasta is cooking, add olive oil to a skillet. Cook steak until no longer pink. Add the carrots and garlic, and cook for a minute more.

In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, ginger, red pepper flakes, and pepper to make the sauce.

Add noodles and broccoli to the skillet and pour the sauce over. Toss with tongs until all is incorporated. (The story of my life: I always need a bigger skillet!)

Enjoy!