Stir-Fried Beef and Sugar Snap Peas With Sesame Oil and Seeds

First, to get this out of the way, the point of this Good Appetite recipe from the NY Times is that you, at home, should make it with humanely-raised, grass feed beef. Right. My sell on this really is, good Asian food you can make yourself at home with fresh ingredients you can control, which may or may not include the beef.

As with the large difference in price between grass-fed and other beef, there was a large difference of opinion in our household on this one... we both loved the green, fresh, crunchy sugar snap peas, which are really the star here. We both loved the light, delicate pan sauce and pairing it with the hot sriracha sauce. I loved the dish overall; my husband thought the meat needed more flavor (I think maybe he wanted the grass fed). He suggested that the origin of his problem was the size of the beef strips: the recipe dictates 1/4" thick, and mine were probably more like 1/3". Next time (there will be a next time!) I'm letting him slice.

Chicken Chow Mein

Oh, Jamie Oliver... you make me want to eat healthy AND save the world :)

We definitely watched Jamie's Food Revolution and Chicken Chow Mein was one of his early recipes. The recipe is intimidating because there are so many ingredients but -- surprise! -- the veggies were fairly inexpensive and the dish comes together quickly (although the recipe underestimates the time for 1) cooking the chicken and 2) getting the sauce to really deepen to a golden brown color). We used a jalapeno pepper, adding just enough spice and extra mushrooms, because we love them. The first time, we made it for the two of us and the second time, I made it just for me and had leftovers, as this dish keeps well.