One Wok Beef & Celery Stir Fry

I had a difficult few months earlier this year, and put on some weight from loading on fried chicken and ice cream whenever I felt low.  The last month or so have been back to normal, with my eating habits also back to mostly normal, and surprise surprise, I can fit back into the jeans I got too fat for.  Yay!!

Aside from 1 weekend spent scrapping wallpaper and a walk or two, I didn’t do any extra exercise at all, just got my eating back under control to my usual rice and stir fries, and without very much effort, I lost the weight I put on.  So that’s a win for regular, balanced meals, with no other special efforts.  Of course I’m not the thinnest I’ve been, and I doubt I will ever hit my 25yo weight again, but I am happy with where I am, and I hope regular eating habits will keep me at this weight.

Today I present a one wok beef & celery stir fry.  This also has ginger, tofu & spring onions in it.  A note on the Tofu.  I like fried tofu of the type shown in this picture.  I then freeze them (mostly for convenience… I tend to buy more fresh food than I can possibly eat – forces me to cook regularly!), and in this dish, I tore them up by hand.  The rough surface area from tearing by hand somehow increases the amount of sauce it absorbs and adds to the flavour.  The freezing also changes the texture, and squeezing out water while tearing does that too.

Ingredients:

• One whole celery, sliced (55p)
• 1 packet tofu (£1.70)
• 250g beef, sliced into matchsticks (£2.00)
• 1 bunch spring onions (50p)
• 1 large knob of ginger (~30p)
• Oil, salt, pepper, corn starch, oyster sauce etc (~30p)

Method:

1.  Heat oil until almost smoking.  Fry ginger until brown.
2. Throw beef in with a few stalks of the spring onion.  Sit fry until brown.
3. Throw in tofu. Stir fry for 2 minutes.
4. Throw in rest of celery & spring onions.  Add about 2tbsp of water.  Cover for ~6 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes.
5. Season to taste – I added about 1.5 tbsp oyster sauce, some dashes of pepper, some yellow bean paste & some salt.
6. Stir in and cover and cook until desired doneness of everything.
7. Prepare 2tbsp of cold water + 1 tsp corn starch emulsion.  Make sure to stir it all up and then pour into wok.  Stir it all in and turn flame off.  Pour in 1 tbsp of cooking wine if desired.
8. Serve with rice

Budgeting : £5.35 for dish enough for 5 servings  –  About £1.05/meal, plus ~20p for rice. = £1.25/meal.  And mealpal keeps sending me email tellinsg me they want to sell me work lunches at the bargain price of £2.89.  Haha… little do the know my hot, home cooked, nutritionally balanced, wholegrain lunch only cost £1.25!