Sesame Noodles with Beef and Broccoli

This is an example of when you see a perfect looking recipe and it turns out completely delicious but perhaps a little bit different looking. I feel a little less badly about how my version below turned out compared to Sandra's over at The Daily Grind... she seems somehow less [insert favorite derogatory comment about MS here] than Martha Stewart AND she has adorable daughters!

Here is Sandra's noodle dish, as circulated on Pinterest:

And here is the end version of mine:

Granted, I didn't bother to set mine up in a pretty bowl and then use a decent camera to shoot it, however mine's a bit... dark. On to the recipe, though, and I think you'll see why mine turned out so differently!

You will need a box of linguine, a bag of steam in the bag broccoli, about a half pound of stew/stir fry sirloin and fixin's for the sauce...

For the sauce, you will need:

(you should ignore the rice wine vinegar... it just stuck its nose in)

1/2 cup of soy sauce (this is the major difference-- I used a half cup of dark soy sauce as opposed to 1/4 cup of low sodium)
1.5 tbs sesame oil
4 cloves minced garlic*
1 tbs minced ginger*
1 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs agave nectar
Juice of half a lime*
Siracha (or other chili paste) to taste

Of course, I made a few adjustments for ease and ability to store things in my kitchen...

This is minced garlic from the farmer's market-- I also used powdered ginger and, in the right hand corner there, is a jar of lime juice... 

* So, since I made these changes, here is my estimate of what I ended up using:
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tbs powdered ginger
1 tbs lime juice

Clearly I can't tell you how it fares against the original recipe, but it ended up quite yummy!

Now, down to business!

Cooked up a box of linguine (yes, that was the only clean pot, don't judge me!)

Pour all sauce ingredients in to a bowl for whisking together (discipline the white wine vinegar for sneaking out of the cupboard in the first place)

Do as the bag says

We had stew beef for ours, so I sliced it up a little thinner to cook without oil in a pan

When all of that was done, I tossed the pasta in a bowl, tonged out the broccoli (because nobody likes broccoli water in their pasta), and tossed the beef in...

Then I whisked the sauce one more time, poured it in, and mixed it all up!

And VOILA!

DINNER!

Rating: Definitely easy, as long as you're not likely to catch things on fire when you cook

Cost: Inexpensive, but not cheap-- if you don't already have some of the sauces in your cabinet they can be a few dollars a bottle to stock up on, BUT worth it because you'll use them again! Plus, there are tons of leftovers, we've made at least three meals out of this!
Time: About 30 minutes
Conclusion: We will DEFINITELY be eating this again. It's healthy, yummy, and if you brown the beef ahead of time the only thing you have to spend time on is the pasta. Great weeknight dinner!