I’m going to sound a little obsessed with my friend Gail, as I just referred to her in my last post, but she has a lot of great tips she sends my way and one of them was to pay attention to Jamie Oliver. You know, the guy who is doing the big Food Revolution right now to change the state of our horrendous school lunch program and teach the rest of us how to cook and eat better? He’s adorable and so passionate about helping people make healthy changes in their lives. His show is on Friday nights (or Hulu.com) and has captivated and inspired me and John. (I haven’t had fast food or a slushie at Target since watching his show, which is really a big deal for me.)

I’m not a great cook and I am certainly not a food blogger or know it all, but I did make the recipe from this episode and it was SO easy, got a lot of new fresh ingredients into our diet and is so freakin good I couldn’t miss sharing this with you guys. Oh and did I mention that Miles likes it? I also have a few friends who read this blog who struggle with what to make for dinner, so this is for you guys!

So the recipe takes a little bit of prep work chopping everything up, but once that is done, WHAMMO, the thing cooks up very quickly in mere minutes. I actually was stressing out the last time I made it because John was on still on his way home from the studio when I was making it and it was getting done too fast. I LOVE recipes that are fast as dinner hour is my least favorite time of the day.

I snapped a super fast photo of my bowl before I sat down to inhale it. YUM FLIPPIN YUM! We were all having low blood sugar freak outs, so I didn’t get to make sure the bowl looked all pretty, or even all in focus, but you get the idea, right? Oh, and the sugar snap peas are SO GOOD! They are sweet, crunchy and Miles loves opening up the pods to find the little “balls” inside to gobble them up.

Here’s the thing though. The first time we made this, we had to make a fast last minute run to the Fresh Market because we got the wrong Chow Mein noodles. John had bought These. (Ewwwwwwww.) So don’t get those gross, crunchy noodles in a can. Buy these and boil ’em up, or in a pinch, do what Gail does and use soba noodles:

Here’s Jamie’s recipe that Gail found, with teeny little changes that I have added to it.

Sizzling Beef with Scallions and Noodles

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil • a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped • 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped • a fresh red chile (or 1 if you like things spicy), deseeded and finely sliced (I don’t put that in.) • a small bunch of fresh cilantro, finely chopped, • 2 scallions, trimmed and finely sliced • Freshly ground black pepper • 4oz top loin or sirloin, sliced into thin strips with a pinch or two of black pepper rubbed all over them. • 4oz cooked chow mein noodles • a handful of beansprouts • a handful sugar snap peas • 2 tablespoons soy sauce •Squeeze of honey • 1 lime, for serving

Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package. When you have a minute or two left to cook, start your stir fry.

To cook your stir-fry:

• Preheat a wok or large frying pan on a high heat and once it’s very hot, add a good lug of vegetable oil and swirl it around.

• Add all your chopped ginger, garlic, chilli, cilantro and scallions to the wok.

• Give the pan a really good stir to mix everything around quickly.

• Stir-fry for 1 minute, taking care to keep everything moving so it doesn’t burn.

• Add the beef strips to the wok and cook for 30 seconds.

• Keep tossing and moving everything around.

• Add the noodles and then your bean sprouts and sugar snap peas.

• Add a splash of soy sauce, and squeeze of honey and toss.

• Serve your stir-fry in a bowl with a lime wedge for squeezing over and a few cilantro leaves scattered on top.

Hope you like it!