Slow-Cooker Beef Gyros

This was a pretty good recipe.  And a bit different from our usual meals.  I was a bit nervous about this, because the meat hadn't thawed completely before I put it in the crock pot, and I didn't want to overcook it, but it turned out pretty darn perfect.  Zak was great and made the cucumber yogurt sauce and chopped the onions and tomatoes.  It was all ready when I came home for work and pretty tasty!  We have lots of leftovers!

Meat

2 lb. boneless chuck steak

1/4 c. olive oil

2 Tbl. lemon juice

1 Tbl. minced garlic

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

Dill Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

1 c. plain Greek yogurt

1 c. diced seedless cucumber

1 Tbl. dill

1/4 tsp. salt

Pita bread

toppings: lettuce, tomatoes, red onions

1.  Place beef in crock pot.

2.  Mix rest of 'meat' ingredients in a small bowl and pour over beef, turning to coat.

3.  Cover and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours (until meat is tender, it was practically falling apart!)

4.  Mix sauce ingredients together, spread on pita bread.

5.  Top pitas with meat and toppings.

meat about to be cut up

cucumber sauce

yum!

P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef copycat recipe

Holy goodness, this recipe was great!  I couldn't get over how good the sauce was!  Not too salty or sweet, the ingredients blended together really nicely.  I used about 3/4 lb. of beef that was already packaged for stir-fry--just thin slices of beef.  I fear I overcooked them a little bit, but in the future it'll be fine.  I thought I had fresh garlic, but when I went looking for it, it had disappeared, so I used the same amount of dried garlic, and it was just fine.  I increased the amount of fresh ginger by 1/4 tsp. and didn't change much else to the recipe.  I think next time I might add some cornstarch dissolved in water to help thicken the sauce, because it didn't seem to thicken up ... at all.  That was our one disappointment.  But I poured the extra sauce over the rice and broccoli we had and no one complained.  All in all, a really good, tasty and fairly manageable recipe; I will be making this often in the future.

2 tsp. vegetable oil
1/2 fresh ginger, minced (I used 3/4 tsp.)
1 Tbl. garlic, chopped (dried worked just fine)
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. water
3/4 c. brown sugar
oil for frying
1 lb. flank steak, cut against the grain into 1/4" slices
1/4 c. cornstarch
2 large green onions (I used about 1/4 c.), chopped

1.  Heat 2 tsp. of oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Don't let the oil get too hot.  Add ginger and garlic to the pain and saute for about 30 seconds.
2.  Quickly add the soy sauce and water, then dissolve brown sugar in sauce.  Increase heat a little and boil the sauce for 2 - 3 minutes until it has thickened.  (If needed, dissolve some cornstarch in cold water and add to sauce, to speed up process.)  Remove from heat.
3.  Dip cut steak pieces into cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to each piece of beef.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes before frying.
4.  Heat up oil in wok or large skillet over medium heat.  Add beef and fry until brown.  Transfer meat to a plate with paper towel and dab excess oil off.
5.  Drain excess oil from pan and add in the sauce with the meat and add green onions.  Let sauce simmer until warm.

Letting the meat and sauce simmer

Mmhmm!

Nutritional Facts
servings per recipe: 4
amount per serving (3 oz.)

Calories: 329
Total Fat: 11.6 g
Saturated Fat: 4.1 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.7 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 1.3 g
Cholesterol: 50.7 mg
Sodium: 1996.6 mg
Potassium: 173.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 47.5 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g
Sugar: 36.8 g
Protein: 18.5 g
Vitamin A: --
Vitamin C: 1.1 %
Calcium: 3.8 %
Iron: 6.6 %