Growing up, I can remember well my favorite meals my mother and Granny cooked for me. They were nothing fancy and never very complicated, but to me they seemed like the best meal in the world.

As my girls have grown up, there have been meals I’ve known as a mom they prefer. For my oldest daughter it will always be my beefy goulash, for my Bethany it is low calorie, healthy meals like my salmon recipe, and for our sixteen-year-old daughter, Audrey, it’s my pepper steak where I use Certified Hereford Beef Round Steak. Comfort food comes in many forms, but for my girls you can leave off the desserts and go straight for the main dish!

For this post, I thought I’d share my Audrey’s favorite – The Ranch Kitchen’s – Audrey’s Pepper Steak. It is an easy and fast meal to make with fresh cooked beef, or even better, with leftover brisket or sliced steak. Either way, dinner can be on the table in no time and I haven’t found anyone who doesn’t love this meal.

Our Audrey has never been a big eater. She truly has always just eaten to get by, and if someone could survive on Little Debbie cakes … that would be Audrey. So, trying to get her to enjoy meals was always a big task. One favorite meal of hers was always my beef soft tacos. She asked me to share that on my blog and recipe site once, but I had to tell her I couldn’t because Lawry’s Taco Seasoning might not like that!

Audrey’s Pepper Steak was a main dish Audrey and I created together a few years back. Whenever we ordered Chinese food take-out, it was always the meal she wanted to make sure I got. To date it’s her most requested recipe off my site and being a beef lover, she gets a little testy if I don’t make this often. She says her favorite thing about this recipe is the beef and to not overcook it like I sometimes do when we get in a hurry.

For this recipe you can add in broccoli, if you like it, or leave it out as well to change things up a bit. For those following a Whole30 lifestyle, you can use Coconut Amino’s (soy sauce substitute) instead of soy sauce to cut back on sugars, and of course leave out white and brown sugar and use ½ cup natural (no sugar added) pineapple juice instead. I promise it won’t affect the flavor too much! Serve over cauliflower rice instead of rice, or serve this dish over mashed potatoes (with clarified butter for Whole30) as Audrey loves best.



Ingredients:
2 pounds Certified Hereford Beef round steak, cut in ½ inch by 3-inch strips against the grain of the meat
1 green bell pepper, sliced in strips and core removed
1 red bell pepper, sliced in strips and core removed
1 large onion, sliced in strips
4 tablespoons Olive Oil, divided
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons sugar (white granulated)
3 teaspoons brown sugar (I like white brown sugar the best)
2 teaspoons ground ginger
4 tablespoons cornstarch
½ cup soy sauce

Instructions:
1. Slice bell peppers, garlic and onion. Heat them all in 2 tablespoons of oil in a preheated Teflon (nonstick) wok or pan until vegetables are softened and onions are limp. Place vegetables in a heat resistant bowl and set aside.
2. In the same wok or pan, place the oil and beef that has been sliced and prepared. Season steak with salt and pepper on both sides as you turn and sauté the meat on a medium heat. Cook steak until no pink remains on low heat.
3. While the meat cooks, place Soy Sauce, white and brown sugars, ginger and cornstarch in a small bowl and mix well.
4. Drain excess liquid from meat and add back in the bell peppers, garlic and onions.
5. Next add in soy sauce liquid and blend well with steak and vegetables while you continue to cook on a low heat.
6. Heat pepper steak through for five minutes until liquid thickens. You do not want to cook the pepper steak too long and overheat your meat and make it tough, so be careful to just heat through.
7. Serve pepper steak over mashed potatoes, buttered noodles, rice or alone. Audrey’s favorite is over mashed potatoes. Cook’s Note: You can easily half this recipe to make a smaller portion.

Audrey and I hope you will try this recipe for Audrey’s Pepper Steak! It is so simple to make and for all our family and including Audrey one of our favorite Hereford beef recipes.

No one ever said cooking had to be hard. As a mother and educator, one of my favorite things to do is always teach others. That is why I think blogging on my The Ranch Kitchen recipe site brings such joy to my life. However, above all, teaching my three daughters how to cook is my greatest pleasure in life. One day when I am long gone from this wonderful earth, in one way or another, through my recipes I will live on.

Alise Nolan
The Ranch Kitchen