Mongolian Beef & the Fridge Disaster

Anyone else as excited to see the weekend as I am?  It was just one of those weeks that seemed to drag on forever.  So then, of course, it was Friday morning, I opened the fridge, and disaster struck.  The freezer bag of crock pot mongolian beef I pulled out the night before had leaked in the fridge.  From what I could see that morning, it was contained to the bottom shelf.  I cleaned up what I could and went to work.  Well, I may have won that battle but the war was far from over.  My husband texted me and said the juice had found it's way into the cheese drawer.  NOOOOO not the cheese!  We love cheese!  So here I am picturing a few drips on the provolone cheese container.  WRONG.  It. was. everywhere.  I kid you not, we had to throw out the entire drawer.  Bob is a serious cheese fanatic so we had quite the collection in there.

Sadly, I did not take a picture of this catastrophe.  I was too busy donning my rubber gloves and filling a bucket of bleach water. 

We ended up cleaning out the entire fridge and it did leave me with a sense of accomplishment.  However, there were other ways I had imagined spending my Friday night.  I learned the hard way that freezer bags are not to be trusted.  The good news is that we ended up going to Marc's to replace everything and I found 2 dresses for $2.99 a piece!  :) 

Here's the recipe for the Mongolian Beef.  It is a for sure man-pleasing meal.  My hubby says it's one of his favorites.

Ingredients

• 1-2 lbs beef flank steak, cut into strips (I buy the already cut stir fry beef at Heinen's becuase once again, I'm slightly lazy)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• Any veggies that you would like to add.  I put in some shredded carrots.

Coat beef with cornstarch.  Combine ingredients for sauce and pour into crock pot.  Put beef in crock pot and cook on low 4-5 hours.  I've also made this in a skillet by sauteing the meat and veggies, then adding the sauce.  Serve over rice.  If you want to make it ahead and freeze it, just follow the same steps but pour everything into a freezer bag instead of cooking!

Tonight I'm taking the night off.  We're going to eat at the Wild Mango :)