Recipe: Date Night Made Easy - Crockpot Beef Stroganoff & Roasted Broccoli

I'm sure many of you are like me - work full days and rarely have time to cook up a weeknight dinner. To make it more impossible, I travel every week for work too. So whenever I get the rare chance of working from home, I like to take advantage of the opportunity to whip up a homecooked meal for my fiance.

One of his favorite dishes is Beef Stroganoff, and with the help of a crockpot, it takes 15 minutes to prepare this dish and your date will be thoroughly impressed. Make him think you slaved in the kitchen :) I found a recipe on Cooking Light so the meal was more guilt-free. To balance out the heavy dish, I served the stroganoff with a side of roasted garlic broccoli. It was the perfect accompaniment with its slightly charred tips and bits of garlic chips.

To start, throw all your ingredients into the crockpot.

Mix in the wet and dry ingredients and turn on the slow cooker. That's it. You can go back to working or watching TV.

For the side, preheat the oven to 450 degrees, then combine the cut-up broccoli crown with 6 cloves of smashed garlic and 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Spread the broccoli on a baking sheet (there is no need to grease the sheet as the oil from the broccoli mixture will suffice) and bake for 20 minutes, or until brown. It's that simple, the texture of the broccoli changes (it's ends are crispy), it tastes great and it's good for you too.

Beef Stroganoff

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

1 (1-pound) top round steak (1 inch thick), trimmed (I used beef chuck)

1 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dried dill

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 (8-ounce) package sliced mushrooms (about 2 cups)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup all-purpose flour or 2 tbspn

1 cup beef broth

1 (8-ounce) container low-fat sour cream

2 cups hot cooked medium egg noodles (about 4 ounces uncooked)

Preparation

1. Cut steak diagonally across grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place steak and next 8 ingredients (though garlic) in a 3-quart electric slow cooker; stir well.

2. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Place flour in a small bowl; gradually add broth, stirring with a whisk until blended. Add broth mixture to slow cooker; stir well. Cover with lid; cook on high-heat setting 1 hour. Reduce to low-heat setting, and cook 7 to 8 hours or until steak is tender. Turn slow cooker off; remove lid. Let stroganoff stand 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream. Serve stroganoff over noodles.