Teriyaki Ground Beef Casserole

Photo from Life in the
Loft house

Last night was book club night and my host. I always like to try a new recipe for the book club ladies. Mostly they work out. Occasionally, I'm not a fan of the meal. 

This is one of those meals. It was OK, but not great. Since I've been on metformin I've noticed that things taste really salty to me. In this case, I had to swap the low sodium soy with tamari because Sherrie's GF Girl. I hadn't considered that tamari is way saltier than low sodium soy and, well, it just tasted too salty to me. 

The ladies said they liked it, so I'm sure it was fine. Just not my thing. 

The other part of this are the frozen stir fry veggies. Blech. I should have gone with my gut and bought fresh veggies and roasted them. It would have been way better. In the end, I figured if I do that, and use low sodium soy this recipe may be a winner. It was a lot like stir fried rice, which I like. 

Teriyaki Ground Beef Casserole

Recipe from Life in the Loft House

Serves 6

• 3/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 Tablespoons cornstarch + 2 Tablespoons water
• 1 bag (12 ounces) refrigerated stir-fry vegetables (broccoli, carrots, snow peas, etc.)
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 cups cooked rice

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with non-stick spray.

Combine soy sauce, ½ cup water, brown sugar, ginger and garlic in a small saucepan and cover. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove the lid and cook for one minute once boiling.

Stir together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of water in a separate dish until smooth. Once the sauce is boiling, add the cornstarch mixture to the saucepan. Stir to combine. Cook until the sauce starts to thicken then remove from heat.

Place all the veggies evenly in the prepared baking dish. Pour 3/4 cup of the sauce evenly over the veggies. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 35 minutes or until the veggies are tender.

Meanwhile, cook the ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season with salt and pepper. Cook and crumble until the beef is no longer pink. Drain any grease. Set aside.

Remove the baking dish from the oven. Carefully remove the foil. Pour the cooked ground beef and the cooked rice evenly over the veggies.

Pour most of the remaining sauce all over the top (reserving a bit to drizzle over the top when serving). Gently toss everything together until combined.

Return to the oven and cook uncovered for 10 minutes or until everything is heated through. Remove from the oven and let it stand 5 minutes before serving. Drizzle each serving with remaining sauce. Enjoy!