Takeout Fakeout: Five-Spice Beef

Like many people, I love setting aside Sunday to be a day of good food done right. Yesterday we made a slow-cooker meal of beef with onions and red bell peppers, flavored with cream sherry and Chinese five-spice powder. I followed Rachael Ray's recipe (here) quite closely. We made the meal as a "do it early in the day, then forget about it" kind of meal, but were also given the added bonus of it being a "takeout fakeout."

Here's Chris's "takeout" lunch container for today, sans garnish. It is slow-cooked beef with red peppers, red jalapeno pepper, and onions, on a bed of wide egg noodles.

And now with a garnish of crisp green scallions and crunchy sliced almonds.

It isn't obvious in the pics, but it turned out to be a saucy dish. The original recipe called for serving it atop rice, which would have nicely dealt with the saucy factor, more than egg noodles. However, I wasn't sure as to when we'd be actually eating the meal, so egg noodles were a quicker item to make right before plating. It also gives a nod to my mom's Hungarian goulash, which I always think about this time of year!

What slow-cooker winter dishes do you love? Tell me in the comments!