Beef & Barley Veggie Soup

I don't have a lot of time to make homemade soups so when I found this one I was very excited. It has wonderful flavor and is full of delicious barley and veggies. It's become a favorite in our house (as are many things from Trader Joes). Maybe someday I'll try to figure out how to make a homemade version, but in the meantime....this is a quick and easy dinner.

Skirt steak

We had a yummy steak, which is a relatively inexpensive cut. I marinated it for about 4 hours prior to grilling. The steak was about 1 pound and cooked in about 15 minutes. When marinating things, I often like to try new combinations, or just put together flavors we like. Tonight's marinade went as follows:

Recipe

1/2 low sodium soy sauce
1 T minced garlic
1 T coarsely ground mustard

Directions

Add marinade ingredients to a zip-top bag, seal and squish bag to combine ingredients. Add steak and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes t0 several hours, as desired. Remove steak from bag and discard leftover. Then grill, broil or cook your steak using your favorite method.

Marinated steak

For a quick meal I like to have thin cut steaks and marinate then for several hours (you can marinate them for just 30 minutes if you are short on time). By using a thin cut of steak it makes the meal very quick and easy (although there is certainly a place for a good thick steak another night). Tonight I used about a pound of thin round tip steak that was on sale at the grocery store (skirt steak, flank steak etc. work great with this).

The marinade (you can play with the amounts and flavors depending on what your family likes):

3/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/2 cup honey

2-3 minced garlic cloves

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. dried parsley (you can substitute 1/4 cup fresh if you have it)

1 tsp. dried mustard

Put the marinade ingredients into a gallon sized ziptop bag and squish them around to combine. Add the steak to the bag making sure to cover all the meat, and seal the bag. Put the bag into some kind of bowl or container to catch any leaks (just in case). Let the bag sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to several hours.

When you are ready to cook, just remove the meat and discard the marinade. Cook the meat to your favorite doneness (I like medium rare, especially for the thinnner steaks) and serve. You can grill it outside, pan sear it, or use a grill pan (as seen here).