Steak and Stir Fry for One

Today I decided to go for my first grilled steak of the spring season.  Many of you will want to barbecue this but I used my indoor grill.  Hence, the grey coloring.  I'll tell you what I did and then share what I learned at the end.  Let's start with the steak:

I marinated it for six hours in O'Doul's Amber beer for six hours.  I like to use non-alcoholic beer because it gives it that good beer flavour while still being fairly healthy.  Then, I simply grilled it until I got the desired doneness.

For the vegetables, I used a stir fry mix from Sobey's and added some more mushrooms because I really like mushrooms.  I heated some water in a wok on high and added the vegetables.  Then I fried them, stirring very frequently until the vegetables were nice and soft.  Then I drained the veggies of any excess water and added just enough sweet and sour sauce to coat the vegetables.  I then stir fried them for a few more minutes to let the sauce bond with the vegetables.  They started to get a little dry so I added a little more water and fried them (stirring all the while) until the water was all gone.

This seemed to work well and was all pretty experimental on my part.  But I did learn a few things:

1. For the steak, I should have probably pierced it before I put it in the beer.  This (I assume) would allow the beer to fully penetrate the meat.
2. I should probably season the steak with a little salt and pepper or other seasonings before grilling.  It was a little bland.  It still had the nice beer flavour but something was missing.  I'll try that next time.
3. For the vegetables, I could probably skip the draining and just add the sauce and stir until the liquid is gone.  I'd probably get the same result.  Again, I'll try that next time too.
4. It is possible to get a nice stir fry without using oil.  I hypothesized this after seeing the Extreme Pita's practice of grilling with water.  It worked.  I got nice, light and flavourful vegetables without the added weight watchers points that olive oil brings.  And I don't feel like I ate overly greasy food that is being torpedoed through my colon as I type.

As for the Weight Watchers points values, this ended up being only 16 points (3 for the sweet and sour sauce and 13 for the meat).  That would vary depending on the kind of steak you use.  So, if you're on Weight Watchers, consult your guides for steak points for an accurate measure.  The "problem" is that I've only had one other meal today and it was Weight Watcher's soup and a cheese sandwich.  This leaves me with 32 points for the rest of the day.  So I guess I can have some ice cream later if I want.