Slow Cooker Beef with Broccoli

I'm pretty enthralled with my slow cooker. Even if I never figure out how to cook with it during regular work-days, it's great for weekends.  And it is perfect for right now, when I'm working from home.  If I remember, I can put ingredients in at lunch time and have dinner ready later, all while my house/workplace smells delicious. 

Speaking of which, this recipe is one that made the whole house smell amazing!  I love takeout--or buffet--beef and broccoli, and this version was super easy, tasty, and healthy, too.  I found the original online and loved that it mostly uses ingredients that I always have on hand.  I just had to buy the meat and the sesame oil...and now I have the bottle of sesame oil for later!  Also, no cleaning and chopping broccoli.  I like broccoli, but dealing with fresh is annoying sometimes.   

Also, leftovers froze and reheated well.  Since I only used about 1 pound of meat, this made 3 good sized servings.  I might add more broccoli next time, but I liked the more-sauce-version that happened by making it with less meat (also, it was a lot cheaper!). 

Ingredients:

• 1 to 2 lbs. sirloin steak or boneless beef chuck roast, sliced thin (I used 1 lbs. of sirloin steak this time)
  
• 1 cups beef broth (I made some beef bouillon from a cube for this and it worked totally fine)
• ½ cup low sodium soy sauce
• ¼ cup brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar because that is what was open in my pantry)
• 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
• 1+ Tbsp. minced garlic (or like 3 cloves?)
• 4 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 4 Tablespoons water
• 1 (12 oz.) bag frozen broccoli florets

Directions: 

1. Whisk together beef broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, and garlic, in the insert to the slow cooker.
2. Place slices of beef in the liquid and stir.  
3. Cover with lid and cook on low heat for 5 hours.
4. After 5 hours, whisk together cornstarch and water in small bowl. (I suspect I could have added less, maybe 3 Tablespoons cornstarch to 3 Tablespoons water?)
5. Pour into crock pot and add the frozen broccoli over the beef and sauce some (I won't be super-thick, which is a good thing) 
6. Stir to combine. 
7. Cover with lid and cook 30 to 45 minutes to cook broccoli and thicken sauce.