Earlier this week as Wintermageddon2014(tm) descended on me I knew I would need some good winter food to see me through.  I searched through my pantry and came up with enough stuff to put together a passable beef stew.  Even better I could make it in the slow cooker which makes the whole process really easy.

Ingredients: 

  • About 1lb of cubed beef (It can be pretty cheap because the hours in the slow cooker will make it tender)
  • a cup of chopped carrots
  • 1 onion
  • 16 oz of tomato sauce (I usually use tomato juice but didn’t have any)
  • 26 oz beef stock
  • Some randoms peppers that were about to go bad
  • cup and half of potatoes cut into large chunks
  • 2 tbsp black pepper
  • 3 bay leaves

What I wish I had but didn’t

  • Some mushrooms
  • noodles

Preparation: 

Easy peasy, chop up the carrots, potatoes, and peppers.  Then just toss everything into the toss everything into the slow cooker. If there isn’t enough liquid to cover just add water.  Put the slow cooker on low and just walk away for eight or nine hours. You gotta love that slow cooker ease of use.

Results:

Like usual I forgot to get a picture of the final product, but it was delicious.  And like most soups and stews it got better over the next couple of days.  The stew can last three days in the fridge or be frozen for several months of storage but with it cold and snowy in nowhere Illinois, mine didn’t last.