hearty crock pot beef stew

Now that we have two young kids, the evenings are a crazy time of day! Little Piñata is often cranky as it gets close to dinner time, and if it’s near a feeding for Sweet P and Mr. Piñata hasn’t come home from work yet, getting dinner together can be quite a challenge!

This is why I love crockpot recipes! I can get everything put together in the morning while Sweet P is napping and there is a warm meal ready to go at dinnertime. And Little P usually likes to “help” when I’m cooking, so it becomes an active learning experience for him too. Win, win! I recently found a delicious recipe for beef stew that even Little Piñata loved, so it will definitely become a part of my recipe rotation! The best thing about crockpot recipes? After the chopping you just throw everything in, and voila! No further work necessary!

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The original recipe from Family Fresh Meals called for 2 lbs of beef stew meat, but I only had one pound. I will share the recipe as I made it in my crock pot, but feel free to double it so you have more stew to go around and save for leftovers.

Ingredients:

1 lb beef stew meat
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 celery rib, sliced
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 of a 6oz can tomato paste
8 cups beef broth (I make my own and freeze to use in later recipes; the recipe called for 4 cups but it wasn’t enough so I added 4 more cups)
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 cup baby carrots
1 bag of bite-size frozen vegetables
2 large sweet potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon oregano

Directions:
1.  Combine beef, celery, carrots, red onion, potatoes, salt,  pepper, garlic, parsley, oregano, Worcestershire sauce, beef broth, and tomato paste in the crock pot. Cook on LOW for 10 hours or on HIGH for 6-7 hours.

2. About 30 minutes before serving, add in the frozen vegetables. They don’t need to cook all day, so don’t add them until the end. Continue cooking for 30 minutes.

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The original recipe that I found recommended thickening the stew at the end using a mixture of flour and water. But, after mine had cooked the recommended time (I did it on high for 6 hours) it didn’t need to be thickened and I actually added a bit more broth. I think this would depend on exactly how long your stew cooked for and how hot your crockpot gets, so if your stew does need thickening, just mix 1/8 cup of flour with 1/8 cup water and then mix into the stew to thicken.

There you have it! An easy and delicious hearty stew that even our toddler loved!