PERENNIAL EATS: Easy & Delicious Beef Stew

chopped-celery-recipeHappy Friday, friends! I’m finally back in Dallas after a long holiday vacation, and I’m pretty excited to get caught up on work. I’ve come to learn that booking a trip to visit my family in Florida will without a doubt always get extended. After Christmas at The Homestead, I figured I’d continue the road trip with my family to Destin for two days – well a week later, I’m finally back. (Note: this is a big improvement from my multiple month extension last summer!)

Though we grew up in Dothan, Alabama before moving to our beach house in Destin, heading home always brings me back to my roots, and a step away from the city-life of Dallas is always refreshing. One thing you may not know about me is that I love to cook. We grew up cooking all the time with our mom, and family dinners have always been a big part of our lifestyle.

While we may know our way around the kitchen cooking from scratch, the idea of a “crockpot” has always seemed a bit foreign to me. The reason I’m bringing up a crockpot today is that this is one item that always seems to end up in my home. Three Christmas’ in college I received crockpots from various family members, and at one point, Janie and I had too many crockpots in our home to know what to do with – hence, our neighbors received presents!

Aside from warming up the occasional queso, could a crockpot really create a delicious dinner? Since I had some time to spare over the holidays, I figured I’d FINALLY test out a slow cooker – and let me just say, this is by far the easiest way to create a delicious meal. While it is far from gourmet cooking (let’s be real), I will for sure be putting this to work on those days I’m beyond swamped with work.

Since it was a rainy, cozy day at the beach, I tested out a simple recipe for Beef Stew. It took less than ten minutes to prep the food and toss it in the pot, and I turned the dial on high for five hours while I ran errands (and did a little shopping). By the time I came home, dinner was ready and absolutely delicious – believe it or not! 

how-to-make-beef-stew-in-a-crockpot

It may not be Julia Childs, but it’s perfect for the girl-on-the-go. Check out the recipe below:

PREP TIME: ~ 10 Min
COOKTIME: 5 Hours
INGREDIENTS: 
  • 2 Pounds Beef Stew Meat
  • 1/4 Cup Flour
  • 1 Tsp Salt
  • 1/2 Tsp Pepper
  • 1 Clove of Garlic
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 1 Tsp Chili Powder
  • 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
  • 2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
  • 2 Cups of Beef Broth (or two cans of Campbells Beef Broth)
  • 1/4 Red Wine (optional)
  • 3 Diced Potatoes
  • 4 Chopped Carrots
  • 2 Chopped Celery Stalks
  • 1 Chopped Onion
  • Chopped Parsley
DIRECTIONS: 
  1. Mix flour, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add the beef and coat evenly with the mixture, then place in crockpot.
  2. Add all chopped ingredients into crockpot and stir evenly.
  3. Cover and cook on High for five hours (or until potatoes are soft) – If you plan to leave the house for longer, set the dial to Low and cook for 10-12 hours. 
  4. Serve and garnish with Parsley

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Mix all of the ingredients and covereasy-crockpot-recipes

For five hours I wondered how this concoction would taste..
simple-and-fast-crockpot-recipe

Voila! Five hours later, the beef stew was complete – and absolutely delicious! If that’s not the simplest recipe, I don’t know what is!

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