Beef stew. The easy way.

We have another quick and easy recipe for you today.

Beef stew.

It is hearty and perfect for a chilly day. Again, there are only several ingredients, making this very simple, for even the basic cook in your family. A large sized Crock Pot  is utilized for this stew and prep time is only 20 minutes or however long it takes you to peel potatoes!

Ingredients.

In a mixing device, is one package each of stew seasoning and brown gravy mix. Trust me on the gravy mix! I have never liked gravy on anything and gravy should not be put on anything, except to cover up something that is not very great tasting to begin with. This aides in thickening up the juice while cooking.

Place stew meat into Crock Pot and pour in juice concoction. Set Crock Pot temperature to high setting. Mine has low, high, and warm.

In the meantime, peel potatoes. I use a peeler. I know many women who can use a knife, including my mom, but I have cut myself and bled before, so I recommend doing what feels safest to you. If that involves taking the potatoes to a neighbor, then by all means, do it. We don't want blood in our stew.

I then, slice the potatoes into 1/4-1/2 inch slices. I cut those slices into thirds and even fourths, if they appear too big.

Add the starch (potatoes) and carrots to the Crock Pot.

Stir.

Cover and wait. Normally, 6 hours is the right amount of time. Take a carrot or potato and stick a fork into either to see if they are still hard or are easy broken. You do not want to cook them too long, otherwise you end up with mushy beef stew.

Ingredients:
4lbs potatoes. I use baking potatoes because they are large in size.
12oz carrots. You can use a whole 16oz bag if you prefer, but I don't eat cooked carrots, so I minimize my chance of getting a stray carrot.
1-1 1/2lbs stew meat. I use closer to 2lbs when possible, because I like red meat.
Stew seasoning.
Brown gravy mix.
Water. Duh!
Servings:
6 people.
Cook time:
6 hours or until carrots and potatoes are tender, but not mush.

Extra tidbits of info. Do not, ever wash potatoes! Potatoes are already full of moisture and by washing them you are just adding more moisture. A moist potato, equals mush on a plate. You may also like to add other vegetables if you like. This picky eater does not want vegetable soup, so I stick with the orange and the good ole starch. All stew meats are not created equally. I have used every grocery store stew meat imaginable and the only one that is any good is Dodge & Sutton. I have only found this product at Target. This meat is so tender when the beef stew is done, that you can't even tell it is meat.

I normally start this dinner around noon, so it can be done by the time the wife gets home. Left overs can be taken for lunch the next day and are equally just as fantastic.

Enjoy and feel free to leave comments.