Crockpot Adventures: Beef Stew

Next month dear husband CB and I will be moving into our new condo and will soon be taking on the life of home renovations. Because most of the renovations will be taking place in the kitchen and there will be a long long long stretch of time where I am left without a stove or cabinets or other useful components of a kitchen I have decided to become oh so familiar with my crockpot.

Sunday was my first adventure, soon to be followed by lots and lots of slow cooked meals in a crockpot most likely plugged into a socket in the living room.

Now I don't eat beef, so this was especially tricky for me considering I had no idea what "beef for stew" would look like, nor did I know where to locate it in the market. CB assured me that I would find it in the meat department and that it would be clearly labeled for stew. And it was quite easy to find and the process of making this was super easy, I simply cut a bunch of crap up, threw it in the crockpot and blap-dee-bloo ten hours later my house was filled with the aroma of dead cow marinating in its own juices with potatoes and carrots along for the ride. I did wander from my dietary restrictions and had three whole spoonfuls of it and I must say, that crockpot is quite the little chef.

Recipe - definitely not exact

• 2 lbs. stew meat
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 1/2 c. beef broth
• Onion, diced
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 3 potatoes, sliced
• 1 stalk celery, sliced

Place meat in crockpot, mix flour, salt and pepper and pour over meat. Stir and coat meat with flour. Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well. Cook and cover. Low 9 hours. High 5 hours.

Note: I left out the worcestershire sauce because I forgot to add it. I also added a can of crushed tomatoes to the mix, you can use stewed if you want to more chunk-i-ness.