Kitchen Sink Beef Stew

My husband doesn't like carrots. He says they sometimes are too strong of a flavor and can take over a dish. And sometimes I think he gets a mild reaction from them, allergy wise.

So, I had to do a little bit of changes for a typical beef stew. I say "kitchen sink" because it has a nice variety of things in it... except for carrots :) By the way, my husband gave it a thumbs up and rubbed his tummy afterwards (having eaten too much), saying, "I almost wish you weren't that good of a cook." *so smiling*

Note: I turned this on at 8:30am and slow cooked on LOW until 5:30pm.

Kitchen Sink Beef Stew

Ingredients

*Beef - cut into cubes

*Trifecta Seasoning - if you're lucky, the local grocery store will have this - onions, garlic, celery, bell pepper, parsley. I used about a third of the container - lots of it!

*Can of Green Beans, drained

*Can of Whole Sweet Corn, drained

*Can of Roasted Stewed Garlic Tomatoes

*Small Red Potatoes

*Worcester Sauce - didn't measure, but nice amount

*Soy Sauce - just a touch

*Blackened Seasoning

*Flour (roughly 1/4 cup)

*Garlic Powder

Directions:

Place meat in the slow cooker. Mix flour, blackened seasoning, garlic powder, pepper and salt - coat the meat with the flour/seasoning mixture.

Add Trifecta seasoning, stewed tomatoes, Worcester Sauce and Soy Sauce

Cook on low for 4 hours, then add the red potatoes. You don't want to add them in right away, because they will turn to mush if cooked too long.

In 2 more hours, add the corn and green beans and I added some more blackened seasoning on top, just for good measure :) Continue to cook on low.

It came out great! I actually prefer the green beans and corn to the carrots. It made a really nice amount of stew and the flavor is yummy. We're going to have leftovers for tomorrow's supper.

I also made rice to go with it, of course and I made corn bread muffins.

While I was researching various recipes for beef stew, one recipe had some interesting information that I'll share here:

"If your slow cooker boils liquid on high (or even on the low setting) then don't use it for making a stew. It's important that the stew remains steaming hot (you should see steam rising). you may bring the stew to a boil for a minute or two, but many hours of boiling will yield stringy and flavorless meat with a burnt taste to the stew.

The vegetables should be added during the last few hours and cooked only until tender. For layers of flavor, it's ok to add a few of the vegetables at the start. For example, adding a potato at the beginning can help thicken the broth when you mash it in; add the majority of the potatoes later on. Add an onion at the start for extra flavor; it will mostly disappear by the end of the cooking. Add a second onion later on."

This was helpful to me because as I was going through the recipes some called for cooking just a few hours on high and some called for longer on low settings. I didn't know which to choose. After reading that, I went with the long time at the low setting and it came out great.

Oh and for dessert, I had Strawberries Dad's Way :) My Dad always cuts up the strawberries into smaller pieces. Then puts the strawberries in a bowl, adds milk and a touch of sweetener (sugar or your choice). Yummm...