Blustery Day Beef Stew

The other day, I knew that I wouldn’t have much time to get dinner on the table, and since it was my night to cook, I decided to break out my much-loved slow cooker. I knew that we would be attending Mass that night and we wouldn’t be home until about 6:30 p.m., so I wanted to make sure that dinner was ready to go when we arrived back home. This recipe calls for beef stew meat, but you could also use a round steak that you chop into about 1″ chunks. I was in a hurry, so I purchased the stew meat, something I rarely do unless I find a good deal on it when it’s on clearance. Yup. You guessed it. I shop the clearance meat!

Clearance meat is a good way to find discounted meat that is still just fine. I usually pop it right in the freezer when I get home and put it on that month’s menu. This way you get good meat and you save money. It’s a win-win.

So, back to that beef stew. Here is what I did:

2 Tbsp. sunflower oil

1 large, sweet onion

1 cup chopped celery

2 lbs. beef stew meat (or round steak chopped into 1″ pieces)

1 lb. carrots (baby carrots are fine, or you may peel and slice the big ones into 2″ chunks)

5 medium-sized russet potatoes, peeled and quartered (You may use other kinds and then you may not have to peel them, only scrub them well!)

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 Tbsp. dehydrated onion flakes

1, 30 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes, drained

1 cup white rice flour (Save until almost ready to serve!)

Place your oil in the bottom of the slow cooker. On top of that, place your peeled and sliced onion. You want to cut the onion in half from top to bottom and then thinly slice down each half until you have no more onion to cut. Add your celery, carrots, and potatoes. Sprinkle with the salt, pepper, and onion flakes. Add the tomatoes and stir.

Turn your slow cooker on high for a couple of hours and then down to low. If you are leaving for the day, you may just leave it on low. I, however, got a bit of a late start, and needed to speed things up a bit! Right before serving add your rice flour and stir in to soak up the juices that are there and make a pseudo gravy. Enjoy!