beef stew and big brother

 My cookbook area looks like this: an utter disaster. So when I wanted to make a beef stew in the crockpot, I was forced to make it up from scratch. I did not want to spend hours (which I don't have!) to find my old recipe. I had veggies in the fridge I needed to use up and potatoes in the pantry I needed to finish, too. It was SO simple. Brent said it was the best stew I had made. I'll take that! So here's what I did.


BEEF STEW
1-1.5 pounds of stew beef
1 packet of Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix
a few potatoes (with skins left on)
a large handful of baby carrots (chopped up)
a few stalks of celery (chopped up)
some onion (i had half an onion left over)
a green pepper (chopped up)
1 can of beef stock
1 bay leaf

I put the stew beef on the bottom on the crock pot. Then layer the veggies and potatoes on top. I don't measure or anything. I just fill the pot up. Pour the packet of soup mix on top. Add the can of beef stock over that. Set crockpot on high for a few hours, or on low for all day. I added in a tablespoon of flour later on to thicken the soup up. Once it was done, I served it up with a loaf of white bread from our bread maker.

This was SO easy. And best of all I did it WITHOUT a recipe (I love that!) There was no work being done in the kitchen at dinner time which is key with Riley =) She doesn't so much enjoy me being in the kitchen working at that hour!

I now feel like "Big Brother" with our fancy shmancy video baby monitor. I'm happy I used my birthday money for this... the entertainment value is priceless! Watching Avery in her crib at naptime.. WOW. I wish I had this sooner!

Riley sleeping

Avery doin her thing during "naptime"