Fall Weather = Beef Stew Saturday's Cooking

Yesterday while wasting time waiting to pick up our cat, Pumpkin, from the groomers Hazel and I ran into Michaels. They had a bunch of their "impulse items" on sale for 3 for $1. Among them I found some inspiring notecards and small spiral bound binders. I cleaned off my bulletin board and put some of the cards up and then added back a few of my favorite pictures. Now I have some inspiration above my computer. The messages on the notecards are "Dream BIG", "all things are possible", "remember the important things", and "celebrate each day" and one of the journals also adds "count your blessings" (the other is another "remember the important things"). They all have flowers with bees or butterflies and glitter. Thought I would share some of my inspiration with you today.

Today, Hazel and I made beef stew or at least it is cooking in the slow cooker. It was the first time I let her help me chop the vegetables and we had a blast. The first fun task was putting the beef in a plastic bag with the flour and spices and shaking it up. She loved that. Then getting to chop vegetables with a sharp knife (and a lot of help from Mommy) was very exciting. And of course she did her normal jobs like putting everything in for me and washing the green beans. She also got to help open a can today. Lots of fun new jobs for us to play with.

After chopping the celery

Adding the celery

Washing and breaking the green beans

Recipe: Beef Stew
1.5 pounds raw lean stew beef
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large white potato, chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
2 medium carrots (chopped)
2 stalks of celery (chopped)
1 large onion, chopped (I used a sweet onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz. can of Organic Diced Tomatoes, No Salt Added (I love Trader Joe's)
2 cups beef broth
2 cups raw green beans
1 cup frozen peas

1) Put the beef in a large ziplock bag and add the flour, thyme and rosemary. Seal and shake. While shaking put oil in frying pan and heat up.
2) Brown the beef in the oil. Then put in slow cooker. Try to scrape the flavorings that are browned to the bottom in as well.
3) Add potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and garlic in that order. Then put tomatoes on top and pour on the beef broth. Cover and turn onto low. It will need to cook for 8 hours total. Prepare the green beans and measure the peas out and let them defrost next to the slow cooker.
4) After 6 hours add the green beans and peas. You can also give it a stir and check the liquid and see if it is how you like it. I tend to make it more liquidy but tried to cut it down this time.
5) In two more hours, serve with a nice whole grain bread and enjoy!!