New Recipe: Slow Cooker Beef Stew

I love to cook and I love love love my crock pots. Yes, that's pluaral because I have three. And I actually use all of them. I said that when I started using my big one that I'd get rid of one of the smaller ones...but I haven't been able to let go yet. Lord knows I need the cupboard space but I can't bear to part with either of them. They're all so useful in different ways! So, aside from the yumminess that it creates, a crock pot is awesome because I don't have to have my oven blasting all day when it's 90 outside (in MAY...ugh). I love a good, hot comfort food meal even in the summer time and today I got to have it! I stumbled across this recipe for beef stew - loooove beef stew - and I just had to try it.

I'm always nervous to try a new beef recipe because I always manage to make it tougher than leather but this was GREAT! The meat was fall apart tender and the vegetables cooked perfect (not to mention soaking up that yummy beef flavor). So here is the recipe - courtesy of the McCormick spice folks:

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

• 5 cups cut-up fresh vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions
• 3 cups water
• 1 package McCormick Beef Stew Seasoning Mix
• 2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup flour

Directions

1. Mix vegetables, water and Seasoning Mix in slow cooker
2. Coat beef with flour. Stir into ingredients in slow cooker. Cover.
3. Cook 8 hours on LOW or 5 hours on HIGH until beef is tender.

That's it. It's that easy. And super delicious. I served mine with some bread that I buy in the bakery section at Lowe's Foods. I can't remember what the brand name is but it's in a white bag. I guess that's not too helpful but it's yummy anyway.

Notes/Suggestions:

• I took the recipe's advice and used potatoes, celery, carrots, and onions. But I finely diced my onions because I'm not a fan of big pieces of onion. Make sure not to cut your potatoes too small.
• I cooked mine on low for almost 8 hours. Everything was tender and seemed ready to eat by about 7-7 1/2 hours so I put the cooker on low while I warmed the bread.
• This was so easy and had great flavor. I loved using their seasoning packet. I realized while I was looking for the beef stew mix how many other kinds they have so I'll definitely be making more of their recipes.

If anyone decides to try this out, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! (I'm already looking forward to having leftovers for lunch tomorrow.)