Beef stew for dummies—or for busy cooks

Once upon a time I had a very large kitchen with oodles of storage and counter space; I also had the luxury of lots of time to shop farmers' markets and specialty shops unencumbered by anything more than my own imagination and the time to "create" in my culinary kingdom. Then, life handed me and my husband a surprise in the form of our extremely premature and very ill child. Nearly six years, three thousand miles and, it seems, a whole lifetime ago, life handed us a set of circumstances which turned our world upside down. We opted to move back to the east coast—to my hometown—to be closer to our families and, we hoped, a built-in support network.

Today, our life is fuller than we could ever have imagined. Complicated? Sometimes. Okay, fine, nearly always. Rich? Absolutely. I am a stay-at-home parent homeschooling our son; my husband is a nurse. Our little family lives in a tiny townhouse with an even tinier kitchen. And two cats.

No, really, I’m not kidding.

My kitchen is so tiny we can’t open the dishwasher and the oven doors at the same time. If I’m standing at the sink and my husband opens the refrigerator door, I am effectively trapped until the door is closed. Did I mention my kitchen is tiny? On the occasions we’re in the kitchen together, my husband and I need to give each other directions much like a wait staff in a busy kitchen. “Behind you! Hot food!”, "Watch out for the cat's tail!" or “Knife on the left, don’t back up!” are frequently heard in our kitchen. It’s really a one-cook space. Consequently, I tend to do a lot of crock pot cooking, baking in batches that I can freeze or store, or marinating something for my husband to cook on the grill—year round.

I’m blessed with a husband who enjoys cooking—though not as much as he enjoys eating. He is a willing sous chef on the occasions I have the time and energy to plan something adventurous. More importantly, he is content to eat anything I prepare and loves it when I experiment in the kitchen. I’ve been doing much more of that since our son, Nik, decided he enjoys food—a lot!

Nik has had a feeding tube of one sort or another since he was born. It wasn’t really until early this year that he showed any interest in food. But once he did, the boy became an eating machine. As we phased out Nik’s feeding tube, replacing more and more formula with pureed or mashed foods by mouth, I had to up my game in the kitchen. Not only have I had to come up with a greater variety of foods but I’ve had to figure out how to adapt them meet Nik’s need to be gluten free (GF) as well as avoiding some other suspected allergens. The transition hasn’t been nearly as hard as I thought it would be; there’s such a wealth of information and products readily available.

Many of the recipes I’ll share with you may be GF or I will try to give tips on how to adapt a recipe to be GF. Many of those adaptations will have been born through trial and error—sometimes lots of errors. I’ve always been more of an intuitive, experimental cook than a precise one.

Ask me for a recipe for something I’ve served and it might go something like this: “Add a pinch of this, a dash of that, simmer until it’s thickened. Add xyz spice to taste.” How long should it simmer? I don’t pay attention, really. Instinct. Consequently, a few of my meals are fabulous creations which turn out exactly as I envision them while many turn out to be reasonably good but not quite what I intended. In most cases, they are never prepared exactly the same way twice.

Of course, if you’re reading a cooking blog, odds are you’re not looking for precisely measured and strictly regimented recipes. You'll get a few of those from me but, really, if you want measured and regimented, use a cookbook. If you want to know how this stay-at-home-homeschooling mom manages to make some tasty meals for her hungry family? Pull up a seat, pour yourself a cup of coffee—or a glass of wine—and let’s get cooking!


Crock Pot Beef Stew

Ingredients:

1 pound boneless chuck, fresh or frozen*
12 oz baby carrots
8 oz canned chopped spinach
1 large can (14.5 oz) low fat, low sodium beef broth
1 1/4 pounds new potatoes, scrubbed and halved
1/2 cup dried minced onion or 1 large fresh chopped onion
2 cups cold water whisked with 6 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour Blend**
Savory
Oregano

Prepare your crock in whatever manner you prefer. I simply spray the bottom with cooking spray; some people prefer to use liners.

Place meat on the bottom of the crock. (* I used frozen meat because I knew I would be cooking the meal overnight. Either thawed or frozen works fine.)

Add vegetables and beef broth right on top.

Add generous sprinkles of both savory and oregano (NB: I don't measure but I'd estimate nearly 2 Tbsp each. Start light; you can always add more later.)

Whisk flour** and water together until completely smooth. Add to crock.

Cover and cook 4 hours on high. This should be enough for the meat to be tender and the vegetables completely cooked without being mushy. (I cooked mine overnight on low for twelve hours because I wanted everything to be soft enough to grind/puree to feed to my son.)

This recipe can be adapted to suit your particular tastes in vegetables. I simply made it using ingredients I knew would puree well and which Nik enjoys. In the past, I've made it using broccoli. You can use cauliflower, green beans, peas...whatever you like. You can also add more meat or make it completely vegetarian.

**To make this recipe using traditional wheat-based flour, use a 1:1 ratio. For general cooking, I use this all-purpose blend I found in Living Without magazine.



This recipe, as written, yields 8.5 cups. Approximately 230 calories per cup. (We are still tracking my son's caloric intake so many of my recipes will have that information provided.)

I hope you'll give this recipe a try and let me know how you like it. Meanwhile, what's your favorite crock pot recipe?