Veggie Beef Stew (slow cooker)

Tonight's dinner is a throw it in and forget it kind of day. I'm making some fresh bread to go with it. I was just going to make some beef stew, but realized I wanted more veggie content. Then it turned into more of a veggie stew with a few chunks of beef. I think this will be a good dinner full of vitamins. It should have a great beefy flavor. A nice and hearty dinner.

Ingredients:
1 fajita dry mix
1 cup beef gravy dry mix
1 can beef stock
1 cup diced onions
1 lb beef stew chunks
1 bag frozen mixed veggies
2 cups dried potato slices
4 -6 cups water
10 shakes of Worcestershire sauce
1 regular bag of carrots 8 or 9 regular, thick sliced
4 stalks of celery, large slices

Directions:
dump the fajita and beef gravy mix in the bottom of the slow cooker. Then add the beef stock and 4 cups water. Stir to dissolve the fajita and beef gravy mixture. Then add the potatoes, carrots, celery, and mixed veggies. Stirring to mix it all together. Then add the beef chunks and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to incorporate it all. Add more water to cover if not enough liquid to cover.

Set on low for 6 hours. High for 3-4.

Serve with warm rolls, and a salad.

Verdict:
My kids ate it all up and then even finished the broth. That's a win in my book. My husband said it was good too... I really liked it. Not bad for throwing things I had on hand in a slow cooker to eat for dinner. Yeah Me! I hope you enjoy it too :)

Vegetable Beef Stew

I'm using my slow cooker once again, I'm going to be using it more and more, since my school work is getting more intense and I'm volunteering more at the boys school. Tonight I am making something similar to my beef stew, but a little different. It is smelling delicious. I hope the kids are going to eat it since it's in my 6 qt slow cooker and that's a lot of stew. I maybe donating some beef stew to a family tonight.... hmmm, we'll see.

Ingredients:

-family pack beef stew meat

-1 prepackaged veggie medley (found with the salads - mine had cut celery, baby carrots, red onions and a bout 3 red potatoes) - I found this on sale for $.99 so I bought it and it saved me some cutting and time.

-1 pkg dry au ju seasoning mix

-1 pkg dry beefy onion soup mix

-5-6 red skinned potatoes , diced in to bite size pieces

-salt and pepper

-enough water to cover ingredients

Directions:

First open the pkg of beef stew meat, salt and pepper generously (while still in the package from the store). Next, In a large slow cooker preferably 6 qt, add the beef. Then add in the other ingredients. (with the veggie mix from the store, I just cut the onions a little smaller and didn't use the potatoes - they didn't look too good). Give the mixture a good stir and set it and forget it. If desired... Once it's been cooking 8-10 hours, you can thicken with potato flakes. ( add a little then stir, keep adding to desired consistency).

That's it, done... I'm going to serve this with some pillsbury rolls I bought on sale. This was an easy quick dinner, not a lot of prep or ingredients. Great for a cold day or even a long day. Enjoy :)

Easy quick beef stew with noodles

So, tonight was my quick, I mean really quick dinner night. I was tired and it was cold out. I didn't want to do too much. It was really supposed to be reheated leftover night, but instead, I pulled out an old classic at my house. Now, those who REALLY know me... know that I like to cut corners, I know this is supposed to be a blog about cooking from scratch... but sometimes, this is as from scratch as it gets.

Ingredients:

2-4 cans of beef stew (store premade canned) depending on your family size

1 Lb egg noodles

6 Qts of water (to boil the noodles in)

Directions,

In a sauce pan - heat the beef stew, in a large pot boil water, add egg noodles to it, salt the water to flavor the noodles, boil noodles for 6-8 min depending on desired tenderness. Drain noodles, return to pot. Once the beef stew is heated through, pour on top of the noodles, stirring to incorporate the beef stew with the noodles. Serve...

Mind you, this isn't at all from what some would call scratch, and for some, this is what they mean from scratch. This is a nice quick warm dinner that my kids enjoy, and I like to make when in a pinch. My middle child Braeden - He had 3 or 4 helpings of this. He LOVES beef stew no matter if it's from scratch or store bought. This is a really quick easy dinner. I hope you enjoy, Even mommies who usually cook from scratch need a night off. Enjoy! we sure did :)

Personal Beef Pot Pies

Ok, well, I think this is such a great idea that I had to make personal beef pot pies. My kids absolutely love pot pies! We are all kind of pot pie junkies... well, anyways. I had this leftover beef stew that I made last week and I was trying to think what to do with it now. Then when I told my son that I was making pot pies he said he wanted beef pot pies. Well, then it hit me... use the leftover beef stew, it's practically what is inside anyways. So, I used the leftover beef stew from last week, and make this yummy beef pot pie. You can really put just about anything in it. I was going to make a chicken one, but this worked even better, less time to make, and so healthy! :) and yes, I made the crust from scratch. :) Courtesy of the Deseret Cookbook. :) I doubled the pie crust recipe since I was making 6 individual pot pies, double crusted. :)

Crust Ingredients: (makes one double crust)

2 cups flour (sifted)

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup milk

Combine the flour and salt. Then measure in a measuring cup the oil and milk WITHOUT stirring, then add all at once to the four mixture, the milk/oil mixture. Stir slightly until bleached with fork.

Roll out 1/2 pastry to 1/8" thickness between two pieces of wax paper to fit pie plate. Remove the wax paper and place rolled out crust into pie plate.

Fill with filling either sweet or savory, then with remaining pastry dough, roll out to 1/8" thickness the same way, place on top of filling, cut off excess dough and flute edges either with fingers or a fork. Make slits or decorations as desired for escape of steam. Bake according to individual recipe.

Filling:

Left over Beef stew, can be found further down in my blog.

*Bake in a 375F oven for 30-35 min. Checking at 25 min to see if browned on top and bubbly/done :)

I used an egg wash (1 egg and a little water) brushed on top of my pies and then sprinkled with a little Ms. Dash. For added flavor and flair.

I hope you enjoyed this, I will use this same pie crust for my other homemade pies. You will see it again.. :)