Go Figure: Beef Stew for Da By's

My guy is like seriously 270 pounds of muscle man
That makes me pretty proud
The flip side to this is feeding that 270 pound muscle man
Ok so we eat dinner as a family
I clean up the kitchen
and honestly 10 minutes later he is looking in the fridge and states that he is starving
This is a dilemma since to make a strong muscle man he needs to eat a lot of food but
It also needs to be clean high protein quality food
I make huge batches of Chicken Soup, Chilli, Spaghetti, and stews to satisfy the crazy hunger
I like to think the fact that he can bench 500 pounds for sets has at least something to do with my efforts in the kitchen :)
Grego sez I can make one mean stew
I studied blogs till I came up with a combination that I thought sounded good
THis is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
Flour
2 Lbs Stewing Beef cut into 1 1/2- 2 " Chunks
4 Cloves Garlic, crushed
1 Medium Onion Cut into 1/2 " Chunks
4 Large Carrots Cut into 1/2" Chunks
4 Celery Stalks Cut into 1/2" Chunks
1/2 Cup Red wine
1 28oz Can Crushed Tomatoes
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
8 Cups Beef Stalk
2 Bay leaves
2 Thyme Sprigs
15-20 peppercorns
Mushrooms cleaned & quartered
Potatoes cut into Big bite sized chunks

Make the stew:

You are gonna need:

Your big crock pot out ready to receive your ingredients after you sear

A Large Plate with a generous layer of flour on it and another large plate for seasoning afterwards

A Large skillet

To start you are going to dredge your beef chunks on the first plate with flour

I like to do this step with the big plate placed in my sink so I can really cover each piece with flour without making a crazy mess...trust me this is the only way to go.

You are also going to want to work in batches

Shake off any excess flour and place on your seasoning plate.

On this plate you will season the chunks with salt and pepper.

Heat your Large skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil. When it is nice and hot sear your meat. When it it nicely seared on all sides move the pieces into you waiting Crock Pot .

Something I do that works nicely is I have this gigantic Tupperware bowl that I put everything in BEFORE I transfer it to the crock pot

This way I can mix it all up

and if there is too much for the pot to handle (always happens!)

I put the excess into a zip lock, pop in into the fridge and do a second batch the next day.

WHen you have finely seared all your meat it is time to sweat your vegetables.

Add your veggies to the same skillet with a bit more oil. Sweat until onions are translucent and smell amazing. Now add your 1/2 cup of wine and scrape up all the bits on the bottom of the pan.

DUmp it all into the crock pot.

Add your crushed tomatoes, worcestershire, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns, potatoes, and stock.

Turn your cooker on low cook for 8 hours.

The Glory of prepping this before you head out in the morning

coming home to dinner already made

Priceless

I seem to always overdo this recipe and make too much for my crock pot to hold

I end up doing two batches and freeze as much as I can in washed out yogurt containers.

This is one of those things that takes a lot of work and makes a huge mess in your kitchen

BUT
with huge payoff when a great meal is just in your freezer.

Enjoy!

xoxo