Stew

Here's a beef stew I made up. I read through a lot of different beef stew recipes and this is my version.

Ingredients

olive oil
beef stew meat
2/3 cup flour
salt & pepper to taste
2 cans beef broth
1 can Italian style diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup red wine
1 tsp thyme
yellow onion (I just cut off a side and put it in like that - didn't dice)
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup diced portobella mushrooms
1 package frozen mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, green beans)
1/2 box rotini

Directions

Heat olive oil in large skillet.
Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a baggie.
Dredge stew meat in flour mixture.
Lightly brown meat in batches.
Remove meat to crock pot/slow cooker.
After all meat is browned, slowly add 1 can beef broth to skillet to make a roux (make sure to scrape up all yummy brown bits), then dump into crock with other can of beef broth.
Add diced tomatoes, red wine, bay leaf, thyme, onion and garlic.
Cook on high for 4 1/2 hours.
45 minutes before serving, add frozen veggies, mushrooms, and rotini.
Continue cooking on high until noodles are tender.
Serve with crusty bread.

This turned out really good. Perfect for a snowy winter day. I might make some changes next time though. I prefer to use beef stock for things like this - broth has so much salt. I might also try different mixed vegetables - maybe carrot/broccoli/cauliflower/water chestnut. Colorful noodles might be fun too - or maybe egg noodles. One nice thing about recipes like this is that you can add/remove things as you like.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that Jeff actually *made* this - but I made it up and walked him through it. But now he knows how to do and can from now on!!!