Hearty Beef Stew

This stew is kid and hubby approved. When the aroma of this recipe begins to fill the house there are smiles of satisfaction everywhere. I don't cook beef often because I am a somewhat frugal grocery shopper but when the prices at my local market go down on the chuck roast I go for it! I love this stew because I add a lot of big chunks of carrots and potatoes that makes it hearty and oh so delicious. We like our stew with a big ol serving of Mexican rice and let me tell you, it is a crowd pleaser around here.

The meat for this stew comes out really tender. The only downside is that you have to wait and cook it on low heat to get it to come out nice and tender. But we all know that good things come to those who wait, right.....

For my family of 6 I will buy about 2lbs of chuck roast and cut it up in chunks.

Saute about 1/2 a cup of chopped onions in olive oil in a dutch oven.

Turn up the heat to medium high heat and add the meat. At this point I add spices. My spices of choice are a few dashes of salt, pepper, cumin and garlic.

Here I'm adding about 2 1/2 cups diced tomato. Sorry about the quality of my picture, I was pouring and shooting the picture at the same time. I'm just glad I didn't add a pinch of camera too :)

Stir in tomatoes, cover with a lid and lower the heat to medium for about 15 minutes.

Next, add about 1 cup of water.

Then break up 2 of these little cubes and add to meat mixture. They can be found in either the soup isle or Mexican food isle of your grocery store.

Peel and cut 6 to 7 carrots and 4 large russet tomatoes.

Add veggies to the pot....

Remove about 1/4 cup of sauce from pot and allow to cool. When cooled, add 1 tablespoon flour and whisk with a fork until all lumps are dissolved then, return sauce to pot. This will thicken up the sauce.

Cover and let the stew hang out for about 1 hour on low heat.