Winter Beef Stew

We love stew. I discovered a way for my little ones to be able to enjoy it safely and easily is to cook the stew meat in the crock pot. This makes the meat so tender and soft and little ones can chew it. We all like it better too as the flavors are divine.

Generally this is how I make stew...
I start my stew meat and/or beef bones in the crock with a lot of water. 4-8 cups of water (depends on how much stew you are making. I use 1 lb stew meat and 3-4 meaty beef bones. Let meat cook ahead of time or with everything in the pot. If I don't have time to chop my veggies I throw my neat and water in the crock to start it ahead of time.

Add:
garlic powder to taste (1 tbs)
onion powder to taste (2 tbs)
salt (to taste)
sometimes I'll add a few teaspoons of organic salt-less seasoning mix
chopped onions (1/2 or 1 c I puree this because I have one kid that doesn't like chucks of onion)
chopped celery  (1/4 c)
potato chunks or diced  (2 c)
other options for good ad-ins (3/4 cup fresh or frozen): greens beans, chopped carrots, corn, peas, caned or freshly soaked lima beans, barely. I love butter beans in stew! YUM-O
Optional: tomatoes

Stew is what you make when it's cold, and what you make when you have a bunch of "stuff" on hand that will go in stew. Nothing says comfort food and relaxing home-time like stew!

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

I love tortilla soup and enchiladas and just Mexican food in general. It’s my favorite. One day I finally found some MSG free enchilada sauce that didn’t taste gross (the MSG kind wasn’t that great to begin with anyway) and I concocted a whole mazing tortilla soup recipe using it as the base. Only problem was it gets expensive to buy. Plus, I like to make anything I can from scratch!

Since I’m cooking for a very large family I now make enchilada sauce in bulk. I researched a bunch of recipes online and tried my own. With tomato paste, salt, onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, beef broth (you can use chicken broth I've heard, I boil beef soup bones and make my own broth)  and water I had my own Mexican concoction bubbling on the stove in no time.

Some tips:

I feel water must be used to lighten the tomato paste flavor and to thin it.

I use both fresh and powdered onion and garlic.

I personally buy the huge cans of tomato paste from Sam's Club and make a giant pot of enchilada sauce at one time. I simmer it for a while on the stove and let it sit for the flavors to mesh. I have thought about cooking it a slow cooker but haven't yet. Then I can or freeze it. I found it takes quite a bit of chili powder to get the flavor right. The other spices are very important too.

Since I make such a big batch I just wing it and mix everything up to taste. I don’t have an exact recipe, but go ahead and try it! It's yummy! Or look online for similar recepies.

 I know I used 2 quarts of beef broth, 6.5lbs of tomato paste, at least 3 cups of water maybe more, around 1/4 cup chili powder, 4-5 tbsp. cumin, then fresh and powdered onion and garlic.... I just add all spices then taste. Then add more... then taste LOL.

It’s really good! Really good! Tortilla soup recipe to follow soon.