Healthy Meal of the Week: Tom’s Beef Stew
Leftover Idea: Stew Quesadillas
This idea was provided by my dad (Tom), who occasionally enjoys making this recipe for our family. I’ve always loved this healthy meal growing up and finally asked him for his specific recipe. My father graciously parted with his concoction, and last night, I put it to the test to see if what he wrote down came out tasting like the usual. Thankfully it did!
Even though this healthy meal takes a total of 6 hours to cook, in all actuality, the majority of the work is all taken care of by the crockpot. Your initial prep time will only be about 20 minutes to cook the meat, slice up the potatoes and carrots, along with opening the various cans to pour into the cooking container. Once that is done, and you turn on your crockpot, you can relax and occasionally stir if you desire.
Equipment Needed
– crockpot for stew
– skillet for cooking beef chunks
– ladle
Cooking Time
– 20 mins prep
– 6 hours cooking
Ingredients
(6 servings)
– 1 package beef stewing meat
– 1 can ranch style beans
– 1 can kernel corn
– 4 cans beef broth (14oz. each)
– 2 cubes beef bouillon
– 3 carrots
– 4-5 small red potatoes
– 1 tablespoon minced onion
– 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
– 1/4 tablespoon seasoned salt
For Leftover Stew Quesadillas:
– shredded nonfat mozzarella cheese
– corn tortillas
– spatula
Directions
1. Open up the package of beef stewing meat. If the chunks are unusually large (like mine were), you can slice the pieces up on a cutting board, so you get smaller bite-sized chunks instead of large boulder type meat chunks. This is what I did since I didn’t want to have stew with pieces of meat that took up my entire spoon. I like the medley of flavors when there is a bit of everything on most spoonfuls.
2. Place pieces of stewing meat in a skillet on medium temperature and cook until there is no pink left. Be sure to flip each piece so that all sides cook thoroughly.
3. Open up the cans of beans, corn, and beef broth and pour all into the crockpot.
4. Slice up the carrots and potatoes into small bite-sized pieces and add them to the crockpot.
5. Add the minced onion, seasoned salt, garlic powder, and beef bouillon cubes and carefully stir the mixture.
6. When the meat is finished cooking to your liking, add the chunks directly into the crockpot mixture.
7. Turn crockpot to high, set your kitchen timer to 6 hours, ensuring that nothing is touching or near the crockpot. Place lid on the container, and you are all set. You can stir the mixture once an hour if you’d like.
8. When time is up, use your spoon to carefully (contents will be boiling) serve bowls of Tom’s Beef Stew and enjoy.
Leftover Healthy Meal Idea:
One of the most apparent options you have for leftovers is to ladle a few scoops of stew into a plastic travel container to enjoy for lunch the following day. Quick, easy, and convenient. However, if you’d like to put a simple twist on these leftovers, you can elect to make a stew quesadilla.
All you have to do is strain the liquid from the contents as best as possible. You can use a colander to make this process simple, just like you would do for pasta. Or put the stew in a bowl and using the side of the ladle, tilt the bowl sideways to pour out broth leaving the stew items in the bowl. You can now easily scoop out a few spoonfuls of stew (without juice) and put on a dry plate. Cut up the stems very fine so that they will fit in the quesadilla well.
Place one tortilla on a skillet (low/medium heat), place a layer of shredded cheese, then add all the stew items. Top with a bit more cheese and cover with another tortilla. Allow cooling a few minutes on each side, flipping with a spatula. When both sides are slightly brown, your stew quesadilla is ready. Slice and store in a plastic travel container or piece of foil, and your lunch for the next day is all ready to go!
