Prime Rib and Beef Stew

The story around my absense isn't the greatest excuse but hopefully it will shed some light.

First, I do cook some of the same things over and over since they are easy, after work recipes. I don't want to clutter up with repeats.

Second, we spend all of Christmas Vacation with multiple sicknesses in this house. That led me not to eat much or cook much.

When I finally pulled my head out of the sand, I made a wonderful New Years Eve meal of Prime Rib:

Recipe: The Pioneer Woman

 And scalloped potatoes:

It was heavenly and the first real meal I had (and wine) in over a week.

Then I started playing with my new favorite toy from Christmas, my new Multi Cooker.
I love that you can saute right in the unit, and not have to fiddle with another pan OR moving the insert to the stove and back. Here is how this recipe went down:

First I sauteed the onions and garlic, then added a few tablespoons (about half a can) of tomato paste and some flour.

Then I started adding chicken stock and beef stock:

Plus any herbs and spices. You can barely tell in the photo but it's bubbling right there in the unit!

After all that I added the beef:

This recipe called for the veggies to be in a foil packet so they didn't mush and lose shape:

(Forgive my shortcut of pre-cut carrots but getting a meal into the slow cooker before work plus entertaining a toddler? HAHAHAH)

I found this method genius and it made me think of a time my mom was making potato soup. She makes her chunky, not pureed, and she went to stir the soup and said "Where did the potatoes go?!" They had disintegrated into the soup as they cooked. Why do I remember that? No idea.

I placed the packet on top of the meat mixture and set the timer for 10 hours on low:

Here is what the veggies looked like when I was ready to mix them into the stew base.

I mixed it all together and let it sit for about 30 minutes while I did my normal after work whirling dervish routine.

This was a good recipe, but it was missing a little something. I am sure I was too rushed in making it and will have to sit and look it over before making it again. I found it in the Slow Cooker Revolution Book that I got for Christmas!

You really can't go wrong with anything by America's Test Kitchen.

I will try to get better about posting what I am cooking. I may branch out into showing some of my tried and true methods, and how in the world I feed a growing boy!

Anything you would like to see on here as we start up the new year?