Fragrant Shredded Beef Stew Recipe

I worked a weird shift yesterday/today so I threw this fragrant shredded beef stew in the crockpot early this morning before I went to bed for lunch when I woke up.

Ingredients

1 1/2 

cup of 

reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/4 

cup of 

sherry vinegar

2 

celery

1 

large onion

1 

large red bell pepper

3 

garlic

1 

tablespoon of 

ground cumin

1 

teaspoon of 

salt

1/2 

teaspoon of 

freshly ground pepper

3 

pounds of 

flank steak

1/2 

cup of 

packed fresh cilantro leaves

1/2 

cup of 

chopped pickled jalapenos

10 

corn tortillas

Preparation Instructions

Combine broth, vinegar, celery, onion, bell pepper, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper in a 6-quart slow cooker. Add beef, submerging it by tucking the vegetables under, over and between the pieces.

Put the lid on and cook on low until the meat is fork-tender, about 8 hours.

Transfer the meat to a cutting board; let stand for 10 minutes. Shred the meat with 2 forks and return it to the slow cooker. Stir in cilantro. Garnish with jalapeno and serve warm tortillas on the side.

I did some tweaking based on what I had. I used red wine vinegar - I might use less next time. It was a bit sour or maybe acidic and I assume it may have been this? I used some chopped red, orange, and yellow bell pepper and some jarred roasted red pepper. I used a bottom round steak. I also used just a few whole jalapeno slices since I didn't want it real hot. I cooked it on high for about 5-6 hours. Any longer and it would have been overdone. It had cooked down more than the picture which I actually preferred. I just ran the fork around and it fell apart and I scooped it in a bowl with more cilantro, some green salsa, wished I had had an avocado, and ate it with corn tortillas. It was really great to wake up to.

Crockpot Chowder

Pinterest has been a fun source of inspiration for meals here in my home.  Tonight's dinner was a huge success and I think it may have qualified to replace "Sunday stew."  This is not a bad thing.  We have been having "Sunday stew" for 16 years.  Everyone looks forward to it.  Well, I don't.  I have had enough.

So, thanks to pinterest and about.com, I have Crockpot Chicken and Corn Chowder.  I made up some cornbread muffins to have on the side and everyone was quite happy.

The chowder can be altered to gluten free by using a homemade cream of potato soup (or buying it if one of the GF companies makes it.)

If you want to make one, you can check this one out:  gluten free cream of potato soup.

Perfect Crock Pot Ribs!

So I made ribs yesterday in a crock pot and they actually turned out perfect! Its a first for me. Normally when I cook meat in a crock pot all the excess water in the meat comes out and doesn't burn away so the meat basically boils which is just terrible if you're wanting a "roast". The other issue I have is I get stuck at work and the meat cooks WAY too long. Over cooked meat is just awful. Its mealy and lost all the fibers that make it meat. So I tried a couple of things differently this time.

First, get these! You still have to wash the crock pot out, but the horrible burnt on mess isn't there!

The next thing I did was look for something to hold the meat up and off the bottom. You can put potatoes and veggies down there and they'll soak up the liquid. I did that with my corned beef which was amazing. I didn't want potatoes though. I couldn't think of any other food items that would work. Then I remembered this!

My veggie steamer basket! It has little legs on it. Opens up pretty wide. And fit nicely in my crock pot. I sprayed it with olive oil and piled the ribs on it. They were still half frozen. I squirted some Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce all over them. I have a simple (cheap) crock pot and hated being forced to cook food all day so I went and bought one of these for around $10. 

Its super easy to program and I can use it with  my crock pot, rice cooker, or anything. I set it to turn on the machine which was set to high at 11am and turn off at 5pm. I got home about 6:45 (see, stuck at work late!) and they were cooled down and quite tasty! They needed a bit more bbq sauce on them but I just opened a can of beans grabbed the sauce bottle and ate!