Beef Stew - Crockpot Style!

I wanted to make stew, but wouldn't have time later in the day so I made it in the crock pot, sooooo yummy!

First I browned the meat on the stove.  You could do this in the crockpot, but I wanted a nice sear!

Yum!

Add some onion

And Carrots!

After the carrots and onions had just a minute to get some food flavor from the meat and fat I dumped them in the crockpot and deglazed my pan with a can of tomatoes (from our garden!) 

While the tomatoes were getting all the goodies off the pan I chopped some potatoes and added those to the crockpot (raw)

Added the tomatoes and some water, until everything was covered.

Then I let it cook all. day. long.  About 30 minutes before serving I added about 2 packets worth of brown gravy mix to thicken and further flavor the stew.

It turned out sooooo good!  The meat was so tender it just fell apart in your mouth and it tasted incredibly delicious!

So I apologize, I realized while writing this post that I didn't actually give you any solid quantities.  Though I will try when I can, I don't cook by a recipe very often.  Over the years I have cooked a lot of food and read a lot of recipes.  The result is that I have a basic 'feel' for how food should be cooked and how to achieve the desired result.  My food rarely tastes the exact same twice, but it is generally really good!  I will try to give amounts when I can, but I would encourage you to try it for yourself!  If a recipe calls for a whole onion and that just seems excessive for your tastes, don't put so much in!  Don't like nuts?  Don't put them in your cookies! (trust me, I NEVER use nuts, and generally you can't even tell they're missing!)  Trust yourself!  Sometimes it will come out nasty, but more often I think you will find you love it more than before!  Good luck!