Slow Cooker Comfy Cozy Beef Stew

So the weather is changing and I know a lot of you are lamenting the slow fade of sunshine and beach days. But lets look on the bright side...layers, hot cocoa, cozy nights in and of course, busting out that Crock Pot! I hope everyone is ready for all the slow cooker recipe posts that will be coming your way like a flash flood. Now that I'm living in London and will actually be experiencing a REAL winter, my slow cooker is in use at least once or twice a week!

I'm a huge fan of the all-in-at-once recipes where you pretty much throw all the ingredients in and come back a few hours later to a finished product so thats what most of these posts will be. Nice and easy prep with huge rewards for you.

This first one is a classic beef stew thats pretty heavy on the veg. I'm telling you, I made a huge vat of this in hopes to freeze half of it to store for later but it was SOOOO GOOD that we ended up eating all of it in one day. We couldn't help it!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs beef chuck roast or rump roast cubed (fat trimmed)

8 baby potatoes quartered

1 medium butternut squash peeled seeded and cubed

3 small onions

4 cloves garlic minced

2 stalks celery sliced thick

1 8oz can tomato sauce

1 8oz can of whole tomatoes (juice discarded) 

3 c. beef broth

3 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbs Old Bay spice

1 Tbs. grainy mustard

1 c. snap peas

1/2 c. frozen peas

1/2 c. frozen corn

Optional to thicken stew* 

3 Tbs. Cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tbs. cold water  

Add all ingredients to slow cooker except for frozen peas and corn, snap peas and cornstarch. Cook on low setting for 10 1/2 hours stirring occasionally. Stir in remaining ingredients and cook for another 1 1/2 hours. Stew should thicken but add more cornstarch dissolved in cold water if needed. Enjoy with sourdough and a nice red :)