HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  Pardon my lack of regular postings, December was slam packed with events, and January is already starting to look the same.  The good news is that I get this week off work and I’ve been living in the kitchen (when I’m not shopping for ingredients)….I have a whole list of recipes I want to write-up and share with you, and after a relatively un-clean holiday season, it’s definitely time to get back on track!

Two of my favorite Christmas gifts this year were cooking related – the first was from one of my girlfriends and it was a huge basket full of clean oils, pastas, fruits, grains, balsamic vinegar, etc.  I can’t tell you how much fun it was to go through that basket!  The second was from my mom, and she put together a recipe book with all of my favorite childhood recipes.  I am so thankful to have the recipes in my possession now, and I can’t wait to try them out….although I know they’ll never be as good as mom’s cooking!

One recipe I put together with the balsamic vinegar from my gift basket was a clean eating beef stew.  I’ve never made a homemade stew (I usually buy a pre-packaged seasoning mix), so I combined a few different recipes online to come up with the following.  It’s clean, hearty, beefy, and filled with flavor!

Ingredients:

1. 3 large carrots, sliced
2. 4 new potatoes, quartered
3. 3 ribs celery, chopped
4. 2 lb stew beef, cut into chunks
5. ½ medium yellow onion, sliced
6. 4 green onions, diced
7. 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
8. 1 clove garlic, chopped
9. 2 bay leaves
10. 1 teaspoon salt
11. 1 teaspoon pepper
12. ½ teaspoon paprika
13. 1 teaspoon ground all purpose seasoning
14. 3 cups water
15. 1/3 cup tomato paste
16. 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Directions:

• Combine ingredients 7- 13 and two cups of water in a large bowl.
• Add ingredients 1-6 to the mixture and coat well
• Put contents of bowl into slow cooker
• Mix together ingredients 15 and 16 along with 1 cup of water
• Pour mixture over the contents in the slow cooker
• Lid it and forget it….mine cooked for about 4 hours on high heat, but every slow cooker is different.  To check doneness make sure beef is cooked through and veggies are soft.

Enjoy and tell me how you like it!!  I hope 2013 is off to a great start for you!

I enjoyed this meal with a nice bottle of my company’s 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon….what a perfect way to spend a winter evening!