“Fall is Here” Beef Stew

On cool days like these pot roast seems like the perfect, warm, comfort food. That was my plan today, but time escaped me. Time for the second best, warm comfort food…beef stew! Today is our littlest one’s 1st birthday. We are so grateful to God for him! We are also grateful to God for so many who have come alongside our family as we have brought him into our home when he was a week and a half old. I have become teary eyed several times today as I have pondered just how blessed we are by this little life. God has used him to teach us so much about Himself, ourselves, and each other and for that I am forever grateful. Because it is his birthday, we went to visit a few of his favorite people today…this is why I ran out of time :). It is a very worthy reason indeed. 🙂 We will celebrate with our family on Sunday and we can’t wait! 🙂 So, for tonight, it is beef stew, and a trip out for ice cream for the birthday boy. And, this time, he can have his own little cone and doesn’t have to share with Mommy. 🙂

Ingredients:
2 lbs Chuck Roast, cut into 1 inch cubes (I use organic beef, grass-fed)
1 large onion, cut into eights
4 carrots, cut into sticks (or however you like them. )
2 stalks of celery, sliced
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
Olive oil or vegetable oil
2 cups of flour
Salt and pepper
4 medium potatoes, quartered
1 cup chopped green chard (the last of the chard from last week’s box)
2 cups of beef broth
1 cup of water

Instructions:
Place your pot on the stove and heat with about 1 teaspoon of oil. Dredge your cubes of roast in seasoned flour and place a portion of them in the bottom of your dutch oven to brown on all sides. When the first batch is browned, remove it and add the next batch. The key is to leave enough room around the cubes of roast so they can brown and not steam and so the oil temperature doesn’t lower due to crowding. You may need to add a little oil into your pan between batches.

Once all of the beef is browned and removed from the dutch oven, add in your veggies and brown for a few minutes.

Next, add the beef broth and water to equal 3 cups. Scrape the bottom of the dutch oven to loosen the flavorful bits on the bottom of the pan.

Add the beef on top of the thyme and place in a 350 oven for 1 1/2 hours, until beef it tender. If you are using conventional beef, you may need to cook your stew for additional time. I have found that organic beef cooks faster.

Remove from the oven and add 3/4 cup of fresh herbs. I used some rosemary and parsley. Your stew will look a little green at first, but let them cook for 5 minutes or so and it will be back to the normal color. 🙂

Time to serve! Enjoy!