Thursday, January 15, 2009

Feel Better Stew

I am not feeling well today. Sinuses are plugged and achy, throat is sore, a bit feverish and dizzy.

I hardly ever get sick but when I do its disgusting. (sympathetic much?) I think this may be because I am one of those people that pushes themselves to the point where they get sick. Taking on too much, having too much stress, burning the candle on both ends, over-committed, that sort of thing. When I do finally succumb I am truly run down.

Here are some of the things I do to feel better. Sleep, if I can, even during the day, and try not to feel guilty about it. Drink tea. Licorice tea is absolutely the best for a sore throat I find. Works better than a lozenge and has no sugar too.

Finally, I make something with red meat. I know, so out of character for me but my husband is convinced that this is what I need to build my immune system back up when I am sick and I think he may be onto something. Last night in between sniffles on the sofa I had an undeniable urge to make beef stew. Maybe my feverish body was telling me something?

So here is what I came up with this morning. It looks really good and I think the flavours will be really nice. Feel free to play with this however you want - its pretty hard to screw up stew. I'll update on how it turned out later.


Feel Better Beef Stew (in the crockpot):
(don't let the long list of ingredients turn you off - I put this together in about 15min)

1&3/4 lbs, extra lean stew beef (DH went to the store for me last night - otherwise I would never have had this in the house!)
4 medium-large Yukon gold potatoes
1 large sweet onion
2 sm handfuls of baby carrots
4 stalks celery
1 pkg. sliced mushrooms
1 can low sodium diced tomatoes
1 cup low sodium vegetable broth
1 12oz can V-8 juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 envelope onion soup mix
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
splash of Worcestershire
2 teas sea salt
generous amount of cracked black pepper

Heat a pan (I used my wok) to med-high and add olive oil. Dump the stew beef into the pan and brown both sides. This took about 7-8 mins turning once. Meanwhile rough chop your potatoes, onion and celery an throw them in the crock pot. Add the baby carrots (I left mine whole) and then the mushrooms. Place the beef on top of veggies. Open the can of tomatoes (with juice) and spread over the beef. Add the cup of broth and the V-8. Sprinkle the onion soup mix, Italian seasoning, Worcestershire, salt and pepper over that. Splash with Balsamic vinegar. Cover. I will cook this on high for two hours and then turn to low to simmer for the rest of the day.

5 comments:

snazzykc said...

Sorry you are feeling poorly :(
I think that sometimes God allows us to get sick so we have to slow down and breathe!
Hope the stew does the trick and I totally swear by the licorice tea too.

Amy said...

Hope you feel better soon, D! Sending healthy wishes your way... :)

Unknown said...

this turned out well - a bit too 'tomato-y' for Nathaniel so he had hummus and pita but the rest of us liked it a lot. E was very happy to get meat for supper. I think he wouldn't mind if I were sick more often . . . I stay home, I'm mellow, I cook . . . !!

annaliese said...

well, definitely feel better...you do need rest--so I am ordering you a day off from the gym! sleep!

Goofiernu said...

Oh, so sorry you're sick! (HUGS!) Hope you feel better soon!!!
P.S. Nat was WONDERFUL at rehearsal. :)