Slow Cooker Beef Stew

I started with a Biggest Loser recipe for "Mom's New Beef Stew". I followed the recipe fairly closely but since I went for the crock pot version I had to tweak towards the end to get it to thicken and also to change the flavor a little! Below is what we ended up with!

I started with all my ingredients: stew beef, 2 large sweet potatoes, onion, carrots, mushrooms, garlic powder, whole wheat flour, thyme, pepper (which I forgot to pull out!), minced garlic, and salt (which I didn't end up using).

I put the meat in and sprinkled with the garlic powder, pepper and flour. I stirred gently with a wooden stick to combine.

In went the water and the beef bouillon cubes.

After peeling and dicing the potatoes, dicing the onion and weighing the mushrooms, those all went in next followed by the minced garlic.

Lastly came the thyme - I happen to have ground thyme, so that's what I used!

 I used my wooden spoon again to stir gently and combine the ingredients.

I set the heat to low for about 9 hours total, about an hour before serving I taste tested and realized it wasn't thick enough, so I whisked a packet of gravy and 2 TBS of cornstarch together with about a cup of the liquid from the stew. Once that was smooth, I whisked the mixture into the crock pot and stirred evenly and let it continue cooking on low for another hour.

 About 9 hours after turning the crock pot on, this is what the stew looked like!

We served this with some homemade bread and enjoyed a hearty, warm dish of stew. It was delicious! I've never used sweet potatoes in a stew before, and they were a little softer than I expected, but a nice change from a traditional white potato. I really enjoyed this and would definitely make it again! My husband isn't a big fan of soups and stews, but he really liked the homemade bread, so that helped win him over (at least a little, I think)! :)

Recipe adapted from Biggest Loser - original recipe here.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon whole-wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon garlic power
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1 pound top round steak, cut into 1" cubes
4 cups water
4 beef bouillon cubes
8 ounces fresh sliced mushrooms
1 onion, cut into bite-size pieces
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into medium sized chunks
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 packet dry brown gravy mix
2 TBS cornstarch

Directions
Put meat into crock pot and toss with flour, garlic powder and pepper. Add water and bouillon cubes. Add vegetables and potatoes. Add garlic and thyme. Mix gently to combine.

Cover and cook on low for at least 8 hours. About 60 minutes prior to serving, add dry gravy mix and cornstarch together in a small bowl. Quickly whisk in about 1/2-1 cup of hot cooking liquid from the crock pot. When smooth, whisk mixture back into crock pot and blend in. Re-cover and cook until it reaches desired consistency and meat and vegetables are tender. Taste, and season as desired if necessary.