Hearty Healthy Stew Recipe

There’s nothing like a nice hearty stew during the winter to keep kids’ minds and bodies nourished. But I’m not sure who likes this hearty healthy stew recipe more, the kids or me.  This is a very easy, yummy and healthy stew to make in bulk.  I make a lot of it and freeze it for those days ahead that I don’t feel like cooking.

Ingredients:

• 2lb Ground Venison (Deer Meat) or Organic Beef
• 1 or 2 T All Purpose Seasoning
• 2-32 oz. containers of Organic Beef Broth
• 2 cans of Organic Black Beans
• 4 cups of Organic (frozen, fresh or canned) Vegetables (I used corn, carrots and peas)
• 5 ounces of Organic Spaghetti Sauce (I prefer using tomato and basil, but you can substitute just tomato sauce)
• 1 T of Sea Salt
• 1 T Tabasco (this just adds flavor and doesn’t make it spicy – use more if you like your stew spicy!)
• 2-4 T Arrowroot powder

Directions

1. Brown ground venison or beef, and add all purpose seasoning to the meat while it is cooking.
2. Once the meat is browned, drain it and add it to a pot (get your big pot out for this one, or use a crock pot).
3. Add in your beef broth, black beans, spaghetti sauce, salt and Tabasco.
4. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce to simmer for about 20 minutes.  You can simmer it longer if you wish, or even do this in a crock pot.  The longer it simmers, the better the flavor will be!
5. Add in fresh or frozen vegetables, and continue to simmer for about 10-15 minutes more until the veggies are slightly cooked or thawed.
6. Add in Arrowroot powder slowly while cooking to thicken your mixture, if necessary.

Freeze half for future meals, and a family of five could eat on half of this and still have leftovers for another meal.  Serve with bread and butter, yum!

As far as measurements go, you really can’t go wrong with this type of meal.  I usually just throw in whatever I feel like throwing in, to make a great winter stew.  So if you have some great leftovers to use up, be sure to throw them in as well.  And if you come up with a good variation on this recipe, be sure to come back and leave a comment about it so we can try it too!