Memere's Stew

My mother's stew was one of my favorite growing up. When I moved out of the house, this was a recipe I took with me. This is also another recipe I'd put on the easy list, although until you are familiar with browning floured beef stew meat, that might be more difficult.

stew with beef

Ingredients:

2 lbs stew meat (beef or beefless)

garlic salt

pepper

bay leaves

2  4-oz cans tomato sauce

½  lb carrots

1-3 stalks celery

3 potatoes

1 zuchini

½  lb brussel sprouts

1 onion

1 cup water

stew with vegan meat

Directions:

1. Cut vegetables to desired size.
2. Flour and brown stew meat with 3 shakes of garlic salt, bay leaves, and a shake of pepper.
3. Add water and 1 can of tomato sauce.  Add vegetables. Add second can of tomato sauce.
4. Cover and cook at 150o in electric fry-pan or low on stove-top for an hour or so until fork tender.
5. Stir occasionally.  Remove bay leaves before serving.

Notes:

• Serves 4-8.
• I halved the recipe for the above images.
• I used Gardein beefless tips for my vegan stew. I normally don't like those much, but by browning them and throwing them in about 30 minutes, they absorbed the flavor of the stew really well.
• I was a little lazy and used baby carrots rather than cut large carrots up.