Happy Monday! There is just something extremely satisfying about not having to put much work into a healthy meal and have it ready in under an hour with minimal clean up. Now that we have started feeding Avri solid foods we have more to clean up after dinner, so I’ll do just about anything to cook with the least amount of dishes as possible. My hubby has been asking for stew for awhile and it always just seemed like a lot of work so I wouldn’t make it. Wife of the year over here. Anyways, I decided to take a wack at making it in my instant pot and it did not disappoint or take much effort at all, but tasted great! That’s my kind of cooking and meal. Now I have a happy husband and brand new recipe to share!
I am always so pleasantly surprised when I use my instant pot and crockpot. I love to use my instant pot when I am home and want to make a large meal for leftovers, but not have to stand over a hot stove and monitor everything. I love using my crockpot days I am at work so dinner is made the second I walk through the door.
We had a busy weekend visiting family and I didn’t have time (or ambition) to meal prep last night. Mondays are a work day for me so I knew I needed to do something so my husband and I had lunch for today. Before bed I prepped a beef roast and had it cook in the crockpot over night. All I had to do this morning was shred it, add a couple things and we had lunch! Not my typical meal preparation for the week, but it got the job done and now we have roast to pick at this week.
Life is busy, I get it. With just a little thought, though, it is pretty simple to do some sort of meal prep for the week. Meal prepping doesn’t have to take your entire Sunday afternoon and can be as simple as throwing a roast in the crockpot and steaming some frozen veggies. Meal prepping is only as hard as you make it. If you find yourself dreading meal prep because of the time commitment, simplify things. Cook in bulk, use your crockpot or instant pot, buy frozen vegetables because they are already cut and cook faster. There is always ways to simplify. You just have to be proactive and think ahead.
- 2-3lbs stew meat
- 2 tbsp avocado oil or ghee
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ yellow onion, minced
- 2-3 large carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 10 ounce bag frozen peas
- 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
- 3-4 cups baby red potatoes, diced
- 1 32 ounce container beef broth
- 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
- 2 tbsp cassava flour
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- Get out your handy dandy instant pot and turn on the saute function. When it reads HOT add the oil, onion and garlic and saute until onion becomes translucent. Add the sweat meat and saute until browned.
- Add all other ingredients (except for the bay leaves) and mix well. Place the two bay leaves on top of the mixture. Lock the lid on your instant pot making sure the steam valve it closed. Using the pressure cook function, set it for 35 minutes.
- Perform a quick release, remove the lid, remove the bay leaves and give it a good stir.
- Enjoy!