okay so i’m just gonna be real with you for a sec.
it was a Thursday. payday wasn’t until Friday. i had like $11 in my account and a pack of ground beef that i honestly forgot i even bought.
my mom texted me that day asking what i was making for dinner and i told her “stew” and she said “oh like grandma’s?” and i hadn’t even thought about that. but yeah. kind of exactly like grandma’s. she made this every winter and we thought it was fancy. it is not fancy. it is ground beef and potatoes. we were just blissfully unaware.
anyway i threw it together in the slow cooker before my shift and came home to the whole apartment smelling like actual heaven. my roommate came out of her room like a little gremlin sniffing the air.
we ate two bowls each.
done.
why i keep coming back to this
it’s embarrassingly cheap
you don’t need to chop anything perfectly
the slow cooker does all the work while you exist on the couch
it tastes like something a grandmother made. not your grandmother specifically. just… a grandmother
leftovers hit different the next morning
what goes in it
okay so i genuinely don’t measure. like at all. but here’s roughly what i use.
| the thing | how much i use |
|---|---|
| ground beef | whatever pack was cheapest. a pound usually. |
| potatoes | probably 5? i just pile them up until it looks right. |
| baby carrots | half a bag or a whole bag depending on my mood |
| one big onion | cut it however. doesn’t matter. |
| those red tomato soup cans | two cans. the cheap store brand. |
| beef broth | enough to make it look like stew not cement |
| garlic powder | a lot. i put too much. no regrets. |
| salt | yes. |
making it
first, throw the beef in a pan. brown it up. i burned it once because i was deep in a tiktok rabbit hole and literally smelled it before i remembered. drain the grease off or your stew will be gross.
then just chop the potatoes into big chunks. i leave the skins on half the time because peeling is boring and also potato skin has nutrients or something. i don’t know. i read that somewhere.
pile everything into the slow cooker. like, just dump it all in. beef, potatoes, carrots, onion. add both cans of soup. pour in enough broth so things aren’t just sitting there dry.
put the lid on and leave. set it to low if you’re starting in the morning. high if you forgot until 2pm again. i forget until 2pm a lot.
it will be ready whenever you’re hungry. check it, mash a potato or two with a fork if you want it thicker. eat it.
stuff worth knowing
- if you throw frozen peas in at the very end they stay bright green and it looks like you tried
- cornbread on the side is genuinely life-changing. boxed cornbread, i don’t care
- this is even better day two. the flavors just… settle. i don’t know the science of it. they just do.
- if it tastes flat, it needs more salt. always salt.
what to do with the leftovers
i put them in a container and shove it in the fridge.
i never label things and i deeply regret this every single time. last month i found a container i genuinely could not identify. like. what was in there. the world may never know.
label your stuff. i say this as someone who absolutely will not label their stuff.
it keeps for like 3 days. reheat it in a pot on the stove, not the microwave unless you want sad rubbery potatoes.
numbers (approximately)
| thing | roughly |
|---|---|
| calories | ~300 |
| protein | 20g-ish |
| carbs | 30g |
| fat | around 13g |
i guessed that using my phone app so. grain of salt.
questions
can i make this on the stove? yeah just use a big pot, keep the heat low, stir it every now and then. maybe an hour until the potatoes give when you poke them.
i don’t have beef broth right now water and a bouillon cube works fine. or straight water with extra seasoning. it’s called poor man’s stew for a reason, nobody is judging you.
my kid won’t eat anything look. no promises. but mine ate the potatoes and that’s a victory in my house.
can i freeze this? yes. leave space at the top of the container because it expands and the lid will pop off in your freezer and that’s a mess you don’t need.
