Recipe--Beef Barley Stew

As part of my post-high school education, I am continuing to learn practical life skills. One very important part of life is food! At the beginning of the week, I look at what ingredients we have (usually what meat we have in our freezer), research recipes, and purchase any missing ingredients. Then on Tuesday I prepare dinner for the family!

My first meal was Beef Barley Stew, No-Knead Rolls (recipe coming soon!), and S’more Pie (recipe coming soon!) The stew recipe came about for two reasons: 1.) we had lots of cube steak in the freezer that we needed to use and 2.) a slow cooker recipe works great for me because I intern at our church during the day on Tuesday. I prepared all the dry ingredients the night before, and chopped the vegetables and put them in the fridge. Tuesday morning, I sliced the meat, mixed everything up in the crockpot, and set it to cook before I went to work. I came home to delicious soup, well on its way to being done. J

This recipe is perfect for a cold fall or winter day!

Beef Barley Stew

½ lb. lean round steak, cut in ½” cubes (I substituted 3-4 cube steaks, cut in the same way)

4 carrots, peeled and cut in ¼” slices

1 cup yellow onions, chopped

½ cup green bell pepper, coarsely chopped (I just used yellow and orange because that’s what we had on hand)

1 clove garlic, pressed (I used minced from a jar)

½ lb. fresh button mushrooms, quartered

¾ cup dry pearl barley

½ teaspoon salt (a little more is better…)

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon dried sweet basil

1 bay leaf

5 cups beef broth

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cover. Cook on low 9-10 hours. Serves 6.