Slow Cooker Pot Roast Stew

My mother is a subscriber to Better Homes and Gardens. When I was at her house recently I saw a recipe for Pot Roast Stew. Original Recipe can be found at: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/beef/slow-cooker-pot-roast-stew/.

Let me just get it out there, I am not a big beef fan. In fact, I cannot stand to see people eat it rare or with any blood oozing out.  *shudder* This being said, my boyfriend LOVES beef. A great steak is his favorite meal and he will always make it when I am not around for dinner. So when I do make it, I try to make it as hands off as possible with lots of other things that I can pick out from the dish.  This way, we are both happy.

Ingredients: 

2 large onions, cut into wedges
1 pound of pot roast ( I like to get this on sale and freeze when I can)
2 handfuls of baby carrots
3 stalks of celery ( I had some in the fridge so I threw it in...)
2 cups beef broth (I usually make my own but in a pinch I try to use something from Whole Foods because it makes me feel like there is not as much crap in it.)
Handful of cleaned radishes
1/4 cup of tomato paste.
3 Tbs of balsamic vinegar ( I like to use flavored like Fig or Garlic)
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp of rosemary (I had some frozen from when I grew it in the summer)
1 tsp of ground allspice
3/4 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper
1 bag of frozen butternut squash
2 pink lady apples cut into wedges (you can use any cooking apples, these were on sale).
1 lb pasta of your choice

Directions:

I began by putting a tablespoon of flour into the bag of beef. This makes coating the beef a little easier, because I never have to touch it. I then seared the beef on both sides for a couple of minutes. I have no idea if it does anything for flavor, but it makes it look pretty!

 After searing the beef, I cut up all of my veggies and fruits (onions, apples, radishes, celery, and carrots.)

 I put the beef on top of the onions

 and put the fruits and veggies around the beef.

 I then mixed together the tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, cinnamon, rosemary, ground allspice, salt, cayenne pepper, and beef broth.

 Make sure the beef broth covers the beef and veggies. Cook on Low for 6-7 hours. Then add the butternut squash and the rest of the apples and cook on high for 1 hour.

Serve over pasta!

Recipe conclusion:

Pros: Slow Cooker Recipe that I can assemble quickly and easily, then forget. It was delicious. The spice mix that I used gave it a really good almost barbequey flavor. There was a lot of veggies to choose from which gave me a filling, healthy meal.  This meal also allowed me to use a lot of vegetables that were about to go bad in my fridge. I also had all of the ingredients in my pantry so I only needed to buy the beef.

Cons: The original recipe called for couscous, but I decided last minute to make pasta because my boyfriend wanted it. I wish I has used couscous because then the veggies and beef would have been the star instead of feeling like I was eating a pasta dish.

Overall: It's a keeper, but I want to try it with couscous.