Slow Cooker Poor Man's Beef Stew

Another greeting from Sanibel Island in Florida! Our week is going really well and I feel so blessed to have this time with my family and my Kellen. We have spent a majority of our time relaxing and taking in the sunshine. 

Here is my view from our chairs the other day during high tide (I also was holding a strawberry daiquiri):

It honestly doesn't get much better than that. Kellen has loved vacation (but misses his Daddy something terrible!). My sweet husband has been home and text me a photo of the raised bed he finished building while we are away- so nice!

My sister and I have taken to shelling on this trip. We are the two grown adults running up and down the beach wearing goggles, holding a shelling mesh bag and waving around fishing nets.  We have no shame and we are on a shell hunt.  Here are our some of our findings (yes, we organized them):

Tomorrow is our last full day and I am sad to leave, but happy to get home (isn't that always the case when you are away from home?).  I was going to save this recipe till I got home, but I have a moment right now, and everyone is sleeping- just enough time for a quick post. 

This recipe comes from my friend Kylee of Kylee Cooks. I am sure you notice that her recipe pop up here from time to time and this recipe sounded too good to pass up. I love beef stew and never thought to use ground beef of the cubed stew meat. It was a fantastic recipe for a weeknight meal because it involved no cooking after I got home from work (which was great because I took advantage of the extra time and met my friend Emily for a playdate. I kept close to the original recipe with the exception of using frozen pearl onions over the fresh sliced because I happened to have a bag on hand that I needed to use.  

My entire family loved this meal and the stew made wonderful leftover for work lunches the following day. I can't wait to pull this one back into the rotation! I also love recipes like this in the summer because it cooks in the slow cooker and doesn't heat up my entire house with an oven of afternoon stovetop cooking. 

Have a great weekend everyone- see you on Monday! 

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef, browned and drained

4 medium potatoes, diced large 

4 medium carrots, roughly chopped

1 medium onion, sliced (or a small bag of frozen pearl onions)

1 6 oz can tomato paste

3 cups beef broth

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dried thyme

Directions

Layer the ground beef, potatoes, carrots, onion into the slow cooker. Whisk together the tomato paste, broth, salt, pepper, garlic powder,  onion powder and thyme. Pour the liquid mixture over the meat and veggies and stir gently.  Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours, or 4 hours on high.