Beef and Bean Ragout

When you are a work-a-holic you are often looking for easy meals that don't take much prep time but are still yummy. I often turn to my crockpot when I am in a pinch for time or when I just moved into the apartment and had yet to get my pots out. This was some what of a life saver since I didn't really want to eat out every single night but I didn't have the time or energy to cook. When I was writing my thesis I made a ton of meals in my crockpot because it was fast and easy and made leftovers.

I will admit that I often forget that crockpot meals are a little deceptive on the prep end since if you are making stew you still have to chop lots of things. This is not one of those meals it is pretty easy, open cans pour in... wait 8 hours... eat dinner. Amazing.

Beef and Bean Ragout

Ingredients
2 cans of kidney beans, I drain mine
1 can tomato sauce (15 oz)
1 can stewed tomatoes, italian style
1 pound stew meat
~16 oz frozen potatoes with bell pepper and onion (hash browns, this is about half of the bag)
salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder

Look at this cute blogger pic

Procedure
1- Dump everything into your crockpot. I add some splashes of onion and garlic powder but if you find garlic and onion tomato sauce that would work too.
2- Stir it all up, if it doesn't look like there is enough water I add maybe a cup more.
3- Turn crockpot on low of 8-10 hours
4- Eat

Time for dinner

I tend to eat this with some french bread or maybe a different type. I will be honest and tell you that I grab the Pillsbury loaf that you just pop in the oven and 30 minutes later you have warm fresh bread. This is one of my favorite fall dishes, it is just warm and snuggly. If I had a fire place I would eat this with a fire roaring. Yumm.

A little hint: the potatoes absorb some of the water so make sure that everything is slightly swimming but not drowning. It is still good if you forget to add a little extra water but will look like paste, been there done that one. Also you could only add one can of bean but I like lots of beans in my soups. I hope you enjoy this one.