Friday, February 05, 2010

Meal Planning Update

Meal planning has been so wonderful. I understand why I didn't start earlier (work, new baby, etc) but I can't imagine getting through the week the way we used to. And we're trying new, healthy recipes and loving them. Here is the dinner we made last night - so good! We served it with half a whole grain loaf (bought at Superstore, the kind that you "bake at home" from the bread department) and the recipe made so many leftovers, I ended up freezing more than half the recipe. Even Kaitlyn tried it but didn't like the beef and barley.

Fresh Vegetable-Beef Barley Soup

1.5 pounds beef stew meat
1 small green pepper, chopped
3/4 c. frozen green beans (or you can use fresh!)
3/4 c. chopped onion
2/3 c. uncooked barley
2/3 c. frozen whole kernel corn (or use fresh)
1.5 c. water
1 t. salt
1/2 t. dried thyme leaves (or 1 t. fresh)
1/4 t. ground pepper
25 oz. ready to serve beef broth (I used a carton and measured it out)
24 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/2 t. garlic powder
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce

1. Mix all ingredients into slow cooker
2. Cover and cook on low 8-9 hours (or 4-5 on high) until veggies and barley are tender.

We cooked it for 9.5 hours and it turned out perfect. 200 calories and 7 gr fat per serving :)

4 comments:

Kathy said...

I love my slow cooker. I have healthy recipes that I post on my slow cooking blog if you are interested.

Anonymous said...

Did you fry up the stew meat a bit first or put in in the slow cooker 'raw' - seems like a great easy recipe...I'll have to try that one :-)

Cecile

Teresa said...

Just put it in raw. It was super easy :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, that sounds too easy lol...

Cecile