Beef Veggie Stew [AFM]

We received a package of four "ribeye steaks" from Angel Food Ministries with our June order. I finally got two of them defrosted and tried to pan-sear them for a beef salad. Unfortunately, I found them very...flimsy. They also seemed a little watery and had a ring of tough tissue around the edges. (Is that a bit too much information?)

I realized that these things couldn't be used in the traditional way I would cook steak. Not wanting to make them go to waste, I decided to go the soup route--or rather the stew route.



Beef Veggie Stew
4 x 6 oz. Ribeye Steaks (cubed)
4 potatoes (medium-sized; cubed with fat trimmed)
diced veggies (celery, carrots, onions)
frozen, mixed veggies
brown gravy mix (dry)
cracked pepper
water

Place diced potatoes in the bottom of a crock pot. Sprinkle with gravy mix. Add veggies. Sprinkle more gravy mix. Add cubed meat. Sprinkle with pepper and gravy mix. (Yes, I have a brown gravy mix shaker.)

Fill pot with water to nearly the top of the pile of ingredients.

Cook on high for 4-5 hours, stirring every couple hours if you can. Serve over rice if you want a carb overload, or just serve with crackers.

By the way, a bag of rice also came with our Angel Food order. Yay!

Angel Food Ministries

I apologize profusely for the lack of recipe posts lately on myfooblog. We've been going through some, shall we say, economic changes, and we have had to readjust the way we have been grocery shopping and cooking. As I've adjusted to this (and several other changes), blogging has not been on the top of my list.

But life is stabilizing, and I'm ready to start sharing some of my kitchen escapades with you once again.

First, let me introduce you to our new grocery friend: Angel Food Ministries. AFM is a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to providing grocery relief and financial support to communities throughout the United States.

Here's the spiel: Angel Food is available in a quantity that can fit into a medium-sized box at $30 per unit. Each month's menu is different than the previous month and consists of both fresh and frozen items with an average retail value of approximately $60. Comparison shopping has been done across the country in various communities using a wide range of retail grocery stores and has resulted in the same food items costing from between $42 and $78.

Generally, one unit of food assists in feeding a family of four for about one week or a single senior citizen for almost a month. The food is all the same high quality one could purchase at a grocery store. There are no second-hand items, no damaged or out-dated goods, no dented cans without labels, no day-old breads and no produce that is almost too ripe.

We've been ordering from Angel Food through our church for the last two months, and honestly, I couldn't be happier with our savings. We used to spend $160 every two weeks on groceries, now we're putting in about $130 per MONTH. (We order 2 "signature" boxes plus 1 Fruit & Veggies box each month, then go to the store for extra things like bread, yogurt, and more fruit and milk.)

Yes, there are some foods that come in the AFM box that are things we wouldn't normally purchase. For example, we have more frozen french fries than we know what to do with. But I can get creative with these items--like using the french fries for making potato soup.

Getting our groceries from Angel Food has really stretched me creatively in the kitchen, and I love it!

I used to fanatically watch a show called Doorknock Dinners which featured Gordon Elliot taking a guest chef into the home of a usually busy person and cooking them a dinner by using only the items they had in their home.

One of my most fun cooking challenges is figuring out how to make something delicious out of what we have on hand. So this has been great.

Most of the recipes I'll be posting in the future will be my solutions to using the items that we receive through Angel Food, so if you're ordering from AFM, then this will hopefully be very useful to you.

If you're not, then I'm certain that most recipes will be something you can adapt. (And maybe you could consider ordering from AFM as well!)

Do enjoy!