Beef Stew Redo...

On our Costco run I bought a BIG package of stew meat.  This morning I seasoned, dredged, and seared all of it.  This took quite awhile, as I didn't want to overcrowd the pans...yes, I had two pans going.

I divided the browned stew meat into three batches.   Two went in the freezer for future easy meal starters (yea, me!), one went in the slow cooker for supper.

As I was assembling the vegetables for the stew, I realized the only potatoes I had were the really large baking variety, of which I bought a BUNCH to restock the freezer with twice-baked potatoes.  I decided to leave potatoes out of the stew, so I went ahead and got the stew going with carrots and mushrooms in the slow cooker.  And I washed, oiled, and salted all the potatoes and put them in to bake.

When the potatoes were done, I let them cool for a bit.  Then I cut them in half and scooped out the insides.  I mashed them with butter, sour cream, a little parmesan cheese, some chives, dried onion flakes, salt, pepper, and garlic.  Then I re-stuffed all the potatoes skins with the mash.  Most of these went into the freezer to freeze solid; then they will be taken out and individually vacuum packed tomorrow.  The others I put back in the oven to reheat.  Then I plated them individually and ladled the beef stew over them for supper.  Yum!

So in conclusion:  All of the stew meat has been browned and 2/3 stored in freezer; my freezer's supply of twice-baked potatoes has been restocked; supper was made in a new way and enjoyed; two additional individual servings of the twice-baked potato topped with stew are in the freezer for Carey's work lunches; and there is leftover stew for the weekend.

Whew!  I feel like I was in the kitchen all day long, but at least I have a lot of advance prep work done to show for it.  :)