What do Beef Stew and Fruit Loops have in common?

Today is my “Think Food Thursdays”  – every Thursday I try to post about Heart Healthy Foods.  “Try” =)

Yep ~ I confess ~ I have fallen off my mostly heart healthy wagon this week ladies!

Who can blame a girl after 2 root canals and 2 crown preps in 8 days!!   I needed comfort ladies! Once my jaw was a little less traumatized and I could actually chew ~ I needed to lean on  comfort foods … have you guessed yet?

When you think comfort food … you might be thinking yummy hot corn bread, or home made beef stew, or tomato rice soup with grilled cheese,  or a big warm yummy  sourdough bread bowl full of hot clam chowder … right?!   I do love all those things!

Thats not exactly where I was at this week!

Now most of y’all probably love ice cream too right?  Right!  That is comfort food too!  What girl doesn’t crave ice cream at night after the kids have gone to bed, right?

Nope ~ not me!

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind ice cream ~  especially on a lovely hot summer day after you just spent a few hours playing in the sun on Cannon Beach!    Oh, right ~  Nope not me!

No ice cream for this  mama ~  am I driving you nuts yet?  Are you wondering what on earth gives this girl comfort at night after a long week??

OK… OK…

One of my favorite (late night) comfort  snacks food is….

As you can see… I couldn’t even wait for the kids to go to bed… I was that weak!

They are not exactly healthy ~  but I love them ~ I really really do!

I  have a great picture of my son at 18 mo. carrying around a huge – yep – huge – economy sized box of fruit loops  !  He waddled down the hall with them with one arm around the box and the other either in the box or in his mouth!  Too funny!!  Not that I allowed him to run around with a giant box of fruit loops all day… I just had to ‘seize’ the moment with the camera … before I took away the giant box of fruit loops and entered into a meltdown!  If I can find that sweet  picture today ~ perhaps it will find its way into this post later!!

For the record I did make a delicious yummy beef stew and cornbread this week too!  Because it really is one of my ‘comfort foods’  and yep… I even made tomato rice soup out of a can too!  What I can say ~  it was a comfort food week!

Do you wanna see pictures of my yummy beef stew?

Confession again - I did use a boxed corn bread =) it was a long week!

(I did edit this… but it is not staying upright for me?!)

Would you like my cooking tips on how to make this yummy stew?

I am no chef – but this turned out very yummy!

First I marinate beef stew meat in Cabernet red wine for an hour-ish!

While the beef is marinating I peel and chop a few potatoes any kind! Chop carrots, celery, 1-2 yams, mushrooms, purple onion, and peel 5-6 garlic cloves.  Pull out the herbs … oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, sage… Italian herbs.

Brown Beef in the extra wine - I don't use flour at this stage.

I boil water in my trusty kettle and pour boiling water over the browned beef – filling the pot 1/2 full. Bring it back to a boil in the pot, stir and then turn it down to low and cover.

After all the veggies are cut - I saute the onion, mushroom, celery, garlic cloves, and herbs for a few minutes in olive oil to bring out flavor? =)

Put all the veggies into the pot now…including the potatoes & yams, etc. …    bring it all back to a boil… and turn back down to low and cover – again.

I love using Better than Bouillon Beef Paste... yummy flavor! Adding a can of Italian tomoates and a can of sweet corn also enhances the flavor!

oops! I add these just after I have added the veggies and turned the pot down … be sure to stir until the beef paste is melted ~ OH ~ and this is also the time I add a few tables spoons of flour to cold water into a small cup … mix it with a fork until it is not lumpy… then stir that into the stew!  and  then cover and simmer for a 3/4 of an hour.     Make Corn Bread at this point!!!   Beef Stew is just not complete without corn bread in my house!

It was so delicicous ~ I wish I had more!!! sniff... bye bye beef stew!

OK… I think I covered it all! It is late morning… I am late late late posting … have you figured out that I am not overly timely yet??!! One day I will be a day or two ahead! One day! =)

I am a bit of a nut ~  Thanks for staying to read!

Now it is time for a bowl of yummy hot oatmeal!!! =) Have a great day!

Just Jenn~

PS ~   Beef Stew and Fruit Loops are both comfort foods!!  =)

10 Responses | Add your Own

  • 1 Laura yazmış:

    I have not had fruit loops in SO long, but now I totally want to big bowl of them! 🙂 The beef stew looks awesome too and I love the monkeys in your kitchen, cute! 🙂

  • 2 TooManyHats yazmış:

    That stew looks amazingly good- what a smart idea to marinate the meat in wine beforehand. I happen to heart Cinnamon Life cereal – one reason it is never in the house – I would eat it all by myself if I bought it.

  • 3 tricia yazmış:

    yummy! now… what to cook tonight?

  • 4 Jen Gacek yazmış:

    I’m so with you on the ice cream…I could take it or leave it. My mom would never buy me Fruit Loops when I lived at home so that’s one of the first things I bought when I moved out! YUM. I’ll buy them occassionaly for the kids but I won’t eat them. If I do, I won’t stop!

    The stew looks yummy. There’s nothing like hot stew and bread on a cool winter day!

  • 5 Tammy yazmış:

    Fruit loops…yuk! Have you tried chocolate cheerios? Yummy!

  • 6 Jenn yazmış:

    no no sweet on my cheerios!! =) I like that old fashioned oats taste!! hee hee… I am not proud that I love Fruit Loops…. they really are disgustingly yummy! What can I say? hee hee

  • 7 Steph yazmış:

    I love pictures of food! AND I LOVE cereal, ANYTIME OF THE DAY! AND I am soooo sorry for your dental work…I strongly dislike going to the dentist.

    p.s. no that is not the church I attend…=)

  • 8 TAWny yazmış:

    MMMM, that stew looks and sound delicious! I haven’t ever really made one, but I want to try yours now! I will save it for a cold day…weather over hear is said to be in the 70’s this weekend 🙂

  • 9 dysfunctional mom yazmış:

    That stew looks delicious! I’m partial to Fruity Pebbles, myself. ;o)

  • 10 Blessed Adventures yazmış:

    Great post!