I’m not going to lie. This being a mum gig, while totally amazing and rewarding and full of love, it’s challenging. One of the hardest things I think, is making time for myself. It has been especially hard recently with a few viruses (one rather nasty one that landed poor Ollie in hospital for 3 nights) and a little bit of renovating thrown in the mix.
In the last few months I’ve realised just how important it is and how much it affects me if I don’t do it. It’s not just mummas, we all have to put ourselves first sometimes. The best thing I’ve heard recently is you got to fill your own cup before you can fill others’ from it. Even if it’s just making a cup of tea and drinking it while it’s hot, I try and do something for myself every day. ‘Try’ being the operative word.
Coming up with new recipes and getting a moment to think about it and actually focus is one of my favourite things. I had an abundance of mushrooms a few weeks ago and somehow beef and red wine popped into my head. I did lots of recipe Googling and in the end decided to channel my inner Masterchef and wing it.
Oh how I love my slow cooker. It doesn’t seem to matter what I put in it, it always turns out amazing (except beef cheeks but that’s a story for another day). The other reason I like it is that I get to do a bit of cooking so I get my little bit of Claire time and then the slow cooker does the rest.
My big little man loves to help me in the kitchen so the maximum time I ever get alone is about 5 minutes if he’s awake. That’s all the time it really takes to make this deliciously comforting winter warmer.
Feel free to just leave out the flouring of the meat part and throw everything in at once, set it and walk away. It will still be delicious. It was even better the next day for lunch and it freezes well too. Enjoy!
- 1 kg beef diced (2-3cm chunks)
- 2 tbsp wholemeal flour (or alternative gluten free flour)
- Sea salt
- Pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 brown onion roughly diced
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- ½ cup red wine
- ½ cup beef stock
- 1 tin tomato (drain the liquid)
- 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 cups (7ish) mushrooms cut into chunks
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Pop the flour with some salt and pepper in a plastic bag or tupperware container and add the beef then shake it around to coat it.
- Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large frying pan and cook ⅓ or ½ the beef (however much fits in one layer) until it is just browned then remove the slow cooker and repeat with the rest of the meat.
- Heat the other tablespoon of oil then cook the onion and garlic just until softened and add it to the slow cooker.
- Pour the red wine and stock into pan and scrape the bottom, heat it until it bubbles then pour it into slow cooker and add the tin tomato, carrots, mushrooms, tomato paste, bay leaves, soy sauce and lemon juice and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8.
- Serve with mashed potato.
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