Here comes the Blizzard!!

Now..I'm not talking about a Dairy Queen delight with millions of calories that I used to believe were worth it.. no, I am talking about a real live, storm as big as the Blizzard of 78 storm.. I am unemployed as of late, so I had all day to work on preparing for the storm.  Forcasters have been telling us for days that we were going to be getting 10"-20" of snow and ice too.  The just couldn't tell us who was getting the most ice.. and the most snow. Winter Storm warnings started Monday.. Blizzard Warnings were brought on today.  Where I am sitting right now seems to be in this small pocket of "could go either way".. we live really close to the county line for the Blizzard.. ugh.  So anyway.. back to the preparations! Yesterday, I made Stuffed Shells for my hubby and a dish of just the ricotta filling for me.. and I forgot to take pictures.. sorry. Then I made a crockpot of Beef Stew. I can't wait to dig into that! I'll post pics when we do!  I also made some Weight Watchers Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I experiemented with the recipe, and I didn't get it right. Better luck next time. They are still tasty!

Crockpot Beef Stew

4 T Olive Oil

1 pound beef stew meat, trimmed

2 T butter or margarine

4 T flour, divided

2 cans low sodium beef broth

1 c carrots, sliced

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

1/2 c corn (fresh or frozen is best, but canned is just as good!)

1 small onion, diced

1/2 t  dried oregano

1/2 t parsley flakes

1/4 c barley

Salt N Pepper, to taste

Place carrots, potatoes, corn and onion in a medium crockpot and turn crockpot on low. Heat olive oil in a large skillet.  Dredge stew meat in 2 T flour and brown in oil, processing in batches if need be.  When all meat is browned, remove from skillet and place in crock pot with the veggies.  Place butter in hot skillet that you just browned the meat in and stir until melted.  Add in remaining 2 T of flour.  Stir together and cook until flour is a light brown.  Whisk in about 1 cup of the beef broth to make a thin gravy and add in salt, pepper, parsley and oregano. Cook until bubbly.  While the gravy simmers, add remaining beef broth to crockpot. Add hot mixture to crockpot and stir.  Cook on low 5 hours.  Add in Barley using more if the broth is too thin. Cook an additional 2 hours or until barley is cooked and sauce is thick.