Easiest Beef Stew Ever

I made beef stew last night-yay! an actual home cooked meal!! Never mind that it was still in the 100's yesterday and I had the oven on for 2 hours, we had a delicious home cooked dinner that was pretty darn easy to make.

Whenever round steak or london broil is on sale at the grocery store, it's time to make beef stew. I'm really picky about meat, any fatty meats just gross me out, so round steak or london broil is about the only meat that I buy, no precut stew meat for me, it's just too icky.

This recipe is just so easy, you just cut everything up and put it in a casserole pan, no browning the meat or any of that nonsense. All you do is:

Cut up your steak, removing all nasty fatty parts of course-the recipe calls for 2 lbs, but I just use one round steak or london broil.
Cut up an onion-I use sweet onions because the regular ones make me cry and give me indigestion.
Cut up some potatoes-the recipe calls for 4, but I used 2 big ones.
Cut up some carrots-2 or 3 or 4 or however many you want.
Oh, spray the pan with cooking spray first-for easy clean up and easy scooping out of the stew.
As you are cutting, you can arrange all the stuff in the pan so it's mixed together to insure you get steak, potatoes, carrots, and onion in your bowl instead of just a bowl of carrots because all the meat is on the other side of the pan.
See how the ingredients are neatly arranged in the pan, saving you from mixing anything together.

And make sure you have adequate supervision in the kitchen.
Then, after everything is all arranged in a pleasing manner in the pan, you mix together (in a bowl)
2 cups tomato juice-you could probably try V-8 for a different taste sensation here.
1 cup water
3 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca-for those of you who didn't grow up in the 60's, tapioca is most commonly used for pudding, but it works as a thickener in this stew. It comes in a little red box that looks like a minute rice box, but much smaller. This recipe is the only thing I've ever used tapioca for, so the little box lasts a very very long time.
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

After this is all mixed together in the bowl, you just pour it over the beef stew in the pan, tightly cover the pan with aluminum foil and stick the whole thing into a 350 degree oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Again, make sure your dish is approved for appearance.

Then, after the 2 to 2 1/2 hours have passed by and your house smells like beef stew (as long as you remembered to turn on the oven, anyway), take the pan out of the oven-be sure to use oven mitts cause it's hot!-remove the foil and dinner is ready. Some bread or something is good with this stew because the gravy it makes tastes really good when you dunk your bread into it. Or you could have a green salad or something. Or both bread and green salad. Whatever, this stew is really good and easy enough for a lazy person like me to make.
Be sure to put it in bowls and let it cool off a little. Remember it's been in the oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours and it's hot! As Keith found out when he stuck a spoon in this for a taste test.
Dinner's ready!