Lazy Day Beef Stew

Yesterday was chilly and damp--a perfect day for beef stew. However, I was tired and didn't want to fuss. I also have other things to do than cook! But, oh, I had such an hankering! It had been a hot, hot, hot summer and I haven't had beef stew in a long time.

So I made the laziest beef stew ever.

At the grocery store, I picked up a package of already cut up chuck pieces, a bag of carrots, a sweet potato, some Lipton Beefy Onion Soup and Dip mix, and a disposal aluminum baking pan.

At home, I sprayed the baking pan with cooking spray. Then roughly cut up a sweet potato, four carrots and an onion. Put those in the pan and sprinkled with a half a package of the soup mix. I placed the beef chunks on top of the veggies and sprinkled the rest of the soup mix on top. I then added a few bay leaves, shook some garlic powder, pepper and allspice on top. Last step was to pour a small can of V-8 juice over the whole thing.

Then I wrapped the pan in many layers of aluminum foil and put the pan in a 325 degree oven for about 3 1/2 hours. That was it. No flouring or browning of anything.

The smells were incredible! The stew was tasty. I've probably made better stew--but this one was very satisfying. A good way to welcome this cooler weather.

The best part--I just had to toss the roasting pan when done. No washing of pots and pans!