Beef and Noodles {Using Homemade Egg Noodles}

I think I'm weird.  Why is it that so often I am much more productive when I've gotten barely any sleep?  Maybe I'm running on adrenaline.  Seriously.  Most folks can barely function with just a few hours of sleep.  I, on the other hand, am slow-moving, groggy and fatigued-feeling when I've gotten a long night's sleep.  However, it never fails that when I've only slept for three or four hours, I'm running around the house in the morning like a crazy person ... all hyped up and full of energy.   

It happened today.  I was up until almost three in the morning working on the blog and cleaning around the house.  I swore I'd go back to bed once the kids got on the bus for school at seven this morning.  Nope.  Instead, I stayed up doing laundry, making homemade egg noodles, watching t.v. and editing blog photos. I'm sure I'll pay for it later.  Sigh.

But, this recipe is certainly worth spending a little time on. It's nothing overly complicated, but the result is a total COMFORT FOOD dinner that your family will greatly appreciate. You'll, basically, be braising beef until ultra tender on the stove top in a rich broth, making my two-ingredient egg noodles while the meat cooks and then bringing the two components together to simmer to perfection.

NOTE: You'll need to go HERE for my post on making your own egg noodles from scratch. 

Serves 4 - 6.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew - Prepped the Night Before

Ya wanna know what I adore about this recipe?  Well, of course, the first thing is that it is absolutely delicious!  But, there's a second (and maybe equally as awesome) aspect that I love.  The stew is all made in advance the night before you plan to cook it!  I know ... super fabulous, right?

It is prepped at night, thrown in the fridge and all you have to do is turn on the slow cooker in the morning.  I love that!  It means I don't have to be standing over the stove browning and searing the meat when I've barely had my first cup of coffee in the morning!  It means I don't have to wash and cut potatoes in my jammies before the sun is barely up.  It, also, means that I wake up to having no dishes to face bright and early and no work to really be done for this recipe!  Wohoo!

I went to bed with the kitchen all cleaned up and woke up being able to enjoy a care-free morning ... all while knowing dinner was taken care of.  I mean, how hard is it to set the insert into the slow cooker, dump in the already-prepped potatoes (more on that later), set the slow cooker for eight hours and walk away?

(Okay, so maybe I've had some mornings when those few, basic tasks would have seemed impossible, but that was probably back in my early-twenties ... and we won't go there.  I will tell ya that I probably wasn't prepping beef stew the night before either!)

The fact that it is pretty darn cold here in Michigan this week completely justifies some type of stew or soup simmerin' away in the slow cooker all day!  Another bonus - my son's fifth grade music program was the night we had this stew, so having dinner all ready to go meant less chaos in my house on a busy evening!