Happy Thursday babe!
It's official: Peanut has reached term (37 weeks) and is now able to enter the world and able to breathe on his own! Huge milestone in this pregnancy and it's getting REALLY REAL now lol
And I have a sneaking suspicion he'll be early, just like his brother was. Aiden came a bit early at 39 weeks + 4 days, and although I asked my mom to originally come on Oct 23 to be here with us, this week I called her and asked to move up the travel to Oct 20, 1 week before due date, just in case.
At the end of the day, guesstimating baby's arrival is a total crap shoot, but I have been having intuition as well as some soft signs that he's getting ready sooner rather than later (lots of pressure in my lower pelvis, increased urination omg, and just a hunch lol). Although like last time, I have a few deadlines I need to complete and I am hoping he waits until I've done so - cross your fingers for me that I don't have an early arrival and 8 meal plans to create for clients LOL 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
Anywho, if you've been following along you'll know that I've been doing some weekly batch cooking and freezing to prep for those early days when the sleep deprivation will be high and the motivation to cook very low, and THIS is one of those recipes that was an instant hit in our family. So much I knew I had to share with you!
Beef Stroganoff is a completely new recipe to us - we never really cook with egg noodles, but we love our slow cooker and one (or two) pot meals so I was up for the challenge.
Also, a little behind-the-scenes: I look for inspiration from the internet when trying new recipes, and my goal is always to take a base recipe and try to make it healthier or more balanced.
The original recipe I found called for a lot of butter, sour cream and bourbon, and one veggie, so I knew I wanted to play around with this. I ended up making a few tweaks by changing up the type and amount of alcohol, swapping out some sour cream for Greek yogurt, and adding in more veggies - and I think the result is nothing short of DELICIOUS!
And the great thing about it? You can set it and forget it for the day, and come home after a day out with the fam to a yummy meal - mmmmm!
Also, check out the NOTES at the bottom of the recipe - I shared how I made a BATCH cook of this, so we had leftovers AND enough for at least 4 meals to freeze.
Give it a try, and if you do, share your thoughts in the comments below - I love hearing your feedback and it helps me fine tune all my recipes for you!
And keep your fingers crossed again 🤞🏼that the weather holds out on Sunday - we want to go apple/pumpkin picking and if we do you better believe I'll be cooking/baking up a storm and sharing some more seasonal recipes in blogs to come!
Happy cooking, babe!
Easy Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
Prep Time: 20min | Cook Time: 5 hours on High OR 8 hours on Low setting
Total: Time: 8hr 20min | Makes: 6-8 servings
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds beef chuck roast or top sirloin (we used sirloin and it was SO tender!)*
4 shallots, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
454g button mushrooms, washed & quartered*
4 celery stalks, diced*
Stroganoff Sauce:
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup 2% Greek yogurt
1/2 cup whiskey OR bourbon
2 tablespoons beef base (concentrated beef broth)
2 1/2 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons dried thyme
3 cups water
340g package of egg noodles*
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
Instructions:
Prep the beef: cut into small bite-size chunks, or cut against the grain into thin strips.
Prep the veggies: chop all the onions and garlic; wash and quarter the mushrooms; wash and chop the celery.
Place butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Once melted, add the onions, shallots and garlic. Sauté for 2-3 minutes, then add the beef pieces. Brown the beef on all sides, about 5 minutes. Then sprinkle the flour over the beef and stir to coat. Cook another 3 minutes then pour the mixture in the bottom of the slow cooker.
Add the chopped mushrooms and celery to the slow cooker.
In a bowl, whisk the sour cream, whiskey, beef base, Dijon mustard, and thyme together. Pour the mixture into the slow cooker, then add in 3 cups water.
Cover and slow cook for 5 hours on high, or 8 hours on low, until the beef is fork-tender.
About 15min before you’re going to eat, prepare the egg noodles. In a large pot, add water and a pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add egg noodles and cook until al dente. Strain & rinse the pot, and then place noodles back into the large pot.
Using a ladle, transfer everything in the slow cooker into the pot of egg noodles. It will be very saucy/liquidy, but once you add to the noodles they will absorb it all up and the stroganoff will come together to be very creamy!
Serving size: 1-2 cupped handfuls stroganoff.
*NOTES:
MAKE IT A BIG BATCH COOK: Use 2 1/4 lb of meat, 650g mushrooms, 1 whole bunch of celery, plus any other hard veggie you might like (eg carrots), along with a second 340g package of egg noodles. This is what I did to make a giant pot of stroganoff and it gave us plenty of leftovers AND a huge container to freeze!
