Dinner ♥ Crock Pot Beans 'n Meat

Tonight I have to work (5 pm to 8am). As such I won't be home for dinner. We are also running low on our stock pile of frozen tamales and kibbeh. I've also decided I should add ravioli to my repertoire (to freeze and demolish as desired). However I won't be slaving away in the kitchen today. Instead I am crockpotting.

The crock pot has been my life-saver on those nights when I work. I can prep food in the morning and have it ready in the late afternoon for me to take to work and for my family to be fed.

We've been sharing recipes at work (I'm not the only gal who routinely abandons her family at dinner time). Our husbands are, shall we say, not so good in the kitchen and none of us has yet to win the lotto. As such we need easy, tasty and frugal meals.

I've struggled with sharing some of my recipes, not because they are near and dear to my heart, but because I am a "little of this, little of that" type of cook, i.e. I rarely measure out my ingredients.

However, this morning, while prepping dinner I *actually* measured things. As such I present to you crock pot beans 'n meat.

Ingredients:

• Stew Meat (~ 1 quart bag full -- I buy my stew meat in bulk, parcel it out into bags and freeze it for later use)
• 32 oz Chicken or Beef Stock (My favorite is Pacific brand, I think it has the best flavor. I use chicken stock because again I buy in bulk and keep it in the pantry)
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
• Fresh Ground Pepper
• 1/2 onion
• Two cans green beans, drained.
• 6 oz can of tomato paste
• Rice

Directions:

Cut onion into slices and place in crock pot. Top with stew meat. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and allspice. Pour in stock. Cover and cook on high until meat tender (6-8 hours). About an hour before serving add green beans and tomato paste. Stir, cover and continue cooking. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve over a bed of rice.*

* Any rice will work. I have to admit I *love* my rice cooker almost as much as I love my crock pot. It even has a timer to delay cooking. We've been using brown rice which seems to take

F O R E V E R. You'll have to time your rice accordingly. The beans and meat can happily stay warm in the crock pot while the rice cooks.