Meatball Stew

On cold winter days you need warm, hearty meals. This past weekend it was around -16 degrees here, and yesterday it rained and was 50 degrees. Get your act together New England! Anyways, we didn't have the ingredients for pot roast this weekend, but I did have ingredients for something pretty similar. I just replaced the roast with meatballs, and it also takes less time to cook. I omitted the onions and celery, but if no one in your family opposes them I would keep them in.

The one thing I would change is cooking the veggies for the full 4-5 hours alone, then adding the cooked meatballs in and cooking another couple of hours. After 5 hours, My potatoes and carrots were not cooked through and I ended up removing them and heating them in the microwave and putting them back into the crockpot. Way more work for a meal that I wanted to set and forget. Other than that, I knew it may not be filling enough for Dan as is, so I made mashed potatoes to serve it over. I don't recommend doubling up on the starches here. You can eat it as is, like a stew, or leave out the potatoes, and keep the carrots, onions and celery and serve over egg noodles. You can use this recipe a few different ways.

Also, don't mind my picture. I forgot to take one at my first serving, so I took one of my messy plate during my second serving. The below recipe is how I made it, not including my suggestion of cooking the veggies first.

Meatball Stew
From Pocket Change Gourmet

1 pkg. frozen meatballs or homemade, cooked (about 20 meatballs)
4 large carrots, peeled and chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, sliced
1 can tomato soup
1 can beef gravy
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 tsp. or 2 cubes of beef bouillon
1 cup water

1. Place chopped veggies in a crockpot.
2. Pour remaining ingredients (other than meatballs) in and combine.
3. Add meatballs, mix, and cook on low 4-5 hours until veggies are tender.

** To prepare on stove top, combine all ingredients in a stockpot. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer for an hour or until veggies are tender.