Review: Crockpot Beef Stroganoff

I have a different version of this recipe which I invented during my newlywed years called Slow Steak when our finances were at their tightest and I had to get creative. This is a less extreme version of that recipe that I found online.

Crockpot Beef Stroganoff-

2 pounds stew beef, cut into bite size cubes
3 Tbsp. flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1 medium yellow onion, diced

1 cup beef broth
1 garlic clove, minced or grated
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 Tbsp. flour

1 cup sour cream

hot cooked wide egg noodles

Mix together the flour and salt and coat beef well with mixture. Melt butter or margarine in large heavy skillet and add beef. Cook over medium high heat until beef is just browned, flipping so each side gets browned. (Don’t crowd the beef in the pan; cook only as much as will fit easily in the pan. Remove and add more. This will keep the skillet hot and prevent the beef from “steaming.”) Replace all browned beef to hot pan and add onions. Continue cooking on hot, stirring often, until onion becomes just transparent.

Into the slow cooker, add the beef broth, garlic, mushrooms, and 1 tablespoon flour. Add the cooked beef and onions from the skillet and stir gently to combine.

Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 9 hours. Add sour cream, stirring to combine, and replace cover and continue to cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until heated through. Serve over hot cooked wide egg noodles

This recipe required a little bit of prep work. I'm not sure if it mattered in the end result but the dinner was so delicious, I wouldn't attempt it any other way. I used 1lb of beef (not huge beef eaters in this house as I'm a fallen-away vegetarian who still has issues with meat = healthy) and I found that this was enough for my family of five and one leftover meal. Otherwise, I would increase to 2 packs of mushrooms to stretch 1 lb of meat or increase to 2 lbs of meat... there is never any harm with more mushrooms. Mushrooms are meaty by nature and are often used as a meat substitute for vegetarian recipes. In the future, I'll use many more mushrooms. I increased the garlic to 4 cloves beause there is no such thing as too much garlic. I did everything else as directed. Cooked for 6 hours on low then added some sour cream to taste at the end just before serving. I cook the noodles in a generous amount of salt so they are flavored and I avoid high sodium levels in the meal itself. This meal was delicious and perfect for a fall day. I think you could make this vegetarian easily by adding a combination of portabella and other mushrooms and just increasing the mushroom levels. You could still leave it in a slow cooker; however, mushrooms are expensive so this may not be a frugal meal afterward.

Beef chunks for stew- $2.56 @ 1.10 lb (You can use very cheap cuts of steak like round and shoulder... depending on what cost less, for me this was the cheapest option at my store. The meat will cook just as soft in a crock pot so here, cuts do not matter.)
Flour and seasonings- pennies over time
Broth- used bullion instead, pennies over time.
Garlic bulb- pennies, purchase price of garlic was .56 and is being used for multiple recipes
Egg Noodles- 1.05 (amazingly enough with all the noodles I have in my stock pile..I had no egg noodles!)
Mushrooms, pre-sliced- 1.30 (slice them yourself to save money if presliced is more expensive, in my store they are the same price)
Onion- .10
= approximately .83 a serving for a 1lb package of beef and 1 package of mushrooms. Unfortunately, there were no coupons for me to use on this trip!