Hearty Beef Stew with Winter Vegetables

One of my goals is to find 60 recipes that I can rotate throughout the year for family dinners. With 60 rotational recipes, it will be easy to plan what I am making for the week, what to have in my food storage and I can coordinate better what to buy when things are on sale. I have been trying new recipes since the fall and I have almost 30 decent recipes. I find recipes on blogs, websites and occasionally in magazines. I have also gotten some recipes from family members. As a family we decide if a recipe is a keeper  or tossed aside. We don't always agree so the recipe has to have a 2/3 majority vote and be within any dietary restrictions.

One of our recipes that made it to our rotation by a 2/3 majority is the Hearty Beef Stew with Winter Vegetables by McCormick. I love that it has butternut squash, parsnips and it's pretty easy to make. The only adjustments I make to the recipe is I use the apple juice variation instead of the dry red wine, sometimes I don't add carrots, and I double the amount of liquid that it says to use (apple juice and chicken stock). The liquid may even need to be tripled. There isn't very much liquid used and it's not very thick, but it tastes good and healthy. I also cut up enough vegetables to make two stews, since usually a good sized butternut squash can be enough for two, and half of it for another day. To find the recipe, click here.