I'm sorry to say that this recipe has been my biggest let down of this project. The biggest mistake I made was going to Noodles & Co. and thinking "I can totally make this in a crock pot!". Full of excellent stroganoff and confidence I began researching healthy crock pot versions of my delicious dinner. I found one that seemed relatively easy to prepare and I had some of the ingredients on hand. Another mistake I made was forgetting my grocery list at home when I went shopping; thus my version of this dish does not include parsley and uses chicken broth instead of beef. One substitution that I intentionally made was using extra lean beef for stew instead of top round steak cut into 1 inch cubes. At the time it seemed like like a good idea because the beef I bought was already cut (smaller than 1 inch) which would me save time. The problem was since the thinner sliced meet was cooking for 8 hours it became a shredded mess in the sauce instead of the tender cubes I was expecting. Another mistake I made was adding too much garlic. Due to the garlic catastrophe of 2014, I don't like using fresh garlic cloves like the recipe calls for. I supplemented with what I thought was the equivalent of 3 cloves of garlic of minced garlic from a jar that I already had. Apparently my estimating skills are just what I feared they were and the dish ended up being too garlicky.
One good thing was that the prep was really easy. There was minimal chopping and all I had to do was throw all the ingredients into my adorable crock pot and turn it on. The end product was not what I expect but still good. With the lessons I have learned from this trial run I think it will be better the next time I make it!
Check out my adorable crock pot!!!
One good thing was that the prep was really easy. There was minimal chopping and all I had to do was throw all the ingredients into my adorable crock pot and turn it on. The end product was not what I expect but still good. With the lessons I have learned from this trial run I think it will be better the next time I make it!
Check out my adorable crock pot!!!
Resources:
recipe with my notes
Noodles & Co. recipe (if I ever have more time and am brave enough to try it)
Garlic clove conversions
recipe with my notes
Noodles & Co. recipe (if I ever have more time and am brave enough to try it)
Garlic clove conversions