Beef Stew

2 TBL flour
1 lb beef or pork stew meat
2 TBL cooking oil
3 ½ cups vegetable juice cocktail
½ cup chopped onion
2 tsp instant beef bouillon granules
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp dried basil, crushed
½ tsp dried thyme, crushed
2 ¼ cups cubed, peeled potatoes
2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery

(This is the original recipe above. I also included peas and corn)

Place flour in a plastic bag. Add meat cubes, a few at a time, shaking to coat. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven brown meat, half at a time, in hot oil. Return meat to saucepan. Add juice cocktail, onion, bouillon granules, garlic, basil, and thyme. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover; simmer 1 to 1 ¼ hours for beef (30 minutes for pork) or till meat is nearly tender. Add potatoes, carrots
and celery (peas and corn). Cover, simmer 30 minutes more. Skim fat. Makes 4 main-dish servings.

Crock-pot directions: Prepare and brown meat as above. In the bottom of a 4 quart crock-pot layer onion, potatoes, carrots and celery (and peas and corn).
Sprinkle with bouillon granules, garlic, basil and thyme; add meat. Pour 2 ½ cups vegetable juice cocktail over meat. Cover; cook on low heat setting for 10-12 hours
or till meat and vegetables are tender.

Notes:

1. Since this serves 4, I increased the ingredients by 1.5 times and included corn and peas.
2. You will probably want to add 3 ½ to 4 cups of the vegetable juice cocktail (depending on how brothy you like your soup)
3. When I made it in the crock-pot, it took <10 hours on low.