Slow Cooked, Easy Italian Stew

Since I'm cooking most of this week's meals in my slow cooker, it is only natural that I kick off this week's recipes with one too.  This is an incredibly easy Italian stew that I threw together over the weekend.  It came out really great.  The ingredients are those that most people have on hand so you can easily toss all the stuff in your slow cooker in the morning and have a great meal ready in several hours. 


I love my slow cooker!  I truly, truly do!  I plan to use it more in the upcoming summer months so I don't have to turn on my oven and heat up my kitchen as much.  All the heat stays within the pot.  No fuss, no thrills, just easy. 




Slow Cooked, Easy Italian Stew

(Serves 5 to 6)

2 cups of chopped meat of your choice (I used a combination of chicken and turkey sausage)
1 cup of chopped vegetables of your choice (I used 1/2 cup of pureed broccoli and 1/2 cup of shredded carrots)
2 envelopes of Italian herb dressing/seasoning (I used the Good Seasons all natural Italian dressing packets) OR you can make your own double batch of Italian seasoning blend
 2 cans (14.5 oz) of stewed Italian tomatoes
1/2 cup of water
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder


Plug in your slow cooker and set the heat to low.  Place your 2 cups of chopped meat at the bottom of the slow cooker.  Put in the chopped veggies.  Sprinkle meat and veggies with the Italian seasoning.  Pour the two cans of Italian stewed tomatoes over the meat and vegetables.  Pour in the water.  Add onion powder and garlic powder.   Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4 to 6 hours.  Serve over cooked pasta or rice (about two cups).


If you decide to use chicken like I did, be careful not to overcook it or dry it out.  Mine was ready in about five hours on low heat.  However, meats such as pork sausage or stew meat may take longer to cook. 


We served ours with about 2 cups of brown rice.  Actually I threw in the cooked rice during the last 30 minutes of cooking.  It came out perfectly!  We enjoyed our stew with homemade sour cream-wheat bread.  Yummy!





Note: All of my pictures are taken from my camera phone so I apologize that they aren't the best quality but my digital camera broke over the weekend!  :-( 

Do you have an easy stew recipe that you make?  How often do you use your slow cooker?

(Please note that I don't use the word "Crock pot" because I don't own a Crock pot brand slow cooker.  I have a Hamilton beach and I LOVE it.  I've owned one for over ten years and never had a problem with it!)