Family Mealtime: Slow-Cooker Sweet and Sour Beef

Oh the slow-cooker.  Even during the summer months I think it’s a winner.  I know not everyone is into stews and such when it’s hot but it certainly doesn’t heat up the house like the oven and it’s still an easy choice.

This Sweet and Sour Beef recipe comes courtesy of Ricardo.  I’ve taken the original recipe and retooled it to make it much easier.  If you want to know what Ricardo does click through to the original here.  If you want to skip half the steps, follow my recipe!  Because I’m all about simplifying things.  Personally, I realize I would much rather bake than cook so I tend to try and make my meals as easy as possible.

I greened this up with steamed broccoli.  I made a full head and a half and then blitzed up the rest to make purée for my youngest.  Easy.

For the meat I used palette or stewing beef.  I really love the intense flavour of these cuts of beef.

I doubled the sauce, cause that’s how I roll.  I also cooked it in my mini slow-cooker which I’m always banging on about because I find it just so much easier to store and clean and it fits everything I need.

For more slow cooker meals, I highly recommend Ricardo: Slow Cooker Favourites.  I have several slow-cooker cookbooks and this one is by FAR my favourite.

I realize that so many of these recipes have been meat-centric so I am going to make an effort to make some vegetarian friendly meals.

As always, I’m open to reader suggestions!

Ps. Want more family friendly meals?  Check out my Slow-Cooker Maple-Ginger Chicken, Pesto Bacon Fusilli with Zucchini, Slow-Cooker 3-Ingredient Tacos, Easy Orzo, Cheats Pizza and Coconut Beef & Rice.