Paleo Crockpot Beef Stew

I go grocery shopping the same days every week: Wednesday to Sprouts and Friday to Smith's.  If my schedule gets interrupted then I usually have some days where I am scrounging for enough food to eat.  So, because I go on the same days each week you can usually find me spending some time on Tuesday and Thursday evenings looking at recipes to try.  This Tuesday I decided to go with this paleo crockpot beef stew recipe.  I had saved it for awhile and never got around to it because my husband is not a fan of stew.  So I got all the ingredients on Wednesday and made sure to get some good bread to go along with it, because everyone knows the bread makes the stew. 

Here's all my stuff in the crockpot ready to go.  I used chicken stock because it only called for two cups and I don't know what to do with extra beef stock, but extra chicken stock can be readily used to make egg drop soup at the slightest craving.  I also didn't add any potatoes because I am still trying to keep my sugar intake low even though I am eating some natural sugars now.  I did not use arrowroot powder but just regular cornstarch.  To thicken the stew I just threw in some cornstarch at about 7 1/2 hours and stirred it in and we ate it about 30 minutes later.  It was good and thick and there was no need to ladle the liquid out of the crockpot and put it all back in again.  

Here is my finished stew.  I didn't like it as much as my mom's stew and I really like it better with potatoes, but it wasn't terrible.  It looks like it might be a good freezer meal.  I can't decide if it was better as leftovers or not, but I will probably make it again.  Crockpot meals are pretty easy for this pregnant lady.  What was even better was it just so happened to be a blustery, overcast spring day, which always makes soups and stews taste better (we also had salad with our stew).