This was really good! For next time, I will add more onion as the onion I used was medium at best. I may also experiment with adding something sweet (sugar) to counteract any acidity from the canned tomatoes. However, it does taste good as is so I’m not sure I really would change a lot.

Breaking the lasagna into bite-sized pieces... didn’t really go well and was finicky. Next time I’ll just get some of the smaller pasta that is already the same general size. 

I somewhat want a bit more ground beef but at the same time, this is a soup so it’s meant to have more liquid. 

I cooked this last night and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it turned out! I am so spice-adverse that they need to make a new category of mild for me so the cayenne pepper was completely out of the question and I was seriously debating the merits of making my own chili powder without the cayenne/chili in it. 

Happily, I decided that chili powder really is a mix of spices, only one of which is SPICY and added it in. I do not regret it. My chili is so mild at the moment that I (shockingly) could have probably withstood spicier.

I had a bit more than 2 lbs of ground beef and probably a larger onion than they had but it all worked out in the end. I know that slow cooking tends to bring out the liquids so I drained the beef after cooking it (plus removes fat) and drained both cans of kidney beans but I still ended up with quite a lot of liquid in the pot. Not bad, mind you, but still a lot.

I used red potatoes cut in half and they did fairly well in this stew. I found a package of pre-cut beef called stewing beef and it was a sign so I bought it and I was very pleased with how it turned out. I did sear the beef before putting it in and I’m not sure if that really helped but either way it turned out great so I’m going to keep doing it. 

Now, the liquid is fairly runny but I am not thickening it up with cornstarch because it’s not bad as is. The balsamic and honey end up making an almost sweet and sour sauce and tastes really good.

In the future though, I will sear the beef and then put it into the crockpot first. This time around I put in all the cut vegetables and then seared the beef and put it in on top. By the time I opened the pot the next morning, parts of the beef that were exposed got that sort of air-dried look (but they don’t taste bad! just, they may have been even better all buried). 

This turned out very well! My ginger is a tad bit overpowering (I used an approximately 1″ x 1″ x 1.5″ knob - next time, smaller) but all in all, a great first attempt. I didn’t even end up adding salt since I thought it tasted fine as is.

I used 2 1/3 chinese sausages as my meat and the Better than Bouillon chicken flavour for the stock. 

I didn’t have any white peppercorns so I just substituted in black peppercorns and I also didn’t have scallions so green onions it was. 

My attempt: