Day 2: Easy Beef Stew - Kraft Website - 2 stars

Prep: 30 min
Cook: 3 1/2 hours
Makes: 8 servings

Ingredients:
2 lb. beef for stew (we used chuck roast), cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cups beef broth
2 cups diagonally sliced carrots (Umm, mine were just straight..not sure if that makes a difference?)
2 cups diagonally sliced celery (omitted)
2 cups quartered onions (again, just non-fancy slicing)
2 cups cubed peeled potatoes (3 cups because we love 'em)
2 tbsp. minute Tapioca (omitted b/c the store didn't have it, added 2 tbsp flour for thickening instead)
1/4 tsp ground marjoram
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground thyme
1 bay leaf (omitted...because I'm cheap, but read below for more on that)

What to do:
Preheat oven to 300. Mix all ingredients in large casserole dish; cover. (I used my crock pot liner b/c my casserole dish wasn't big enough..note to self to purchase larger one) Bake 2 1/2-3 hours or until meat/veggies are tender, stirring after three hours. Remove and Discard bay leaf.

Reviews:
It was okay, but we all felt it was lacking something. Since I'm new to this whole experimenting in the kitchen thing, I'm not sure what. Maybe that stupid bay leaf is the key? All I know is the jar was $4 and I couldn't see myself using more than one..and to top it off, you don't even eat it (not that I'd want to), but $4 for something you cook for three hours and then throw away? Anyone know if that's the secret ingredient? Or is it the tapioca..the people that reviewed it online seemed to have no problem swapping the tap for flour, but maybe that's where I went wrong? It wasn't horrible - definitely filling and the kids ate it without complaint, but it wasn't what I was hoping for.....

Nutritional Information:
Calories 200, Total Fat 6g, Protein 19g, 4%DV Calcium

Katie