Desperation Beef

Total Time: 45 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 3
• 1 lb beef stew meat
• 2 medium fresh tomatoes
• 1 green pepper (recipe only says green pepper, but i think it's one chopped fine)
• 1 sliced onion (but the recipe specifies chopped fine)
• 1 (8 ounce) can mushrooms (recipe doesn't specify, but this seems reasonable)

Recipe

• 1 cut beef into very small pieces.
• 2 brown slightly, add 3/4 cup water and other ingredients cut up into small pieces.
• 3 simmer till beef is done.
• 4 my notes:.
• 5 * this recipe was written when stew beef was the scribbly bits they cut off of everything else and was about the cheapest meat available. i suppose you could use store-ground beef for the same reason; if so it should be drained before adding the other ingredients. i used "beef for stroganoff" because it was the cheapest cut available that day. the meat is cut small to cook faster.
• 6 * i think the recipe is calling for 1 green pepper, chopped.
• 7 * i used the mushrooms undrained for a bit more liquid; it does boil away.
• 8 * the gravy is like an au-jus when you're done. i thickened it with a tablespoon of cornstarch to make a more substantial gravy.
• 9 * this is a sort of stove-top stew. it predates hamburger helper. it's not a bad recipe, but could do with some tweaking.