My mother has given me so many wonderful things in my life.

My smile.

My creative flare.

My "cuteness" (which we both roll our eyes at but everyone else seems to find endearing).

My cooking skills.

My nurturing nature.

This beef stew recipe.

Okay, so the gig is up...I can't take credit for this recipe. This *amazing* recipe is a culinary creation of my dear mother. Well, most of it.

See, I truly think we have a little recipe developer inside all of us...including my mom.

We all take a recipe that we love. Someone else's brilliance. And we make it. And we like it...but it doesn't quite fit our personal taste or lifestyle. So we tweak the recipe to fit us as a unique person or to fit our family's life. And then we love that new, tweaked recipe...and it becomes part of our regular life.

Some recipes we tweak a little. And some recipes we tweak a lot. This recipe has gone through lots of tweaking to be what I bring to you today.

Believe it or not, this recipe actually started off as a South Beach Diet recipe that my mom found years and years ago. I remember coming over for dinner one night with my (then) new husband and her serving us Peanut Butter Beef Stew for dinner. The idea of peanut butter in beef stew weirded me out more than a little bit, but then I took a bite. And I loved it!

A few months later, my mom made the beef stew for dinner for us again...this time tweaked a little more with added veggies. And I loved it even more. Soon, it became a staple dinner whenever Ken and I came over to visit for dinner. I remember being pregnant and begging her to make me a batch, since I had started having recurring dreams about peanut butter beef stew. My love for this beef stew goes deep and true.

However, it wasn't quite perfect for my life now. So, I went all Natural Nurturer on it so that my beloved beef stew could be part of my regular life.

Originally, you need to simmer this stew for hours and ain't nobody got time for that! So I decided to make it a slow cooker recipe. Also, the recipe called for chipotle..making this quite a spicy meal. While the chipotle was a wonderful addition, it made the stew quite spicy and not ideal for serving to a family with young children. So away went the chipotle. Also, I needed way more veggies than the original recipe called for! No meal is complete without veggies in my book, and in a beef stew is the perfect place to add oodles! Finally, I opted to make this beef stew with almond butter instead of peanut butter. It was something that I started during a round of Whole30 about a year ago and found that I prefer the flavor of the almond butter over the peanut!

And, voila, this recipe was born! And then made on repeat! For always. Because I will never...ever....ever tire of this Slow Cooker Almond Butter Beef Stew.

Important note: I made this stew in my large 6-quart slow cooker. If your slow cooker is on the small size, consider halving the recipe to ensure all of the ingredients will fit and cook through.

Serves 5-6

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 pounds round steak, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup creamy unsweetened almond butter
1 1/2 cups diced tomatoes
5 cups bone broth or stock
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups diced sweet potatoes
1 cup diced carrots
1 1/2 cup green beans, roughly chopped

Directions:

Add all ingredients except for the green beans to slow cooker. Stir to combine.
Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
30 minutes prior to end of cook time, add the green beens to the slow cooker, stirring again to combine. Cover again and continue to cook.
Remove bay leaves and enjoy warm! Store cooled leftovers in fridge for up to 5 days or in freezer for a month.

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