For the fans of quick and easy meals.

I'm an ardent fan of quick and easy meals. In fact, nothing I have ever cooked for my family or for a fancy holiday dinner to impress my guests was never a 25 ingredients, 2 days prep dishes. My creative challenge is always to cook a dish that is minimum ingredients and time that will result in a jaw dropping, oh, wait, it's unattractive when food falls out of your mouth, then impressive dish with gourmet appeal that alludes at the long hours and much sweat put into it. Oh, wait again...No, no sweat put into it...FDA wouldn't approve...Labour! yes, labour!

Adventerous as I am ( I did watch a few episodes of True Blood), I bought a pack of beef cubes for a stew in Trader Joes. My beef never succeeded, so I stopped trying a few years ago. However, there is a point in your life when you feel like you're growing wings after the years of cooking chicken at home. I looked up a recipe on Foodnetwork.com:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/beef-stew-recipe2/index.html

Out of all the beef stew recipes that looked like the simplest. Level EASY, the only thing I did not have in my pantry was thyme, so I substituted it with oregano. ( Told you, I was adventurous!) It warns about 20 minutes of prep time and 2 hours 45 minutes of cooking. Well, well, well...

Achievements:

 - for the 1st time in my life the beef was soft and delicous, not chewy and hard.

 - potatoes came out soft, flavorful, in fact I myself ate them after years of carbs and starch deprivation, especially in the form of potatoes, with the noble purpose of preserving my petite figure. Well, no as much as preserve, as actually get to this petite figure.

 - Unexpected turn of events: I had crimini mushrooms that I added instead of canned tomatoes. Good idea. ( I'm going to update my adventurous portfolio)

Struggles:

 - Sauteeing beef is long, you do this in batches....20 min

 - Sauteeing onion, garlic, see the recipe - 10 min

 - Cook the meat until tender - 1 hr 30 min

 - Cut vegetables, add and cook all together - 1 hr

 Total 3 hours...

Results:

 - Plating into rustic clay bowls - 20 sec

 - Preparing tea - 10 min

 - Having warm dinner in front of Grey's Anatomy - 10 min ( for me, 4 min for my husband, he chews fast. How many times did I tell him?! Nobody runs after you! Grey's Anatomy is 1 hour long!)

- The look of impression and a healthy appetite on my husband's face - rewarding.

 - Clean up time - priceless.

 - Leftovers - 1 1/3 servings.

Was the endeavor worthwhile?