Cooler autumn weekends call out for easy, warming soups and stews.  One of our most successful meal planning strategies for every season except summer has been Sabbath  Soup or Stew!  We schedule soups and stews on Sunday so that we can enjoy the leftovers on our very hectic Monday nights.  We look for simple recipes that allow for leisurely preparation after church, and during pre-game or half-time.  Mr. Garner’s long-standing Beef Stew from Best Recipes has been a family favorite for over a decade, but a recent email from Kalyn’s Kitchen included a recipe for Mediterranean Beef Stew with Rosemary and Balsamic Vinegar.  It sounded so very interesting we decided to take a break from the familiar and try something new.

The recipe (follow the link to Kalyn’s site) calls for black olives, which my children love; mushrooms, which Mr. Garner loves; and lots of garlic which we all love! It also uses fresh rosemary which we have in glorious abundance.  (If you need any, please, just let me know!)  Mr. Garner offered to handle the preparation in lieu of joining the daughter and I on a shopping trip.  Imagine that.  This is a slow cooker recipe, but because of a late start, he used his normal beef stew technique which involves the oven,  He also used fresh heirloom tomatoes instead of canned and diced.

We paired the stew with sour dough bread, and a bottle of Mt. Monster Cabernet an Australian Cabernet from the Limestone Coast.  It was flavorful and held up well to the spices in the stew.

As I’ve said many times before The Garners are not foodies.  We enjoy good food, but we don’t have the time or money to obsess over it.  Kalyn’s Kitchen is one of only two cooking blogs that I follow.  I appreciate Kalyn’s commitment to healthy low glycemic recipes, but she also categorizes her recipes by gluten-free, paleo, vegan, meatless, low-carb, and freezable.   Most of our favorite recipes have come from her blog!  Mediterranean Beef Stew with Rosemary and Balsamic Vinegar was yet another hit and has been added to our Sabbath Soup or Stew rotation!