To know us is to know we live in a neighborhood here in Halifax Nova Scotia known as The Hydrostone. A little bit of awesome is that in 2011 The Hydrostone was named the second greatest neighborhood in all of Canada by the Canadian Institute of Planners.

It’s an amazing place to live.

Not hardly a stone’s throw away from our front door is a recent addition to the neighborhood; Highland Drive Butchery owned and operated by Jessi Gillis.

As soon as we saw the “coming soon” sign go up in her windows we just about freaked out. One of the most important aspects of us eating a Paleo foundation is wanting to find our food as close to home as possible. Having only one income at the moment (fingers crossed for that to change sooner than later) makes it a little difficult to do this 100% of the time but this year we participated in our first CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) and you will often find us down at the Seaport Market stocking up on in-season goodness.

The other day we had a hankering for slow cooker beef stew and this is where our lovely friend and meat connoisseur, Jessi comes into play. Word on the street is her stewing meat is the best in town and if you catch her on the right day there is some delicious beef stock to be snatched up.

We won’t lie to you. We’re not in a place financially to always use Highland Drive for our butcher needs but when we do it’s almost magical.

 

 

 

 

1 1/2 pounds of stewing meat, 2 cups of just made beef stock and some fresh veggies were in our hot little hands we found the original recipe over at FitViews (p.s. Kerri is awesome) and as usual, we changed a few things according to our tastes (and what we had in the fridge).

Enjoy!

Paleo Slow Cooker Beef and Sweet Potato Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 – 2 lbs Stewing Beef
• 2 C Beef Stock
• 1 Tbsp FoC (Fat of Choice)
• 1 Large Onion (chopped)
• 2 Carrots (peeled and chunked)
• 2 Parsnips (cleaned and chunked)
• 3 Large Sweet Potatoes (cleaned and chunked)
• 2 – 3 Cloves Garlic (minced)
• Salt / Pepper to taste

The original recipe said to just throw everything together in the slow cooker for a few hours, but one thing we found to bring out some truly fantastic flavors of our meats is to sear it first…

Heat FoC on high either in frying pan or wok. When nice and hot sear the meat for about 2 – 3 minutes trying to brown all sides. When done toss in slow cooker and prepare the rest of the veggies.

Chop the onion, carrot, parsnip, sweet potato (skins on or off is personal preference), mince the garlic and toss into slow cooker.

 

Pour in beef stock, cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours (time will vary according to your slow cooker)…

Thanks Jessi for some of the best stewing meat we’ve ever had!

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!