Irish Beef Stew

I'm not going to link back to a recipe because I used several as inspiration but really made this one my own, and it was delicious! My first attempt at beef stew from the cow we bought didn't turn out well (totally my fault ... and the fault of all slow cooker recipes that say "cook on low for 8 hours OR high for 4 hours!" ... Liars.) but this one was a hit - London especially liked the meat!

Ingredients

1.5lbs stew beef

4 medium carrots, 

2 medium potatoes

1/2 medium onion

1 can low sodium beef broth

1 (small) can tomato paste

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

3 bay leaves 

1 bottle dark beer (I used People's Porter)

1c water

1tsp minced garlic

Garlic powder, salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Chop beef, carrots, potatoes and onion into bite-size pieces; throw them all in the crockpot

Throw everything else in with it (water can be added or altered based on your discretion as to how much broth you want)

I added more salt than I normally would to help tenderize the beef

Cook on low for 8h. I'm not joking about this!