Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff: South Beach Style

If you don't like mushrooms, this one won't be for you.  If you don't like beef, we can work with that.  I love me the website allrecipes.com.  Once you find a recipe you like on there, often people will write in with their suggestions/modifications to improve upon that recipe.  You can use those or not...whatever, but I like to read them to get ideas.

I had the idea I wanted to make this.  Somewhere I have a recipe for a lovely hamburger stroganoff that my friend Kim (from college) gave me many moons ago.  The problem is that last week's meal had hamburger in it and I want to keep my meals different so I don't get bored.  So, I went onto allrecipes.com and found a basic recipe, but then I modified it according to some of the reader's suggestions and then I tweaked it some myself, so here is my version:

Ingredients
3 lbs of cubed stew meat (I feel bad because I can't remember what I used, but it wasn't stew meat.  The recipe calls for stew meat, but I sometimes find it to be a bit tough, so I spent the extra $1 per lb. and bought the next caliber up cubed meat instead.)
2 cans of Campbell's Golden Mushroom soup (not Cream of Mushroom)
1 small chopped onion
1 TBSP Worcestershire
1/2 cup beef broth (original recipe was for water, so if you are veggie, you can do that or veggie broth)
1 8oz container of mushrooms - sliced
8 oz reduced fat cream cheese
1 individual serving size of Yoplait Plain Greek Yogurt
Salt & Pepper to taste

If you are following Phase 1 of South Beach, you will want to use spaghetti squash as your foundation.  If you are following Phase 2, you can use whole wheat pasta or brown rice.  You can find my instructions on how to prepare spaghetti squash here.

Okay, so really you just put everything in the crock pot except for the cream cheese and yogurt.  Set your crock pot on high for 5 or 6 hours.  When done, stir in your cream cheese and Greek Yogurt.  If you don't have Greek Yogurt, you can use lite sour cream.  I prefer Greek Yogurt because of the nutritional benefits it provides over that of sour cream.

I find that the sauce works best when it's reheated as it manages to thicken once it is refrigerated, if that makes any sense.  It's quite tasty!  Some people recommended marinating the beef in red wine prior to adding it into the crock pot - I bet that would be quite tasty, as well!

Serve it over your foundation of choice - spaghetti squash, pasta, rice, etc... For an extra kick, consider mixing spaghetti squash with your pasta!  Hope you enjoy it!