Beef & Vegetable Casserole

It is getting really cold in Perth now that winter has officially started!  So we are having lots of soups and casseroles full of seasonal veggies.  This one was made in the slow cooker (my latest obsession) which I cooked for around 8 hours.  If you don't have a slow cooker, you could easily bake this in the oven, but you need to make sure you allow around 3 hours cooking time.

Ingredients (serves 6-8):
1kg gravy beef, diced
400g can diced tomatoes
1 cup beef broth (I made this as per the recipe in Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions")
OR 1 cup Campbell's vegetable stock
OR 1 cup water + 1 tsp TM vegetable stock concentrate
1/2 cup preservative-free red wine (I used Settlers Ridge brand)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
Sea salt, pepper and Herbamare to taste
Assorted diced veggies - I used 1 carrot, 4 small potatoes, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves, a few green beans, a couple of handfuls of mushrooms and a cup of pumpkin.

Method:
1.  Into the slow cooker or baking dish, add the tomatoes, broth/stock, wine, tomato paste, vinegar, oregano, basil and seasonings.  Stir to combine.

2.  Add remaining ingredients and stir to coat in the sauce.  If baking, cover the dish with a lid or alfoil.

3.  Cook for 8 hours on "low" setting in the slow cooker, or for 3 hours in an oven preheated to 150 degrees.  Stir every now and then.

4.  Serve with some bread (if you can have some!), otherwise this really is a complete meal on its own!