Rosemary Chicken Stew

A winner with everyone!

I sort of made this up as I went along, so bear with this loosey goosey recipe...

Rinse, drain and sort about a cup of dried beans (I used some kind of white bean called Alubia). Cover with water, put lid on pot and simmer while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Put 500mL of chicken stock into crockpot.

Chop 2 potatoes into chunks and 2 carrots into medallions. Add to crockpot.

Roughly chop about 1.5-2 tbsp fresh rosemary.

Chop about 6 cloves of garlic, one large onion, half an orange pepper, 8 or to white mushrooms, and three ribs of celery. Sautee with some of the rosemary in olive oil until onion is transparent. Puree in blender or food processor with the rest of the rosemary (this is to hide these "yucky ingredients" from the children). Add to crockpot.

Cube up some ham (oven cook type, not deli slices) and add to crockpot. Some cooked bacon instead would also be yummy.

Salt and pepper to taste (maybe 1.5-2 tbsp salt?)

Add a couple cups of water- depends how much broth you want in the finished product.

Cook on low 6-8 hours, until potatoes are tender.

Mix some cooled broth with some corn starch (2-4 tbsp?), set crockpot to high and stir in until thickened to your liking.

It turns out a bit of an unappetizing colour which both kids pronounced "yucky", but once they tried it they were sold.