Beef Stew and Maple-Oat Buttermilk Quick Bread

This is what I made for dinner tonight. I LOVE this beef stew. In fact, my mom calls it, "that beef stew that you love so much."

Beef Stew
1 lb. stew meat (coat with flour, salt, pepper)
1 T shortening
2 cans tomato soup (add water as directed on can)
3/4 c chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon Basil
2 medium potatoes - peel & cube
2 carrots or 6 baby carrots
Frozen corn (I dunno, a 1/2 cup or so)
Brown meat in stew pot. Pour in other ingredients and bake covered at 375 for 2 hours. To make it go faster, you can also start the meat cooking, while you chop the vegetables and then add them with a little bit more water. The veggies should cook for at least an hour.
To make this more South-Beach friendly, I've made it without the veggies. It's good, but not as sweet. Or, sometimes I'll add just carrots. Also, I use 1.5 - 2 lbs meat and 3 cans of soup. This is one of those stews that's even better the next day!

A funny story about this stew... Sammie and I were just getting to know each other, had been out 1 or 2 times, and we were both invited to a pot-luck dinner. I brought this stew and Sammie hated it. It was his first time eating something I had cooked and he thought I must be a terrible cook. It's now one of his favorite dishes, too. I wonder what I did wrong that night...

This is a thick, hearty bread that goes great with the stew. It's from the American Medical Association Family Health Cookbook (one of my favorites!)

Maple-Oat Buttermilk Quick Bread
1 1/4 cups all-purpose white flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups nonfat buttermilk
3/4 cup regular or quick rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly coat a 4 1/2 x 8 1/2-inch loaf pan with vegetable oil spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the white flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg with the oil until smooth. Whisk the maple syrup, brown sugar, and buttermilk. Stir in the oats. Stir in the raisins, if using.
3. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and bake until the bread is golden brown, 60 to 65 minutes.
4. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, turn onto a rack, and cool completely before slicing.