Carne asada calabacitas

On Thursday it didn't seem quite as miserably hot as usual so the idea of putting something to cook in the slow cooker seemed like a good idea. I found some stew meat at the grocery store and I started thinking of some sort of Mexican inspired carne asada, with vegetables; a thick stew with vegetables and served with tortillas.

I didn't want to do any real prep work, so I pretty much threw everything into the cooker, turned it on high and waited. I started with the beef, a can of tomatoes with green chilis, about a cup of tomato juice, a few tablespoons of cumin, another couple of chili powder, a yellow squash, a zucchini, about half of a large sweet onion, two cloves of garlic and salt and pepper. After about four hours it was smelling awfully good, but even the slow cooker was putting out a heat I could feel from across the room. Ugh. I pointed a fan at it, turned it to low, and kept my ass out of the kitchen, for the most part.

It turned out well, though if it hadn't been so hot outside, I would have baked this dish in order to reduce and thicken the sauce. It was delicious scooped into flour tortillas, but a little messy. With a thicker sauce, that wouldn't have been an issue. Alongside I simply added some corn kernels to a drained and rinsed can of black beans and tossed them with a bit of vinaigrette.