Simple & Delicious Crockpot Beef Stew - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs stewing beef
4 carrots
4 potatoes
1 large sweet onion
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
4 stalks celery
1 cup water
salt
4 tablespoons cornstarch (optional)
1/2 cup water (optional)

Preparation

Basic Info about the ingredients:
This recipe is very forgiving -- so if you only have 3 potatoes, no biggie. The important thing is that you get what you have in a crockpot!
Amount of beef is flexible -- just buy around amount called for and don't sweat being exact.
All veggies need to be washed & cut into thick slices or chunks.
Potatoes should be left UNPEELED. I prefer red potatoes because I always leave the peel on - Yukon Gold are also a good choice).
Ready? Here Goes!
Dump beef in crockpot.
Dump thickly sliced carrots, thick chunks of potato, celery & onion in crockpot.
Open can of diced tomatoes with the juice, pour on top of beef and veggies.
Dump 1 cup water and about a palm-sized amount of salt in the crockpot and give it a bit of a stir.
Set crockpot to low and cook for 6-8 hours. If it ends up cooking longer - no biggie. It won't hurt the stew.
If you feel the stew is too liquid-- right before you get ready to serve, you can add 4 tablespoons of corn starch to about 1/2 cup of water until dissolved and pour over stew and stir until the broth thickens.