Thanks troop 1062!

There are things that we used to make for meals when camping with the Girl Scouts that my assistant troop leader mother then started making at home, that are things I will probably cook for the rest of my life... One of my true faves is "Campfire Stew," which we had last night in response to the cold and rainy weather.

It is super easy to up the amounts on all of the ingredients and make this for a crowd (say 25 hungry camping scouts, for example..) but for The H and me to have a good dinner and some leftovers, I would make the classic recipe like this:

-in a large dutch oven or similar pot, brown 1 lb of ground beef and drain fat as needed.
-add 1 large potato, cubed (smaller cubes = quicker cooking potatoes!) and brown potatoes to crisp as desired
- pour in 1 family-sized can of condensed veggie beef soup, and add 1/4-1/2 a can of water (depending on desired thickness).
-heat through and until potatoes are done to your liking.. serve with biscuts, rolls, or crusty bread for mopping up the yummy stew..

Now granted, I have taken a lot of licence with this recipe over the years... At home I use a small can of soup, add the full can of water and then thicken with corn starch.. I also use canned potatoes, or omit them and add leftover kernels of corn (or whatever I have around). In addition, sometimes in scouts we made meat balls instead of just having ground beef throughout the stew, browning them first and then letting the stew simmer to cook them until done.
The H likes this recipe when I use pre-cut stew meat from the meat dept of the grocery, I have made it with beef and also with lamb and had great results!!

It is a quick, hearty, one-pot meal with a minimum of ingredients - so in the cold months I tend to keep a few cans of veggie beef soup in the cabinet all the time, ready for use in this recipe on busy, chilly days..

Thanks troop 1062!