Roasting vegetables

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3. I've been roasting my vegetables for stew and it really makes the flavor better

I set up my stew meat or pot roast in the slow cooker with a variety of vegetables - sometimes just the frozen mixed vegetables and a chopped onion - a little liquid and whatever assortment of seasonings I'm in the mood for.

Then I cut up the rest of the vegetables I like with stew - this last time it was very simple: carrots, red potatoes and onion. The carrots and potatoes were cut in 1" pieces, the onions were cut in wedges. Put them into a big roasting pan, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled herbs and spices over them, and tossed the whole mess to coat well. Roasted the vegetables at 350 F for 40 minutes, then let sit in the oven for another 15-20 minutes (because I wasn't quite ready to get them out but had something else I had to do).

When I make stew, I freeze batches of it for later, so I distributed the vegetables among the containers and put them into the fridge until the meat was done. Then I cut up the meat, distribute it in the containers and divide up the gravy from the slow cooker.

This last time, I used:
4 pound boneless chuck roast
16 ounces frozen mixed vegetables
5 yellow onions, one chopped, rest quartered
2 pounds carrots
5 pounds red potatoes
4 stalks celery
herbs & spices
sparkling grape juice (leftover from something and instead of wine since I didn't have wine)

I ended up with 4 large containers, each will make a number of meals for the two of us.

When I roast the vegetables separately, they don't get mushy even after they are frozen and they still have a lot of flavor that adds to the stew.