Answer:
The great thing about beef stew (and stew and general) is that you can slow cook it and it's purpose is to stretch out meals by leaving you with leftover for the rest of the week. It is one of those things that is better the day after it is made. However feel free to halve or customize a recipe. Most stews will contain stew meat that should be floured and browned on all sides in you dutch oven (if using a slow cooker brown the meat in a frying pan first. Then you will need on onion, a few potatoes and some carrots. Beans and corn are also a nice addition near the end of cooking. A nice basic recipe:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1122826