I love stew but I'm also kinda boring about it.  I like the stew meat pre-fried in my frying pan on my own stove made with either coconut oil or olive oil, then I like to add everything at once to the slow cooker.  Raw onion, raw potato chunks, raw thinly sliced strips of carrot so they get done faster (these are my favorite part!) fairly good sized hunks of celery so you can find it when this is done cooking.  If you cut celery into small chunks it just sorta disappears as it's "stewing".  This is a good recipe to follow, especially if you're a newbie to cooking (which I certainly am not!).

https://www.tastesoflizzyt.com/slow-cooker-beef-stew/?

My grands like this served over noodles OR the suggested biscuits.  I still use Jiffy Biscuit mix, believe it or not.  A great biscuit is hard to make unless you like them to be as hard as a hockey puck!  I add an extra egg yolk and some extra butter to the mix and then I butter the top of the biscuit right before I add the stew!  YUM !!!!!  Making my stomach growl....