Wednesday, October 23, 2013

EASY CROCK POT BEEF ROAST

So, I've been trying to stick to planning meals every 2 weeks. It's working, but I've learned that I need to be flexible. Intended on making a Sunday Roast but, ended up spending more time at the Zoo at the Halloween event! Such an amazing event, and great time with friends!! I'm glad my son got a little into dressing up. Although we had to convince him to put his costume on, and to keep it on we had to do a little bribe. He wouldn't wear the entire costume, but he did keep it on long enough to get some good pictures!


Since I didn't get to the roast on Sunday, I came home on Monday on my lunch break to get it started in the crock pot.  This was seriously one of the easiest meals ever. The only think I would change is to THAW the meat before actually putting in the crock pot. 

I'm coming to realize that you can cook chicken frozen, but beef just doesn't follow that same rule. I mean I'm sure cooking ground beef frozen isn't a big deal, but an actual chunk of beef, probably needs to be thawed out before cooking. Every time we attempt, the meat just is not as tender, doesn't fall apart when you cut into it.  Now last year, I believe, we had a beef roast that was fresh when we put it into the crock pot. It was a stew my husband cooked.  The meat just fell apart. Maybe it was also because the pieces were cut in large cubes?? I don't know. But next time we do a roast, I'm thinking cook fresh, or even in the oven.  If we do the oven, maybe I can even get it to medium instead of medium-well. 

Anyway, the meat was still really good, much better than that manager's special crap I got a couple of months ago. The seasoning and flavor was great! Soooo good!

INGREDIENTS:
  • 1 packet of ranch dressing (dry)
  • 1 packet of zesty Italian dressing  
  • brown gravy packet
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • beef roast
  • any veggies you typically throw in your roast. I threw in a full medium sized onion, 1 bag of baby carrots, 6-8 Rossett potatoes - sliced. If you have celery, then that would probably be good too! 
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • olive oil
  • any other seasoning that just sounds good  :o)
DIRECTIONS:
  1. Chop potatoes, slice onion, cut celery. Put in crock pot and season as desired. I used italian seasoning and just sprinked it over. I also added some olive oil, seasoning salt, and pepper. I tossed the veggies with my hands so that everything was coated. Season meat with salt and pepper. I cleared a spot in the center of crock pot and placed frozen roast there.
  2. Mix packet of ranch, packet of italian dressing, packet of brown gravy packet, and 1/2 cup of water in a mixing bowl. 
  3. Pour the packet mixture over the roast. 
  4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  
  5. Throughout the cooking, I kept stirring the dish, and I flipped the roast over probably half way through.

Before

After, ohhhh sooo good!!!

 So, easy and so good -- didn't really know what to expect but this was a great meal!! Yet, my 2 year old son was really enjoying it. He ate a few potatoes, but that was about it!

No comments:

Post a Comment