Tag Archives: roast

Pot Roast

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 3 July, 2014 None comments

“Meat loaf, beat loaf, double meat loaf. I HATE meat loaf.” Have any of you ever seen a Christmas Story with Ralphie? His little brother chanted this saying over dinner will forever remind me of my deep hate for meat loaf as a child. Or shall I say meat in general–I hated.

Chanting this song over dinner reminds me of the days I hated eating meat. My mom was the best cook in the world so I would fill up on all her incredible side dishes and opt out of anything that came from an animal…unless… it was a hot dog. :)

My new found love for meat is sticking around forever and that is why tonight you should make my delicious pot roast. Your crock pot will do all the work for you except make the gravy. :)

I grew up in small town no-mans-land where you grow your own meat and live off the ground. I had a hard time with this as I hated meat for 26 years of my life. I literally hated meat. I was not a vegetarian as I had a deep love for hot dog. But on the other hand, hamburgers, steak, pork, roast, anything and everything that required a slab of meat to be your dinner, was definitely not appealing to me. Truth be told, I did not like the taste of the meat. It had nothing to do with raising a “friend” and sending them off to the butchers. I never grew attached to our livestock as they were quickly turned into dinner and were stinky ol’ animals.

Years of homegrown beef and pork was something I missed out on. Becoming pregnant brought out the essence of who I am that I never knew existed. A girl who loves crispy bacon. juicy hamburgers and a good medium rib eye. Okay. This may not be the essence of who I am, but pretty darn close. I have a new found obsession with steak, hamburgers and bacon that cannot be explained. I could eat steak 5 nights a week.

Anyway, now that my new found love as arrived and seems to be staying forever, I opted to make pot roast for dinner. I was preparing dinner for my family while preparing an entirely different meal for a dear friend who just had her 4th baby. Cooper and I went to visit them in the hospital this past weekend and got to enjoy the presence of baby Matthew while only being a mere 36 hours old. He was tiny and adorable; definitely made me miss the days of a tiny little infant. :(

While I was focusing on their dinner, I wanted to make something as incredible as pot roast but without all the hassle; crock pot it was. I knew making two separate meals would be time consuming so I opted for something so delicious and yet allowing my crock pot to cook for me while I made their dinner.

Pot roast is always delicious especially with potatoes and gravy and while leftovers are wonderful, a pot roast sandwich is always on my list of must haves. Our roast came from Costco, they have really great meat and though they can be a bit spendy, you get a lot of meat. I bought two roasts awhile back and froze them both, you could not even tell they had been frozen by how tender they were.

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium pot roast
  • Garlic salt
  • 2 tbsp garlic, minced
  • Italian Seasoning
  • Thyme
  • Parsley
  • Salt & Pepper
  • 3 cups potatoes, diced
  • 2 cups mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 cup celery, chopped
  • 1 medium onion, diced

Place roast in crock pot with 1 cup water and turn heat to low. Season with garlic, minced garlic, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, parsley and thyme. IMG_4918Chop potatoes and mushrooms. Place on top of roast. 
 IMG_4917

Add onions and celery. 
 IMG_4920Season with additional seasoning if you wish, and drizzle with EVOO. 
 IMG_4922Cook on low heat for 6 hours. When ready to eat, spoon out all vegetables and roast and use the drippings to make gravy (click here for recipe). 
 IMG_4924If you have leftovers, use the roast and gravy to make the best sandwiches EVER! YUMMY!

Meat loaf, beat loaf, I LOVE meat loaf now as well as anything that has come from an animal. :)

Garlic Infused Pot Roast

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 30 April, 2014 None comments

When we have pot roast in our family, we infuse the roast with garlic and season it well with a nice rub and let it sit over night. Than we continue to keep this precious roast flavorful and slow cook it all day in the crockpot with some parsnips and other vegetables. Topping off the meal with homemade gravy and potatoes to make this a great Sunday dinner.

We had Marlin (Cathy’s husband) over for dinner as we want to try and keep this relationship growing even though my mother-in-law has passed. Not sure how to refer to him as he is technically Michael’s stepdad, but since we’ve only known him for three months it’s not necessarily the term we grab on to! We call him a good friend! :) He’s a very nice man who has our best interests in mind and has a great bond with Cooper. We want to continue this growth and keep the family connections growing.

Although we enjoy spending time with him, Cooper really enjoys spending time with him and has a special bond that is so cute. It was good conversation and good food to be had.

Now for the pot roast… :)

Ingredients:

In the Crockpot:

  • 1 large roast
  • 2 parsnips
  • 6 medium potatoes
  • 2 medium carrots
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 stalks celery
  • Fresh Rosemary
  • Fresh Thyme
  • Garlic salt
  • Beef Better than Boullion

For the Rub:

  • 1 Garlic bulb
  • Sea salt
  • Black pepper
  • Montreal Seasoning
  • Celery salt
  • Sugar
  • Italian seasoning
  • Onion powder
  • Dill weed

For the Gravy:

  • Beef Better than Bouillon
  • Milk
  • Flour
  • Cornstarch (optional)
  • Drippings from Roast

The night before (if time permitted) cut slits into the roast and stuff garlic cloves all throughout.

image

For the rub: top roast with rosemary, thyme, and EVOO and place in crockpot.

image

Meanwhile begin cutting potatoes in cubes.

image

Sprinkle potatoes on roast and shove down between the sides of the crockpot and roast to help fill space.

image

Chop carrots in large chunks

image

Sprinkle throughout the potatoes.

image

A little trick to cutting onions without crying: Chop in half, slices ends off and then peel. For some reason this always works. I don’t know why, but it does! :)

image

Quarter the onion and leave chunks large

image

Sprinkle on top of roast

image

And lastly, chop parsnips and celery.

image

Chop celery in large chunks as well. This helps keep them from shrinking too much and getting mushy.

image

Add to crockpot

image

imageSprinkle with rosemary, thyme, and garlic salt. Prepare the beef bouillon in hot water to lay upon the roast and veggies.
image

Heat 2 cups hot water with two bouillon cubes.  This will help add additional flavor while the veggies cook all day long.

image

Mix bouillon until there are no longer chunks and cover the veggies with broth.

image

Allow to cook on low all day for 8 hours.

image

For the gravy:

Take a ladle and scoop out as much broth as you wish. Sift out the seasonings and place in a saucepan.
image

In a small bowl add 1/2 cup flour and water, keeping the mixture thick. Whish well until there are no lumps. (Keep mix thick but soft enough to pour.image
image

Pour into saucepan with juice and bring to a boil. Whisk continuously until the gravy begins to form and thicken up. Boil for 1-2 minutes on a low boil.
image

Turn down heat. At this point if your gravy is too thick add more juice or water to bring your batch to the proper amount. If gravy is too running at this point, mix a 1-2 tbsp. of cornstarch together with a little water creating a paste. Slowly pour into NON boiling gravy and whisk well. (This can be tricky. Adding cornstarch at this point can create lumps. If this happens simply sift out the lumps yet again.

Once you’ve reached the desired amount of gravy and proper thickness, add 1 tbsp. of Beef Better than Bouillon. Mix well. Add about 3/4-1 cup milk and salt and pepper and bring to med-high heat, keeping the boil at bay. Whisk well. Taste test to make sure you have proper flavor! :)
image

Enjoy! It’s tasty! Great for guests! And…you can relax all day!
image