Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Tuesday's Pot Roast..."What a Crock"

This morning I remembered to put the pot roast into my crock pot before going to work.  I can't say enough about how nice it was to have dinner cooked for me already when I got home this evening. Oh...and tonight's pot roast turned out MUCH MUCH better than last week's.  I used the cut of meat that I usually use for pot roast.  I used a Boneless Shoulder Pot Roast.  It is perfect if you want your meat "fall apart tender"...but not falling apart.  That way it satisfies everyone and makes nice slices but is fork tender too.  I just threw it together.  In my "pre-wheat-free" days, I use to dump a can of cream of mushroom soup over the top of it before cooking and add sliced onions for flavor.

For today's pot roast, I sliced an onion and put it in the bottom of the crock pot, then placed the roast on top and cut up 3 carrots and placed them around the roast.  I had a bowl of fresh brussel sprouts in the fridge so I tossed them in along with a cup of fresh sliced mushrooms that were left from the weekend.  Basically, I cleaned out the odds and ends in my fridge.  I added a splash of wine and then seasoned the top of the roast with kosher salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, thyme and a little celery salt.  It literally took me only 9 minutes from start to "putting the lid on" and cooking all day long.

Before serving dinner, I removed the roast, sliced it and then added a little salt to the juice in the crock pot and topped the pot roast, carrots and brussel sprouts with the "au jus" alongside the Parmesan Cauliflower Mash left from last night's dinner.  It was great to come home to a home-cooked meal that was waiting for me!  I really need to use my crock pot more frequently.  I snapped a couple photos below.  Enjoy!

BOOM!
Right before closing the lid to cook all day long...it doesn't get much easier!

8 comments:

CyberSis said...

We love pot roast, too. Sometimes in the oven, sometimes in the Crockpot, and sometimes in the pressure cooker ... but *without* the Cream of Mushroom soup anymore! The smoked paprika sounds interesting. So far haven't come across it in the "regular" supermarkets.

You sure have a "way" with the camera. All of your photos are amazing, and this one is certainly no exception. Yummy! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Thanks, Cybersis! I have never used a pressure cooker before -- do pot roasts come out the same in the pressure cooker as they do in the crock pot or is it more like an oven? Thanks, again! :-)

CyberSis said...

Hi Gourmet Girl,

I wrote a comment yesterday and never got my email. It turns out that the comment didn't make it through even though it looked like it did at the time (that happened another time, too.) So I'll try again. Luckily I copied it to a Word file. I usually don't bother doing that, but glad I did this time. :-) So here goes "Paste":

The pressure cooker pot roast is similar to the way it comes out in the Crockpot. Last Dec. Mark Sisson posted some Christmas gift ideas, and the InstaPot Programmable Pressure Cooker was one of them. We ended up gifting ourselves with it! I bought a "regular" one years ago and used it only a couple of times because it was kind of a pain. However, the InstaPot is a whole 'nother animal. It plugs in on your counter like a crockpot and you can literally "set it & forget it" ... but not for too long since it cooks your food really fast! There's no guesswork, no watching, and no baby sitting. It has several functions and built-in programs which you can manually "tweak" or you can cook totally manually if you want to. We thought it was a pretty good price on Amazon and free shipping, too. It has taken up permanent residence on my kitchen counter ... in fact, it now occupies the space that the bread maker used to inhabit. :-)

Here's the Mark's Daily Apple link:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/10-last-minute-primal-paleo-gift-ideas/#axzz2KqKZxNk3

Here's the Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0073GIN08/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0073GIN08&linkCode=as2&tag=marsdaiapp07-20

Now, I'm going to march right into the kitchen and whip up some of those Green & Black's Pistachio Coconut Clusters ... but not in the InstaPot!

2-14-13: The clusters were/are delicious! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Cybersis -- Thanks for all the information about the InstaPot -- I will definitely check it out. Glad you liked the pistachio clusters too -- they are really good made with almonds or any other nut you prefer as well. I have also made them (pre WB) with 70% chocolate and they were great as well. This was the first time I used pistachios -- was just looking for something different and thought the "green & black" theme would be great too! :-)

CyberSis said...

Hi Gourmet Girl,

I don't know too much about "Blogger," but it just occurred to me that the followup emails are probably generated when you "approve" the comments. Sorry to be such a pain, but I'll know from now on. :-)

Happy <3 Day!

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Not a problem Cybersis! Happy Valentine's Day to you too! :-)

Dawn said...

Hi Gourmet Girl, I found your blog while surfing info on gluten-free dieting. I'm flirting with the idea of trying it out and the GF recipes on here sure make it less daunting! I was wondering what cut of meat do you use for your crock pot roast? My eyes glaze over at all the different cuts at the supermarket, I am completely meat-illiterate beyond ground beef!

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

LOL...yes, here is a link for you to see a picture of the type of roast I prefer for crock pots (it is a boneless shoulder roast and I have never had a bad one):

http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=345754&storeId=10052&langId=-1