Slow-cooked Roast

Sundays can feel very long sometimes.  Our church’s services last three hours each Sunday.  We try to eat lunch right before but we just cannot help being hungry when we get home.  Jacob has always been quite impatient for food, and this is exacerbated on Sundays.   So, our favorite meals on the wonderful Sabbath day are meals that are ready when we get home.  Right now for us that means crock pot meals.  Our two favorites currently are from his mother’s kitchen, chili and pot roast.  I’ve always made pot roast in the oven but Jacob and I have perfected the art (or are at least headed there) of slow-cooked chuck roast.

Ingredients:

  • 1 to 3 lbs chuck roast
  • 3-5 red potatoes chopped to large bite sizes
  • 3-5 carrots chopped to about same size
  • 1 onion microwaved for 5-6 minutes (not burning or melting)
  • 1 can of cream of mushroom soup

High for 6 hours or Low for 11-12

We put it on High from about 10 or 11 until 4:30-5.  There is plenty of room for timing with a slow cooker; we usually can just put it on our plates when we get home.  Please be sure to check the temperature with a meat thermometer before chowing down, just in case.

To prepare the pot, we place the meat in first, and place the potatoes and carrots on opposite sides of the roast, while the onion is microwaving.  Then top the meat with the onions and soup.

This past time we dressed up the meal with gravy.  I took the juices from the pot, the moisture released from the roast and the soup that was free and not coating the meat or vegetables, and put them in a warmed frying pan.  I whisked the juices as I added flour, giving the flour enough time to cook a bit and thicken the gravy.  Amazing topping.  This meal is also served great on top of rice, and as usual, this helps it go further.

Slow-Cooker Chili

Once when I asked Jacob for a meal idea he immediately wanted chili, like his mom makes.  He got her recipe; I believe there is a lot of experimenting still to be done but here is her original suggestion:

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of kidney beans (15.5 oz)
  • 1 can of chili beans (15.5 oz)
  • 1 large can of crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
  • chili powder (sprinkle some in)
  • 1 can diced tomatoes (12 oz)
  • 1 onion
  • 1 lb-ish Hamburger, cooked

Those were our instructions.  Throw it all in, let it go all day.  The end.

Well O.K., I like the idea but I’ve run with it a bit.  I like the amount of tomatoes but we wanted less liquid, and more beans.  In my most recent episode of chili, I actually soaked some dry black beans (1 lb) over night and threw them in as well.  I’m very new to this bean thing, so I didn’t realize I also needed to cook the beans, they were a bit hard but the chili is still fine to eat.  We made the mistake of trying to fix the liquid and bean issues at the same time, which resulted in a very thick chili, not a problem per se but I will leave in all the juices the next time I add beans (but not the bean’s cooking water).

I like to cook the onion with the meat before throwing it in.  This could loose some of the flavor to the chili because some flavor is lost in the juices/fats removed, but if I have to cook the meat, I might as well throw in the onion.  That is just a personal preference.

I think in my next iteration I would like to maybe add more vegetables like celery, if I have any at the time.  I would also like to normalize my addition of chili powder, Jacob says it never has enough so I will start with 1 Tablespoon, and work from there.

In general we really love this recipe for a start, I love that I don’t have to add water or a ton of seasonings.  And Jacob only had to buy 8 cans of kidney beans to get sent a free stuffed bean, yay for food storage and free toys.  Seriously, I do love that all these ingredients are storable, so as long as we have power, or a fire we can made some chili with all our canned beans and tomatoes.