Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Juju's Easy Pot Roast

Alright you guys. No more studying or taking tests or quizzes for today. My eyes are tired.

Other than school, my life has been full of work. I work loonngg days (at least 12 hours) and the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook dinner. When I was working night shift, dinner was WAY more convenient. I would wake up and cook dinner and enjoy it with my husband before running off to work. Since I have been on day shift, dinner has needed some adjusting.

Before we got it (kinda) figured out, I was pretty much picking up Five Guys 2 times a week. 
Can we say healthy?! 
NOT!

We pretty much gained weight like crazy for a year straight and we are still trying to recuperate from our bad, old ways.

One of the main ways we have been able to maintain some sort of health is by using one of my favorite inventions. 

THE CROCKPOT

Let me go ahead and rave over how easy the crockpot makes your life. I received my first crockpot for a wedding gift. I ended up having to buy another one because the last one went out. It was a sad day. I found a crockpot on clearance at Target for about $25.

Totally worth it.

I have been toying with my crockpot and making a lot of Pinterest recipes or converting recipes to crockpot recipes. These recipes are tasty, easy, and perfect for cold and/or rainy days!

I am going to share with you guys one of the mainstays that I have found in making an easy, inexpensive, delicious, healthy, home cooked meal.

Juju's Easy Pot Roast

Ingredients:
1 Pot Roast (your choice of poundage)
1 packet Ranch
1 packet Zesty Italian
1 packet gravy (I used Publix brand mushroom gravy)
1 bottle of dark beer*
2 Tbsp arrowroot powder
3-4 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 package mushrooms of your choice, sliced
1 bag purple potatoes (could use russet or sweet)
salt and pepper
2 bay leaves

*I use my husband's home brew beer for all my recipes. Last time I made this I used a cherry stout that he brewed. The tasty malts along with the sweetness of the cherries made this the perfect beer for this!

Directions:
Get out your crockpot. Put a crockpot liner in your pot (will explain how amazing these are in a later post). Open up your pot roast and put in the crockpot. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.
Get out a small mixing bowl. Add the beer, making sure not to make it too fizzy (pour down the side of the bowl). Whisk in the 3 packets (ranch, italian, and gravy). Next, whisk in the arrowroot powder to thicken the sauce. 
Add all the sliced veggies to the pot. Then, pour saucy gravy over everything.
Add salt and pepper to your taste.
Throw in your bay leaves.
Put your crockpot on low for 8 hours.
Let that sucker cook all day while you are out doing your job or watching your kids or whatever you do. When you get home and it's time to cook dinner, guess what?!

It's already cooked!

And that, my friends, is why I love the crockpot!

More to come! :)

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