Tired of Turkey? Post-Thanksgiving Pot Roast!

Missy Tippens

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday full of love, friends, family and good food. And if you're shopping today  (I never do!), then you can ignore this and enjoy a good meal at the food court or drive-through. :)

But if you're home and sick of turkey, then give this a try. You can pop it in the slow cooker and enjoy another day with family.

Pot Roast and Greens

Chuck Roast

Fresh beets (mine are golden beets)

Small red/new potatoes

Greens of choice (I used red chard)

1 large onion (I always use sweet onions, preferably Vidalia)

1 bottle of beer (optional)

You can use a Dutch oven if you'd like. I'm so excited that I finally bought one last week!! Here's my pretty blue pot. I didn't use it for the pot roast but have already made spaghetti sauce in it. LOVE IT!

Okay, so back to the pot roast. I use one of the Reynold's slow cooker liners. They're fantastic for clean up!

Cut the onion in quarters or eighths. Lay in the bottom of the slow cooker (set on high).

Sprinkle the roast generously with salt and pepper. In a skillet, brown the roast on all sides for about 2 minutes each side (including the edges).

Put the roast on top of the onions in the slow cooker. Pour the bottle of beer over it. Put on the lid and let it cook for a few hours hours. Once it starts getting tender, turn down to low.

About 45 minutes to an hour before the meat is done, peel and cut the beets into chunks. Add to the cooker. Cut the potatoes in half and add them as well. If they were really small, I left the potatoes whole.

Wash and dry the greens. Cut out the stems and veins (although you can chop them and use them if you like to eat that part).

Stack the greens and roll them. Then slice them into ribbons.

About ten minutes before dinnertime, add the greens to the top of the cooker, piled on top of the meat. Put the lid back on and allow them to wilt.

When it's time to eat, stir the greens into the broth, pull apart the meat, and serve! Such an easy meal in one pot!

My plating never looks nice, so I hardly ever include those photos. However, I decided to on this one. Enjoy!

I hope you'll check out my website and sign up for my quarterly emailed newsletter!

www.missytippens.com

Adding to "QUICK AND EASY" Ideas!!!!

Ruthy here! So for those of you who are NOT writers, you're about to take a ride on the wild side of quick meals, great taste and time-saving steps which is what writers do to pump up production of books...

Tomorrow we kick off our annual March Book Push with "SPEEDBO" our version of "Book-in-a-Month."

Our job at the cafe is to provide water, coffee (hydration and wakefulness necessary to the cause) desserts and great tips on how to GET IT DONE!

I've loved cooking for a long time. But now, with a full time job and a wonderful writing career, time is scarce....

PANIC, RIGHT?

Naw.

It's all good because there are tons of quick, delicious recipes that get the job done. First I examine the parameters:

Seven days....     7

Dave's only around on five of them for supper.

Down to five days now:   5 

I don't eat breakfast. (That makes morning easy-peasy, right? Except my little peeps DO eat, so I don't worry about what's going on with the day job. I examine the writing time only and target that.)

Instantly I've minimized my worries and woes.

Five nights: I elect Dave to procure food for two of those nights. That's the partnership part of the extra paycheck.... And he loves the extra paycheck!!!!

So I've whittled my week down to three nights because the two nights that Dave isn't around I'll grab a salad or a salad or a salad.

:)

THREE MEASLY NIGHTS!!!!!   3

Geez, Louise, anyone can come with something quick for "three measly nights"

With  a little help from your friends!

This past weekend I slow-roasted 3 humongous, ginormous chuck roasts in the oven. Here's how:

Place large chuck roasts in big roasting pan. Sprinkle liberally with pepper, salt, garlic, and dried onion. Cover tightly. Roast at 275° for a day or so, adding water now and again as needed. The entire house smells like you're a master chef, and you're literally doing nothing but working on a manuscript.

Use one pan of meat to make pot roast. Add in potatoes and carrots, re-seal (add more water for broth if needed ) and return to oven. Raise temp to 350° and cook for an hour to an hour and a half.

Let the other pans cool somewhat, then (using your hands, it's so down-home-country FUN!!!) pull the fat from the meat...

:)

and then pull the very tender beef into pieces. Toss them into a big bowl. Add two bottles of Famous Dave's Rich and Sassy Barbecue sauce... (or your personal favorite)....

And then toss into freezer bags for quick, thaw-and-heat deliciously wonderful hot beef "Q" sandwiches.

We like ours on grilled Kimmelwick buns, a big fave up here from the German immigrants. Kimmelwick buns are chewy hard rolls covered in sea salt and dill seed. Just a wonderful taste, to die for.

So from those chuck roasts we have three meals of frozen Barbecue Beef (that I'll put up against anybody's, anytime!!!) and a delightful pot roast dinner.

I also used the juices/drippings to make beef gravy. I froze that and I'll use that for either biscuit pie or to make hot beef sandwiches later in the month. 

EASY PEASY! 

Happy Last Day of February!!!!