Pot Roast in the Crock Pot

My Instant Pot *low* function cooks a little too low, unfortunately. I'm glad I kept my old 6 quart crockpot, as it can hold more and does better at sensitive slow cooker stuff.

I had two 2-lb chuck roasts and wanted to do them both at once. I used this recipe as a guide (http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-best-chuck-roast-356560) but did not add the mushroom soup since it has wheat & dairy. I put in a few yukon gold potatoes and some carrots, and onion and celery too. I may have put in a small amount of cabbage, I forget. I put all that on the bottom and then put the meat on top. I did sear the meat, and then the two roasts were slightly overlapped since they were bigger. I think I added coconut milk to this to replace the mushroom soup, and it turned out fantastic. I couldn't taste any coconut, but it was the best pot roast I've had in a long time. I served it to the Parkers and there wasn't anything left at the end of the meal.

Next time I would like to add mushrooms too.

Butter beans, roast beef, and green beans

12 oz can Roast Beef in beef broth (I get it from costco)
1 can green beans (or use fresh/frozen and cook in beef broth)
1 can butter beans

Heat beef and broth in a skillet. Add other ingredients. Simmer until broth is reduced.

David loves this. I like it a lot too and it is so easy. I eat it for lunch a lot.

Calories: 457 per serving / 2 servings

Pot Roast

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pot_roast/

This did not work well. I followed the directions and cooked it in the oven, at 200 degrees. The meat was cooked. I added potatoes and carrots an hour before I took it out of the oven. They were nearly raw. The recipe said to add carrots only 10 minutes before taking it out of the oven so I thought an hour would be plenty.  I had to dump out all the liquid into a pot and move the carrots/potatoes into it and boil it for a long time for it to be cooked.  Clearly the vegetables should have been put in much earlier. I'll have to look for a better recipe for an oven pot roast. The pressure cooker pot roast worked so well, so I might just do that again. I'd have to cut the meat into sections to make it fit though, if it is a larger roast.

Pot Roast in the pressure cooker

This is based somewhat on this recipe:http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/perfect-pressure-cooker-pot-roast/detail.aspx with some modifications from caseykees.


I used a 4 qt cooker for this and a 2 3/4 lb chuck roast. The roast barely fit in the bottom. I put in 1/2 cup red wine (a pinot noir I think) and let it simmer in the pot while I seared the roast on all sides in another pan. I used 2 medium onions and cut them in quarters. I added 1 1/2 cups beef broth and 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce to the pot. I sprinkled seasoned salt, pepper, and onion powder all over the roast after searing. Next I put the roast in the pot and put the onions on the top and sides (wherever it fit).

I put the lid on and cooked it for 30 minutes after pressurizing. After that I did a quick release (cool water over the pot in the sink) and added the contents of a brown gravy packet to the liquid and mixed it in. Then I put in 5 or 6 (peeled) carrots that were cut in thirds as well as 3 large (unpeeled) potatoes cut into 4-6 pieces. The pot was almost totally packed at that point. The meat had shrunk some, and was about 140 F (rare). Then I put locked the lid back on cooked it for 15 more minutes after pressurizing. Then I did another quick release (pulled the cap off and let the steam escape).

Pressurizing takes at least 10 minutes, so doing it twice added at least 20 minutes of additional cooking time. Dinner was really late, but it was SO good. This would feed 5 hungry adults, probably 6 if the roast had been a full 3 lbs. The meat, potatoes and carrots were all perfect and tender.

It probably took 1 3/4 hrs to do the whole thing. It will be faster next time for sure now that I know better what I'm doing.

Reuben Sandwiches

DH and I had Reuben Sandwiches.

I could not find any sliced corned beef, so I purchased roast beef instead.

This is what I did:

rye bread

Thousand Island dressing

swiss cheese

sauerkraut

roast beef

rye bread

In that order. And then I buttered (lightly) each side of bread that would be in contact with heat. We got a "Snackster" from DH's grandma for christmas. It is one of those sandwich pocket things. We put the sandwiches in the snackster and then crushed them into gooey oblivion. It would have worked just as well to grill them in a skillet.