Quick and Easy Crockpot Roast

Hello, hello!

Happy Thursday! 🙂

So, our town has a really awesome farmer’s market on Saturdays.

In addition to local produce, cheeses, crafts, and other products, local meat farms (or ranches?) come out with various cuts of beef, pork, and chicken.

I’ve purchased eggs that have literally just been laid!

(that’s what she said)

Anyway, we have, in this super short amount of time that we’ve lived there, grown to LOVE our beef vendor – Lane Angus Beef Farm.

They’re so friendly and the beef is so stinkin’ good!

Anyway, we bought a chuck roast and 2 strip steaks on our first visit (on the first day it opened) just to test it out.

We did the steaks first and they were AMAZING!

Then, the chuck roast.

Now, pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before but … I’m kinda funny when it comes to cooking a chuck roast.

I LOVE to cook beef stew and I LOVE to cook pot roast but then, when it comes time for the eating part, I’m usually super unhappy. The meat is always dried out, super chewy, and just downright unpleasant. Well, to me, anyway because my sailor and the Things have never complained about any stew or roast recipe I ever made.

I don’t know what it is about me and my finicky taste buds.

Anyway, I wanted to do something simple with this chuck roast to allow the flavor of the meat to take center stage and not be overwhelmed by too many other things.

I also didn’t want to cook it for too long. That would totally bum me out.

So, I browsed around for ideas and I found a pretty decent looking recipe over at Wellness Mama.

I took some inspiration from that recipe and changed it up a little to fit what I had in my pantry and how I wanted to cook the meat.

Have you ever seen the Weber line of seasonings?

They’re pretty delicious and they’re not full of questionable ingredients.

They’re an excellent substitute for fresh, if you don’t have that.

So, I used the Roasted Garlic and Herb because, well, garlic is one of the greatest things on the planet. Om nom nom!

pretty fancy, huh?

So, anyway, here’s what you need to do.

Quick and Easy Crockpot Roast

serves a few depending on the size of the roast and the size of the appetite 😉

1 tbsp olive oil or fat of choice
1 2-3 pound bone-in chuck roast (the bone adds a whole new level of flavor. if you can’t find bone-in, it’s okay.)
seasoning of choice (amount is up to you)
1-2 onions
1 to 1 1/2 cups broth (I used organic chicken broth) or half broth/half red wine (haven’t done this yet but I know it will be awesome!)
5-6 garlic cloves, peeled

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Season chuck roast liberally, both sides. Add roast to skillet and brown on both sides – about 5 minutes a side, just enough to sear the outside and lock in some of that flavor.

2. Slice your onions and place in the bottom of a 4-6 quart crockpot (depending on the size of your roast). Throw in garlic cloves. Place roast on top of onion and add liquid (more for a bigger roast, less for smaller).

3. Cook roast on HIGH 4 hours. (Okay, now remember, I’m super picky and afraid of it being dried out so I prepped the roast in the morning and had Thing 2 start it up at the 4 hours until dinner mark. If you don’t have that option, you can certainly cook it on low for probably 8-10 hours with the same result.)

4. Take roast out of crockpot and serve with a fork. 🙂

 

O. M. G.

Seriously, the best roast I’ve ever had.

I even brought leftovers for lunch.

That’s big.

Talk to me: Do you have a farmer’s market in your area? What’s your favorite find? Are you a fan of pot roast?

– jennifer

Barking dogs, burning legs, and Spicy Chickpea Stew

Hello!

Happy holiday Monday!

Guess what I did this morning?

I went to CrossFit!!!

It was GREAT!

There’s a box about 10 minutes from my house and I was finally able to check them out.

They have 4 scheduled classes a day and I went to the 6:15 AM class.

Yes, I know it’s a holiday and I didn’t have to get up early but the neighbor’s dog had other ideas.

Incessant barking at 4:30 this morning.

Yay.

Shooting him didn’t seem like the right thing to do so I just made the best of it, got up and went to the early class.

It’s a small box (which is fine) and there were 3 of us there this morning plus the coach.

Holy. Leg burner. WOD.

I definitely appreciated the small group this morning because my front squats were a little wonky to start and I really needed the attention/coaching.

And, I learned how out of shape I really am. Running schmunning. I missed HARD WORK.

I can’t wait to check out the PM class on Wednesday!

Tomorrow is speed work. And, it’s supposed to possibly get up into the 60s! Shorts & t-shirt running weather!

CrossFit this morning was definitely the kick in the pants I needed.

My motivation really waned this past week and I’m so ready to get back to business. 🙂

I’ve also fallen off the “healthy” train a little.

Um, hello, red velvet cheesecake swirl brownies!

And lovely box of chocolates!

It was worth it. 🙂

Anywho, enough about dessert, let’s talk about dinner.

I found an AMAZING Clean Eating recipe for chickpea stew!

I do love the chickpea.

This stew is lightly spiced (seriously, use more jalapeño if you want it to fight back) and amazingly delicious.

AND, you get to cook with a whole cinnamon stick!

Okay, fine, maybe I’m a dork but I thought it was pretty cool. 🙂

And, it adds a whole different flavor level than just adding ground cinnamon.

It was a delicious combination with the toasted cumin seeds, turmeric, fresh ginger and garlic.

My kitchen smelled AWESOME!

I served this up with some toasted Naan and called it dinner.

Tomorrow, at work, I’ll call it lunch. 😉

NOTE: This stew calls for dried chickpeas that require overnight soaking. If you don’t want to do that, use canned. Just make sure you rinse them really well.

Spicy Chickpea Stew
makes 4 (1 cup) servings

1 tablespoon organic extra-virgin coconut oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped carrots, diced
1 teaspoon sea salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 jalapeño pepper, minced (remove seeds if you don’t want even a little kick)
1 1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 cinnamon stick
4 vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped
1 cup dried chickpeas
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, stemmed and chopped, for garnish (optional)

1. In a large bowl, add chickpeas and enough cold water to cover by 1 inch. Soak overnight, for 8 to 18 hours. Drain.

2. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat oil on medium until melted. Add cumin and toast, stirring frequently, until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add onion, celery, carrots and salt and sauté, stirring frequently, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic, jalapeño, and ginger and sauté for 1 more minute. Add turmeric and cinnamon stick and stir to combine.

3. Stir in 2 cups water, tomatoes, and chickpeas. Increase heat to bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until beans are tender, 30 to 45 minutes. Add garam masala and stir to combine; remove cinnamon stick. Ladle soup into serving bowls and garnish with cilantro (if desired), dividing evenly.

4. Nom it down! 🙂

Talk to me: Why is my cat so weird?

– jennifer

Hi, my name is Jen and I’m addicted to roasted broccoli

Hi there!

Did you get smacked by the Nor’easter that blew through last night?

We didn’t get snow 😦  but we definitely got the cold. And the wind. And the windchill factor.

source

The forecast for tomorrow is not any warmer, either. To the tune of about 19 degrees in the morning. And that’s without the potential wind chill factor.

Good thing I have lined running tights! I’m pretty sure I’ll be running my final long run kinda quick tomorrow. 🙂

So, I have a new favorite way of making vegetables, especially broccoli.

I actually think I may be addicted.

I don’t know what took me so long to try it.

Have you ever roasted broccoli in the oven?

I mean, I’ve roasted veggies with chickens, pork roasts, etc and I’ve roasted potatoes, bell peppers, tomatoes and onions but for some reason, I never did broccoli.

Oven roasted broccoli is seriously the BEST. THING. EVER.

Well, not according to Thing 2 but she’s crazy. Teenagers, sheesh!

I could seriously eat roasted broccoli every single day.

So, I picked up one of those fancy bags of precut broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.

I had big, big plans for those veggies. BIG.

And, I figured since there was cauliflower and carrots in there, Thing 2 wouldn’t fuss as much if I roasted broccoli – AGAIN.

Yeah, that didn’t work out as planned but I didn’t care.

So, here’s how you do it.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with nonstick spray.

Trust me on that. I didn’t do it once and I was peeling foil off the broccoli.

Put all your lovely cut up broccoli (and cauliflower and carrots, if you want) on that baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. How much you use is completely up to you – I used about a tablespoon for this batch.

Toss all the veggies in the oil and then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Then, if you’re a garlic fanatic like me or really worried about vampires, slice up a few cloves of garlic and toss those on the pan.

Give the pan a final toss and get it into the oven.

Roast those babies for about 20-25 minutes.

If your smoke detector goes off, you may have roasted them a little too long.  But, it’s okay, slightly burnt broccoli is AMAZING!

If you don’t like it, call me. I’ll come eat it. Really.

Om nom nom!

 Talk to me: What’s your favorite way to serve broccoli?

– jennifer