Quick No-frills Crock Pot Beef Roast

As with any of my recipes; the seasonings, etc., is personal preference and this is my personal preference.  If you love onions and garlic then knock your socks off ;) but don't put so much that you'll have some family member who is usually the family wise-guy say: "why don't you add a little meat to your garlic and onions." 

This is no frills because sometimes I just want a beef roast without all those vegetables or as in this case, I didn't have any and I didn't want to run to the store but I still wanted a roast :)

Ingredients

• 3-4 pound roast - hormone-free & grass-fed beef for me!
• Minced Garlic - 1-2 tsps (more if you have a bigger roast)
• Fresh Onion - as much as you want
• 1 box of Cream of Mushroom soup - low or no sodium
• Roast Rub - Gluten-free is what I use
• Avocado oil - for browning the roast and coating your crock pot

Preparation

Prep-time: 15 minutes

While you are preparing your roast for browning, use cooking spray or the avocado oil to coat your crock pot so that nothing sticks.  Turn on your crock pot on low and throw in your chopped onions and garlic.

Heat up a frying pan that has avocado oil in it - I have the dial on 6 or 7, and that's part of the reason why I use avocado oil, it can handle the high heat without setting off the smoke alarm ;) not only that, it is yummy.

While the frying pan and crock pot are heating up, rub your seasoning into your roast.

Rub your roast generously and make sure the Rub you're using is low to no sodium.  Salt has the tendency to dry out your meat when cooking in crock pots - yuck.

I usually wear latex-free gloves when I do this, as I prefer not to touch the meat - personal preference.

After you rub it, throw it into your heated frying pan. I cook my meat for 2 minutes on each side as I don't want to fry it I just want to fast brown it.

As you can see, at this high heat, 2 minutes is good, some folks like to brown it 4 minutes on each side - it doesn't take much.

While your roast is browning, now throw your cream of mushroom soup in your crock pot.

After browning your roast, throw it on top of the onions, garlic and cream of mushroom soup.

Cook on low for 8 hours.  I like cooking it slow, but you can also cook on high for 5ish hours.

Cooking times Considerations

I cook a lot of my meats and fish on low; I just prefer it as I usually prepare crock pot dinners in the morning and then forget all about it. By time the cooking is done, I'm usually ready for dinner.  

A 4 pound beef roast will cook for 8 hours on low and 5-6 hours on high.

Here's a link to Crockpot.com's site that talks about cooking times:

Crock Pot Frequently Asked Questions on Cooking Times

So experiment and enjoy a yummy roast for dinner tonight! Just follow some basic cooking guidelines for safety purposes and enjoy!

Here's to Happy Crockpotting!

Laura

Crock Pot Roast

I love crock pot roast!  I have a 6 quart Smart Pot by Crock Pot that you can set to 4, 6 hours (high) and 8, 10 hours (low).  With roast, I find it always better to cook on low for 8 hours.  Also when cooking in a crock pot, it is best to try to use little to no salt in any of your ingredients or as one of your added spices.  Using salt will dry out your meat :p plus your heart will thank you :D)

Ingredients - in the order that you layer in crockpot:

Olive oil Pam Spray your crock pot (so ingredients won't stick to your crock pot)

Organic low or no sodium mushroom soup
Shallots or yellow onions (your preference really)
1-2 tbsp of minced garlic
Fresh Mushrooms
Worcheshire Sauce
Pepper

• Stir the above ingredients

Beef non-hormone/antibiotic-free beef roast (lay in the center)

1 bag of Organic no sodium frozen mixed veggies (sprinkle around the meat)

• In place of frozen veggies, I have chopped carrots, one or two celery stalks, and I still add frozen peas and corn because I like them; but more often then not, I use the frozen organic mixed veggies as I like easy cooking ;)

Organic yellow potatoes - quartered

• Note about the potatoes:  Some recipes say put your potatoes down first and rest your roast on top of it, I don't care for my potatoes all soggy so I prefer to place them around the meat and on top of everything else so then my potatoes turn-out creamy instead of soggy - it's your preference.

Herbs: usually more garlic, onion, pepper - I usually use like Chef's Seasoning (no sodium, no msg) or any other kind of garlic-based seasoning for beef that is sodium-free.

It takes me about 20 minutes to throw this all together and then I cook on low for 8 hours - fantastic 1-pot winter meal.

Enjoy!
Laura