Lazy Man Crock Pot Roast

Tags

Crock Pot, dry red wine, frozen pot roast, frozen roast in crock pot, gravy, lazy man pot roast, lazy pot roast, pioneer woman asparagus, pot roast, ree drummond, weber grill seasonings

The school year has commenced.

The beginning of the school year means different things to different people, but it certainly means that life is now just a bit busier for everyone.  With that in mind, I present to you a dinner that makes your hectic life a bit easier, and one that is bound to be popular throughout the year.

It involves a crock pot, frozen meat, and wine.  If you are turned off by any of those things, stop reading now.  If not, press onward.

Earlier in the summer I came up with this recipe when we had a busy day ahead, but still wanted dinner at home.  So, I came up with this and it turned out great.

THE RECIPE:

frozen chuck roast *really the only type of roast I like.

one onion

dry red wine

a handful of grape tomatoes

seasoning mix to taste.  I have an adobo spice mix I make myself and use for pretty much everything, but I’ve also used Weber’s Chicago Steak Seasoning with great success.

THE STEPS:

Cut up onion into large slices and place in the crock pot.

Put the frozen roast in the crock pot on top of the onions.

Season liberally with the spices.  I know that it seems kind of crazy, but the flavors will eventually come through with the beef and especially the broth later on.

Add a few grape tomatoes around the bottom of the roast.

Pour wine CAREFULLY around the bottom of the crock pot, until it comes up to the bottom of the roast.  You don’t want to pour it on the roast, since that will cause the spices to run off.

Turn on low for about 10 hours.

AND DONE.

No browning the roast, no defrosting, virtually no mess.

I know this isn’t the Alton Brown preferred method, but I’ve tried this three times now, and I love it.

EXTRA WORK (If you want to)

Two times I’ve done this, I’ve made a bit of a gravy to go over the roast.

When the roast is done, take it out and set it on a plate, then cover it with foil to let it rest.

Ladle out three scoops of the wine-infused broth with a couple of onions and tomatoes for good measure.  Place in a saucepan and get out your immersion blender.

Blend that stuff up.  It should puree the tomatoes and most of the onions.

Then bring it to a boil and let it boil down for about five to ten minutes while your roast is resting.

It should thicken, and you will have a fancy, wine based gravy to go on your roast.

All that being said, you don’t have to do that, you can just ladle some of the juices on your roast as well.

Overall, this is a very easy weeknight meal.

The picture at the top makes it seem fancier than it was, but the Caprese salad was leftover, and I use the roasted asparagus recipe from The Pioneer Woman, and that takes just 15 minutes to prepare.

So, there you go, an easy recipe for your busy back to school world.

Do you have any easy recipes for busy people?  Share below!

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A Good Reason to go to Chipotle

Tags

Chipotle, Chipotle St. Louis, Chipotle U City Loop, Chipotle University City, food media forum, The Loop

Besides the delicious food of course!

This last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Food Media Forum in St. Louis.  It was a conference featuring food bloggers, future food bloggers, and Internet media superstars who all gathered in St. Louis to learn how to communicate their passion about food more effectively.

I attended the 2012 Food Media Forum and was inspired to start this rather humble blog.  However, the conference was held later this year, right before the school year was about to begin.

I wasn’t planning on going, thinking I would be too busy with preparations for the upcoming school year.  That all changed on July 31 when I received an email asking if I would like to be sponsored by Chipotle and attend the conference.

Yes.  Yes I would.

So the good people at Chipotle hooked me up with the ticket, and I reciprocated last week by grabbing dinner with the fantastic family at their U. City Loop location.

I had the barbacoa burrito with all the fixings.  It was fresh and savory with just enough warming heat to keep you going back for seconds on water.

The wonderful daughter had the chicken bowl, a low-carb treat for the diabetic.

The delightful son had the vegetarian burrito.  There is little he won’t do for black beans.

Finally, the lovely wife had a chicken burrito, and went light on the chicken…she’s doing a bit better with the weight loss right now than I am…

All in all, we were in and out in a flash and had a fresh tasting dinner that kept everyone fueled for an evening at school getting ready for back to school night.

So, without further ado, here’s my unabashed plug for Chipotle.

THREE GOOD REASONS TO GO TO CHIPOTLE THIS WEEK:

1. They use naturally raised pork, beef, and chicken.  That means their animals are familiar with the outside world, rather than a cage.  They also try to buy local produce whenever possible.  Way to go!

2.  It’s made your way.  According to a recent article there are 635,000 possible combinations available at each location.  In other words, you could eat there for over 1739 years and not have the same thing twice.

3.  They supported a rather insignificant blogger like me.  I am certainly no web powerhouse…I reach dozens…DOZENS! of readers each day.  So, dear reader, if they could support a little guy like me, it would be nice if a couple of my readers supported them.

So, thanks again Chipotle, for making a little guy feel pretty big.

Food Media Forum Day Two

Tags

barbaric gulp, copper river salmon, cupcake project, food media forum, St. Louis

Today was the first big day of sessions at this year’s food media forum. We started off the day with a satisfying hearty breakfast from the Culinary Institute of St. Louis.

The sweetest words in the English language may be “breakfast buffet.” I took full advantage of waffles with chocolate chips and pecans. Also, I must say the house made sausages with diced green chiles were a treat.

In the morning session I went to a forum hosted by Kelly from BarbaricGulp.com. It made me ponder three things:

My use of the word perfectly, How someone can love an orange so much (North Dakota is a bleak place), and to take steps to improve my writing in the year ahead.

Afterward, I went to a forum on food presentation and plating. I got to meet Natalie from TheSweetsLife for the first time in person since 1998. It’s a truly small world.

From there we had a morning snack where we experienced the safety and flavor of pasteurized eggs (purchasing this product may result in cookie dough never being baked).

One of the real treats of the day was meeting the rep from Copper River Salmon in Cordova, Alaska. She was super nice, and the Coho salmon for lunch was excellent.

Steph from the Cupcake Project hosted a forum regarding what makes a good blog and it got me thinking about how my blog is formatted and if I need to have more of a theme in my blog.

We’ll see.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to photography and video…not my main area of interest, but very helpful.

I was feeling a bit down around 3pm, (possible food coma), but rallied in time for the marvelous happy hour hosted by Chipotle. There, we received swag bags and got to have some wonderful food from Chipotle and more great Schlafly beer.

All in all a great day, and I’m looking forward to another tomorrow.

Thanks to Food Media Forum and Chipotle for making this weekend possible for me!

Food Media Forum Night One

Tags

blogging, blogs, Chipotle, food media, ideas in food, LaRussos, Operation Food Search, Poptions, Poptions Popcorn, RIcardos, Schlafly, Schlafly Tap Room, Sqwires, St. Louis, St. Louis Food Media Forum, Sunset 44, The Bridge STL, The Bridge Tap House and Wine Bar

A year ago at this time, I was new to blogging.  The lovely wife suggested I go as something to do aside from teaching.  A year later, I find myself back at the Food Media Forum, sponsored by the FANTASTIC PEOPLE AT CHIPOTLE, being served delightful treats from various restaurants from around St. Louis including Bridge Tap House and Wine Bar (A favorite), LoRusso’s, Sqwires in Lafayette Square, Ricardos in Lafayette Square, and Sunset 44.

The lovely wife was not able to attend tonight, and let’s just say I’m not the best at mingling solo*…however beer was involved because we were hosted by the good people at Schlafly Tap House.

*At one beer, I may strike up a conversation along the lines of, “Hey, what are YOU drinking?”  At two beers, it becomes “Hi, I’m Jason, pleased to meet you.”  At three beers, I may start expressing mildly interesting opinions or philosophies.  At four beers, I may be inclined to hug.

I had four beers this evening…but I repressed my hugging instincts.

A few food notes from this evening:

The chocolate chocolate chip cookies from Sunset 44 were heavenly.

The tapenade from LoRusso’s was amazing.

The meatballs from Ricardos were outstanding.

Bridge had all poultry dishes, so I couldn’t partake, but it looked amazing, and I heard good things (as usual).

So, the keynote speakers this evening were from Ideas in Food, and they passed along info and hints into what makes a blog successful and helpful.  They were great, but I think the real treat of the evening was interacting with people who love St. Louis and love food.  I got to meat the charming couple who run Poptions Popcorn in Frontenac, Fr.  Dominic Garramone, who used to have a cooking show on PBS, and now has a blog called The Bread Monk, and a wonderful representative from Operation Food Search who helps feed the hungry in St. Louis, a nobler cause than all the four and five star restaurants combined.

All in all, it was a fun evening, and I’m looking forward to getting back to the Forum bright and early tomorrow morning!

Thai Kitchen St. Charles

Tags

St. Charles, st. peters, Thai beef salad, Thai iced tea, Thai Kitchen, yellow curry

The family and I were craving something new, light and fresh this evening.  In my mind, this called for Thai food.  So, we scurried over to the nearest place to our home, Thai Kitchen in Cave Springs.  Although I’d passed it many times, this was the first time we’d been in.  We were promptly seated, and our drink orders were taken.  Although I am trying to stay light*, I cannot resist Thai iced tea.

*We have a family wedding coming in a couple of weeks, and I need to fit into some pants.  Summer has not been kind to the waistline.  Also, I have learned this summer that the waist measurements for shorts and dress slacks are far different.  I think whoever sizes shorts is just trying to make people feel good about themselves over the summer.  Dress pants and their waist measurements are a harsh reminder of the real world.

We also ordered a small appetizer to share, the Crying Tiger.  Soon my Thai iced tea arrived and I took an eager sip.

Heaven.  A couple of things to note here.  First, this was the smallest Thai iced tea I’ve ever ordered in a restaurant, being served in a tall, thin glass.  However, I do believe it was also the sweetest Thai iced tea I’ve ever had.  I loved the creamy, coconut flavor.  It did not make it to the main course.

After a bit of a wait, our appetizer arrived.  The Crying Tiger had several pieces of savory beef, served with a lemongrass dipping sauce.  The beef was tender and moist with a bit of spice, but the lemongrass sauce was the star here.  Light, with a slightly grainy texture, it cooled the spicy heat of the beef and had a mild citrus tang from the lemongrass.

After another wait, our main courses arrived.  I had the Spicy Beef Salad, served at the “Very Hot” level of spiciness.  It was true to its word.  The strips of grilled beef were very spicy, but were cooled by the fresh cucumber, tomatoes, carrots and onions on the plate.

The lovely wife had the yellow curry with tofu, served at the “mild” level.  I also had several bites of this dish, and the grilled tofu paired nicely with the mildly spiced, coconut based sauce.  It was a pleasant blend of sweet, savory, and spicy.  One of the things I love about tofu at Thai restaurants is how the spices get absorbed, imparting a burst of flavor to an otherwise bland blob of protein.

Finally, the wonderful son had chicken and fried rice.  Interestingly, his meal was ENORMOUS, while the wife and I had reasonable sized meals.  As a matter of fact, my beef salad was rather small, in comparison to some I’ve had at other restaurants.  As I’m trying to keep it light, that wasn’t a bad thing this evening.

Overall, we had a nice time.  However, two things did dampen my enthusiasm a bit. First, the portion sizes were a bit hit or miss. I’m not sure why my son’s entree was so large, and mine so small. Also, I will say that the service was a bit slow, and we waited a fair amount of time for our appetizer and main courses, even though they did not seem terribly busy.  But, as my six year old son said while waiting for our entrees,  “When you’re making it fresh it can take a while.”

Really, those are words to remember.  You’re not at McDonalds or a dubious looking Chinese buffet.  I think the reason I love Thai restaurants so much is that it all seems so fresh.  I definitely got that feeling from Thai Kitchen.  The veggies were all colorful and crisp, sauces and curries delightfully spiced.

So if you’re looking for something different in the St. Charles area, give Thai Kitchen a try. (Easy pun resisted for the conclusion!  Score one for self-restraint!)