Get the Most From Your Roast

Miss MoneyPenny was doing some research on predicted food prices for 2014.  As usual they are on the rise mainly due to drought and dwindling beef herds.  Although California has been experiencing flooding this past week it probably won't do much for the veggies but it could help with the snow pack down there, which bodes well for future crops.

So - you can look for higher prices on veggies, fruits, beef, bread, cereal, dairy, tuna, and shock!! chocolate!!  Personally I will be cutting somewhere else rather than give up the sacred Vitamin CH.

As far as the produce goes, I grow a lot of my own and things are getting ready to ramp up around the MoneyPenny household.  In fact I put in my seed order with Territorial Seeds last week.  I was telling my sister, Miss SmartyPants, that my total for the seeds came close to $50.  She informed me that she buys her sunflower seeds by the pound!!  Of course she does.  Check them out here

In an earlier post, I told you that I took advantage of the BOGO on beef roast.  On Saturday I fired up my Crock Pot.  This is how I cooked my roast:

Roast
1/2 pack onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Worcestershire Sauce
1 bunch of whole carrots, peeled if hairy

Place the carrots lengthwise in the cooker with the roast on top.  Mix the soups with a couple of healthy doses of Worcestershire.  When I rinse the mushroom soup can I add the water to the mix.  Pour this over your roast.  Put the lid on and cook on low for 8 hours, give or take, whenever it is done.

The first night was carrots and roast.  After dinner I put all that lovely beef cooking sauce, along with the leftover carrots and meat in the fridge.  The second meal was French Dip sandwiches.

This morning I removed the fat from the cooking liquid and added it to my round Crock Pot.  I chopped up the carrots and beef and added to the pot.  I also added some cut up potatoes and a small can of whole mushrooms and a little water.  I turned it to low and will have yummy stew for dinner.  The leftovers can be frozen for later.

I'm not done yet.  I took the leftover pieces of meat that were grisly and fatty and chopped them up for future doggie treats.  They love human food.

To summarize how I planned out to get the most from that roast purchase:

1.  Bought the roast on BOGO, cutting one up in chunks for the freezer and repackaging the other one also.


2.  Cooked the roast with an eye for leftovers.

3. Used every part of the roast from meat to cooking liquid, getting several meals out of a 3 pound roast.

4. Saved the grisly pieces for the dogs rather that throwing it away.

In the past when I've been short of time and something needed to be done with the roast before it got away from me in the fridge,  I've just chopped everything up and threw them together and froze them.  Just thaw and add potatoes, or whatever you like, and cook in the Crock Pot or on the stove or even in the oven.  Very yummy either way.