Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Sometimes you are craving a hearty good old fashioned meal. Yum! Here is a super simple slow cooker pot roast recipe. It’s tough to find comfort food that makes you happy and is healthy!

I never really used a slow cooker this much before. It wasn’t something I grew up with. But it is starting to become a Sunday favorite for when I don’t have hours to construct a meal. This Sunday was a big house project day. We did a final mow for the lawn and spent a few hours sanding down our long banister to get ready for a new stain. Oh man, sanding is hard work because there so many little nooks and corners in the banister and it is slow, tedious and hard work!! So I am definitely ready to refuel with a delicious dinner and relax with a Tom Cruise flick!

Ingredients:

• 2-4 pound roast- You can use a chuck roast or rump roast. It’s ok to use a lower grade of cut for this one because the long cook time will tenderize the meat.
• 3 Gold Yukon Potatoes- Quartered
• 1 small bag of baby carrots or 2 cups chopped carrots
• 1 bunch of Celery- Chopped into large pieces
• 1 clove of Garlic- chopped or minced
• 1 large Onion- chopped
• Onion Salt, Pepper and Granulated Garlic
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1 Tbsp Dried Parsley.
• 1 Tbsp Rosemary
• 1 liter Beef broth. Or I used hot water with 2 beef bouillon cubes.

Gravy:

• 3 Tbsp Butter
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Flour
• 1 tsp Corn Starch
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp dried basil
• 1 Cup broth from the finished slow cooker.

Place half the vegetables on the bottom of the slow cooker. Rub the roast with the salt, pepper, granulated garlic and parsley. Place the meat on top of the vegetables. Place the rest of the vegetables in. Pour in the liquid. Cover.

 

Cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.

In a small saucepan melt the butter with the garlic. Add the flour and corn starch, whisk until it forms a paste, this is called a roux. Now whisk in the liquid and basil. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 2-3 minutes whisking occasionally. It should be pretty thick now, you can more liquid if you want to thin it out a bit. Now you have yummy gravy!!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Gingerbread Cookie Crust

Oh yes. It is that time of year. The time of the pumpkin. It’s perfect for fall or even if you are ready for a little twist on Thanksgiving dinner.

I made this dessert to finish off the dinner party with the Salmon and Butternut Squash Ravioli. Alanna is still raving about this cheesecake. I am not the biggest fan of pumpkin pie or cake or anything pumpkin really. But even I will admit that I cut myself a slightly larger slice 😉

My parents have quite an extensive garden, I hope to start growing my own garden next year. My mom brought me two pumpkins this year. One extra large pumpkin for carving and one medium pumpkin for cooking. So I decided that I was going to make my own pumpkin filling! Here we go…….

Ingredients:

1 medium pumpkin. Use this if you want to make your own pumpkin filling. Or in the interest of time you can use 15 oz. canned pumpkin filling.

2 tbsp Cinnamon

2 tbsp Nutmeg

2 tbsp softened Butter

24 oz Cream Cheese~ It’s easier to work with if you let it soften first.

1 1/2 Brown Sugar

4 Eggs

1/4 cup Sour Cream

2 tbsp Flour

2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

Crust: 2 cups gingerbread cookie crumbs and 1/4 cup softened butter.

Cheesecake Assembly:

Pumpkin first~ Preheat oven to 375. Cut your pumpkin in half and clean out all the seeds and the stringy goop. Make sure all this is gone because you don’t want stringy pumpkin goop in your creamy cheesecake! Rub the inside of each half with the butter and cinnamon and nutmeg. Take a baking sheet and fill the bottom with water. Place a cooling rack on the baking sheet and place the pumpkin open face down on the cooling rack.

Put this in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until you are able to easily scoop the pumpkin out. Let this filling cool completely. You can even throw it into a food processor for a couple minutes to ensure consistent texture.

Crust next~ Preheat the oven to 350.  Mix your cookie crumbs and butter in a medium bowl. Press the mixture into the bottom of your 9 inch springform pan. Cook for 10 minutes. Put in the fridge to cool while you prepare the filling.

Filling time~ In a stand mixer add the cream cheese and the sugar.  Beat until smooth. Add in the pumpkin filling and sour cream. Mix well. Add the eggs, vanilla, salt, pumpkin pie spice and flour. Make sure everything is completely mixed.

Pour the filling on top of the cooled crust. Cook at 350 for about an hour until you wiggle the pan and the filling barely moves in the middle. Let it cool in the oven for an hour. Then move it to the fridge for 4 hours.

Serve with a dusting of pumpkin pie spice and a generous helping of whipped cream!!!

Happy fall everyone 🙂