Category: Crockpot

Recipes that use a crockpot.

You’ll be ‘bacon’ plenty of friends with this hearty breakfast

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date January 12, 2023

Making breakfast for a crowd is easy with this crockpot breakfast casserole. It’s a great way to start the day.

With the Chiefs heading into the playoffs, Joey and I have been planning for our annual get together with our fantasy football league to watch their first game.

In discussing menus for that game, it reminded me that I haven’t shared a fantastic recipe I tried earlier this football season with all of you.

We invited several friends over for a “breakfast for lunch” football day, and in addition to some baked goods, I decided to try what ended up being an easy and fantastic breakfast casserole.

This comes from the blog “40 Aprons” by Cheryl Malik. You can find the original post at https://40aprons.com/crockpot-breakfast-casserole/. I added garlic, green chiles and extra seasoning in my version.

Crockpot Breakfast Casserole

Making breakfast for a crowd is easy with this crockpot breakfast casserole. It’s a great way to start the day.

Course Breakfast

Keyword breakfast for a crowd, crockpot, diced green chiles, eggs, frozen hashbrowns, garlic, garlic powder, half and half, sharp cheddar cheese, yellow onion

Ingredients

1 pound bacon diced (or sub in ground sausage)
1 small yellow onion diced
4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
8 ounces canned diced green chiles drained
26 ounces frozen hashbrowns
4 cups sharp cheddar cheese shredded
12 eggs
1 cup half and half
2 teaspoons garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and saute the diced bacon until it’s crispy. Line a plate with paper towels and place the cooked bacon on it.
Remove all but about one tablespoon of the bacon fat from the pan and add the diced onion. Saute until it’s cooked through, and then add the garlic. Saute for a couple more minutes and then remove the pan from the heat.
Coat the inside of your crockpot with cooking spray and layer in half of the hashbrowns. Add half of the shredded cheese, half of the onions, half the chiles and half the bacon. Repeat. (I saved a bit of the cheese and did a final layer on the top of mine.)
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, half and half, garlic powder, salt and pepper until it is well combined.
Pour the mixture evenly into the crockpot.
Cook the casserole on low for eight hours or high for four hours. When the eggs are cooked through, serve immediately or turn the crockpot to warm until you’re ready to eat.
(Side note: If you don’t have time for the crockpot, follow the same steps with a deep nine-by-13-inch casserole dish. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about one hour or until it’s cooked through.)

This was fabulous, and it reheated great, too. It was a hit with our football friends, and it was a great addition to the spread of breakfast items we had available. We ate too much, hollered at the TV together and had a great time.

I still don’t know what our playoffs lunch spread will look like, but no matter what, I’m so excited to see our friends again, hang out in the basement and cheer on the Chiefs.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 12, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Tags breakfast casserole, breakfast for a crowd, crockpot, diced green chiles, easy breakfast, eggs, frozen hashbrowns, garlic, garlic powder, half and half, sharp cheddar cheese, yellow onion

Crockpot Main Dish

These tacos must ‘birria’ your next new dinner recipe

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date December 8, 2022

The process of making birria tacos is simplified a bit with the use of a crockpot for this recipe, but all the rich flavors are still there to enjoy.

A few months ago, I was introduced to the deliciousness that is birria.

Birria, according to the “My Latin Table” website, is a Mexican dish that traditionally uses lamb but is often made with beef, too. The article goes on to note that it can be eaten as a soup or made into tacos.

The reason birria is so delicious is that, as the meat cooks, it creates a delicious stock that is served as either base of the soup or as a side for dipping the tacos. Between the spices, reconstituted dried chile peppers and beef, you almost want to pour yourself a glass and drink it. (But I didn’t do that. Because that’s weird.)

After trying birria at an amazing Mexican restaurant, I decided I wanted to give the recipe a try myself. Being short on time, though, I opted for a slightly less-than-authentic version that relies on a crockpot. Either way, this turned out absolutely amazing. I was so sad when the final container of leftovers exited our refrigerator.

This recipe comes from Nicki Mejia. You can find her on Instagram under “tastewithnicki.” I added extra seasonings and changed the directions slightly in my version.

Birria Tacos

The process of making birria tacos is simplified a bit with the use of a crockpot for this recipe, but all the rich flavors are still there to enjoy.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword adobo, all spice, allspice, bay leaves, beef, beef roast, chiles de arbol, chili powder, consomme, corn tortillas, crockpot, cumin, garlic, garlic powder, guajillo peppers, Monterrey jack cheese, oregano, slow cooker, tacos, thyme, tomatoes, yellow onion

Ingredients

2 pounds beef roast
1 small yellow onion diced
8 cloves garlic minced
3 bay leaves
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon pepper
4 teaspoons chili powder
4 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons adobo
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon all spice
1 tablespoon garlic powder
16 ounces beef broth or stock
6 dried guajillo chiles
3 dried chiles de arbol
1 half large tomato
Monterrey jack cheese shredded (for serving)
Corn tortillas for serving

Instructions

Combine the roast, onion, garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, adobo, oregano, thyme, all spice and garlic powder in your crockpot. Pour the beef broth over top of everything in the pot.
To prepare the chiles, pull the stem off of each one and shake out as many seeds as you can.
Add the chiles to a medium-sized pot and cover them with water. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for about five minutes or until the chiles are soft. (Do not get rid of the water you boiled the chiles in!)
Add the softened chiles, tomato and about one cup of the boiling liquid to a blender or food processor and blend until the mixture is smooth.
Pour the chiles mixture into your crockpot. If the liquid isn’t covering the ingredients in the crockpot, add more of the boiling liquid until it is.
Cook for eight hours on low or four hours on high.
When the roast is done, shred it with a couple forks.
To make the tacos, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Spray it lightly with cooking oil. Dip a corn tortilla in the stock. Place it in the hot skillet and sprinkle on one to two tablespoons cheese. Put a large spoonful of the meat mixture onto half of the tortilla and carefully fold it over. When the tortilla is browned to your liking, gently flip the taco over to brown the other side. When it is done, transfer the taco to a warm plate.
Continue until you have as many tacos as you want to serve for your meal. Serve the tacos sprinkled with a little extra cheese and alongside a small bowl of the stock for dipping.
Refrigerate any leftovers.

Like I said, the flavor of these tacos is absolutely phenomenal. They weren’t at all spicy, but you could easily kick them up a notch with some salsa. Birria is also traditionally served with fresh diced onions and cilantro, if you want to add some color.

The trick for the leftovers is to wait to put the actual tacos together until you’re ready to eat them rather than assembling 100 percent of them right away and storing them in the fridge. They assemble just as easily as leftovers as they do the first time.

And if you are having any trouble finding the dried chiles mentioned in the recipe, try looking in the Hispanic foods section of your local grocery store. They’re normally sold in big plastic bags in that area.

Despite looking complicated, birria tacos were actually very simple to make, and they bring a little bit of a wow factor to the dinner table. Put this one on your list for your next taco night this winter.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 8, 2022.

Crockpot Main Dish Soup

‘Peas’ your tastebuds with a spicy crockpot soup

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date January 13, 2022

Spicy black-eyed peas are a great way to warm up on a cold day and are even better with some fresh cornbread on the side.

There is enough debate about black-eyed peas that there’s actually an article about them on the Library of Congress website.

It starts out very simply, asking, “Are black-eyed peas really peas?”

The answer is simple: “No.”

The article then goes into a very technical, scientific explanation of how peas, beans and legumes are classified and named. It’s great reading if you want to take a nap.

But I suppose no matter what their official classification, their presence in our house every New Year’s Day is a constant, as they are supposed to create good luck in the coming year.

Obviously, with all the craziness over the past year, I must have not cooked them quite right in 2021, so I’m hoping this year’s recipe was a better one.

I decided to go with a spicy version of black-eyed peas this year, mostly because I had some jalapeno peppers languishing in my crisper drawer already. You can leave those out and just add another bell pepper and cut out the cayenne if you want to try this recipe and you’re not much of a spice person, but if you like a little heat, you’re really going to like this one.

This recipe from Trisha Haas comes from the blog “Salty Side Dish.” You can find the original post at https://www.saltysidedish.com/slow-cooker-black-eyed-peas/. I added extra spices in my version.

Crockpot Spicy Black-Eyed Peas

Spicy black-eyed peas are a great way to warm up on a cold day and are even better with some fresh cornbread on the side.

Course Main Course

Keyword bacon, bell pepper, black-eyed peas, cayenne, crockpot, cumin, garlic, ham, jalapeno, oregano, slow cooker, soup, spicy, yellow onion

Ingredients

16 ounces dry black-eyed peas
3 beef bouillon cubes
1 small yellow onion diced
4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
1 bell pepper diced (any color)
1-2 jalapeno peppers diced (remove the seeds for less kick)
1 cup ham chopped
6 slices bacon chopped
3 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Add the beef bouillon cubes to about 1 cup of hot water. Smash the cubes before adding them to a large crockpot along with five more cups of water, and then add all of the rest of the ingredients, as well. You do not have to do anything to prep the peas. Just dump them in.
Give the mixture a good stir and then cook on high for six hours or until the peas are cooked through.
This is fantastic served with fresh cornbread.

The photos on the recipe’s website show a mushier-looking soup without a lot of broth. I had a decent amount of broth with mine, so it’s really more about what you prefer with yours if you let it cook down even longer to really get the liquid thinned out. Personally, I love having broth with soups like this so I have something to soak up with my cornbread.

This was so, so easy, since it was as simple as just dumping everything in the crockpot. It literally took no cooking skills whatsoever, which I appreciate sometimes.

Now, with our bellies warmed, supposedly Joey and I are covered for 2022 and all the luck life can bring us. I’m not sure if it worked, but I have some leftovers in my freezer just in case we need a boost in the coming weeks.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 13, 2022.

Tags bacon, bell pepper, black-eyed peas, cayenne, cumin, easy, garlic, ham, jalapeno peppers, oregano, slow cooker, yellow onion

Crockpot Main Dish

Pantry clean out calls for finally using my noodle

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date December 16, 2021

Crockpot lasagna is easy to put together and creates a great, hot dinner without standing over the stove for hours.

After weeks of opening my pantry and sighing deeply at the mess and disorganization, I finally pulled every last item out this past weekend.

Joey came into the kitchen to find boxes, bags and containers on every countertop.

“Today’s the day, huh?” he said, and then he wisely made himself scarce.

He knows better than to get in the middle of my crazy when I’m trying to organize.

As I dug through the pile, I discovered several things. One: At some point, I purchased corn starch, forgot I purchased corn starch and purchased corn starch again. Two: I have way more cupcake liners than I thought I did. And three: For some reason, I spent some time in the past collecting half-full boxes of lasagna noodles.

I’m not really sure what to do with my wealth of cornstarch, and the cupcake liners are now tucked away in a much better location, so I turned my attention to the lasagna noodles, but since I’d already spent a bunch of time cleaning, I decided I needed an easy recipe to try.

The one I found fit the bill: a crockpot lasagna.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Big Oven.” You can find the original post at https://www.bigoven.com/recipe/easy-crockpot-lasagna/229584.

Crockpot Lasagna

Crockpot lasagna is easy to put together and creates a great, hot dinner without standing over the stove for hours.

Course Main Course

Keyword crockpot, easy dinner, mozarella cheese, parmesan cheese, pasta sauce, ricotta cheese, slow cooker

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 small yellow onion diced
6 to 8 cloves garlic minced
3-4 cups mozzarella cheese divided
15 ounces ricotta cheese I used low-fat
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 cup fresh spinach cut into ribbons
24 ounces spaghetti sauce
6 to 9 uncooked lasagna noodles I used a combo of regular and oven-ready

Instructions

In a large skillet over medium heat, brown and crumble the ground beef, along with the onions.
While the beef and onions cook, add 2 cups of the mozzarella, the ricotta, parmesan, egg, parsley and spinach in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
Once the beef is cooked through, drain off as much fat as you can, and add the minced garlic, sauteing for a few minutes.
Add the pasta sauce and 1/2 cup of water to the skillet. (To really help clean out the jar, pour the water into the jar after you dump the sauce in the pan, and swish it around before adding it to the pan, too.) Add any seasonings you want to spice up your pasta sauce. (I added oregano, basil, parsley, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to mine.) Cook the sauce for a few minutes to let it all heat through.
In a large crockpot, add about one cup of the sauce to the bottom. Layer in as many noodles as you can fit in a single layer (break them, if necessary).
Spread half of the cheese mixture on top.
Add about two cups of sauce and add another layer of noodles.
Finish out by spreading the second half of the cheese mixture on and topping with the remaining sauce.
Cook on low for four to five hours or until your noodles are cooked through.
About 10 minutes before serving, top with the rest of your mozzarella and cover to let the cheese melt.
(I ended up putting this together the night before we wanted to eat it and refrigerated it in my crockpot. I plugged it in and cooked it on high for four hours, since it started out cold, and it cooked up great.)

This was pretty darn good, made for great leftovers, and it took way less time than a traditional lasagna. You could easily kick this up a notch with fancier sauces or subbing in half the ground beef with sausage, too.

And now I’m down to just one partial box of lasagna, which fits my newly organized aesthetic much better. I still sigh when I open my pantry, but it’s a sigh of happiness now.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 16, 2021.

Tags easy dinner, lasagna, mozarella, parmesan cheese, pasta sauce, ricotta, slow cooker

Crockpot Main Dish

There are ‘polenta’ of options for this pork dish

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date October 21, 2021

Slow-cooked pork ragu is served over a creamy polenta to create a delicious, warm dinner with tons of flavor.

It’s amazing how much variety we have at our fingertips at our local grocery stores.

There are so many options and ingredients that you’d think no one could ever miss out on finding something they wanted, but as is sometimes the case, I hit a brick wall with this week’s recipe.

I’ve been eyeing this recipe for a pork ragu served over creamy polenta, but when I looked at our grocery store, the only polenta I could get was the pre-made kind that definitely isn’t creamy.

So I turned to the Internet to find a solution. Surely there had to be a locally available ingredient I could use to make creamy polenta.

Of course, someone had the solution: coarse grind cornmeal. And I figured out that Bob’s Red Mill makes just such a product, and it was available right here! The website I found claimed that you just used coarse grind cornmeal the same way you use polenta, so I immediately bought a bag.

And it worked…sort of. If you can’t find actual polenta like I couldn’t, here’s my advice: buy the coarse grind cornmeal, but double the amount of it rather than substituting it one-to-one with the polenta.

I was so ready to eat when I took the lid off my pot of polenta and realized it was more in the “soupy” category than the “creamy” one. So, if you decide to make the swap, I highly encourage you to use three cups coarse cornmeal so you can get dinner on the table on time.

This comes from the blog “White Plate, Blank Slate.” You can find the original at http://whiteplateblankslate.com/pork-ragu-with-creamy-polenta. I modified the recipe by changing up the spices a bit and by using a crockpot instead of the stovetop for the bulk of the cook time.

Pork Ragu over Creamy Polenta

Slow-cooked pork ragu is served over a creamy polenta to create a delicious, warm dinner with tons of flavor.

Course Main Course

Keyword asparagus, bay leaves, creamy polenta, crockpot, crushed tomatoes, garlic, parmesan, pork butt, pork shoulder, rosemary, thyme

Ingredients

Ragu Ingredients

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 yellow onion diced
6-8 cloves garlic minced
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine I used a Cabernet-savignon
28 ounces whole peeled tomatoes
3 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
2 bay leaves

Creamy Polenta Ingredients

2 cups milk I used skim
4 cups chicken stock or broth
1 1/2 cups coarse polenta or 3 cups coarse grind cornmeal
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup parmesan grated, plus more for serving
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Cut any excess fat off of the pork shoulder and then cut it into three large pieces. Season them with salt and pepper.
Heat the canola oil over medium heat in a stock pot or Dutch oven and saute, turning each piece to evenly brown each side.
Remove the pork from the pot and place in a large crockpot and drain off any accumulated fat.
Add the onions to the pot and saute until they are soft. Stir in the garlic and tomato paste and saute for about five minutes. Pour in the wine and scrape the bottom of the pot to deglaze it. Cook for another five minutes and then add the tomatoes, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves, smashing the tomatoes as you stir.
Add the mixture, along with two cups of water, to the pork in the crockpot. Cook for two and one-half to three hours on high or five to six hours on low.
When the pork is done, shred it with two forks, and stir it back into the sauce, adding salt and pepper to taste and removing the bay leaves.
For the polenta, add the milk and chicken stock to a stock pot or Dutch oven and bring to a very low boil. Add the polenta or corn meal, whisking constantly as you add it. Once the polenta is well-combined, place a lid on the pot and remove it from heat. Don’t open it again until 20 minutes have elapsed.
Remove the lid and add the butter and parmesan cheese, whisking until everything is well combined. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve the ragu over top of the polenta in bowls, topping with a bit more parmesan.

This was so, so good, and it made a ton of food. We’ve been enjoying lots of leftovers over the past week, and the ragu would be great as a freezer meal, as well.

I’m sure plenty of polenta purists would say that I didn’t really come up with a worthy substitute, but I’d say that being able to swipe my credit card locally instead of online made it worth it. Plus, it was darn delicious, so polenta or not, this recipe earned an A-plus in my book.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 21, 2021.

Tags bay leaves, creamy polenta, garlic, onion, parmesan, pork butt, pork shoulder, rosemary, thyme, tomatoes

Crockpot Main Dish

Don’t let me ‘cashew’ skipping this recipe

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date November 19, 2020

Cashew chicken finishes cooking in the crockpot and features great flavors as well as a wonderful, nutty crunch.

If you’re bored and want to blow your mind sometime, I highly recommend doing a quick web search for how cashews grow.

I have assumed for a long time that cashews, just grow inside a normal shell and look pretty much like a walnut or a peanut. But they don’t. At all.

Instead, the nut, which hails from Brazil, grows like a little tail off the bottom of a cashew apple. According to an article by Matthew Baron, people thought cashews were poisonous for a long time, because their shell contains a skin irritant—kind of like poison ivy.

Baron points out that, for that reason, you can’t actually buy unshelled cashews. I had never really considered that I haven’t ever cracked open a cashew before.

I started thinking about cashews this week, because Joey forwarded me a social media post with a recipe for cashew chicken and asked if I would be willing to add it to my experiment list. I, of course, obliged, and the results were great.

I don’t have a source for this recipe. It’s one of those that has been out circulating on Facebook, and the original author hasn’t been included. I did adjust the garlic and ginger for my version, though.

Cashew Chicken

Cashew chicken finishes cooking in the crockpot and features great flavors as well as a wonderful, nutty crunch.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Keyword cashew, chicken, crockpot

Ingredients

2 pounds boneless chicken breasts or thighs
1/4 cup flour
1/2 to 1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
4 garlic cloves minced
1/2 rounded teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup cashews

Instructions

Cut the chicken into about one-inch chunks. Combine the flour and black pepper in a large Ziploc, and add the chicken. Seal the bag and shake to evenly coat the chicken in the flour and pepper mixture.
Heat the canola oil over medium heat in a skillet and add the coated chicken, sauteing until it’s browned. (Don’t worry about whether it’s cooked through; it’s going to go into a crockpot next.)
Place the browned chicken into a crockpot.
In a bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes and then pour over the chicken in the crockpot.
Cook for four hours on low heat.
Mix in the cashews, and serve over rice or lo mein noodles.

This was absolutely delicious. The cashews added a nice crunch, and the sauce was awesome. It was just the right amount of sweet and not spicy at all.

This is also really easy to double, which is what we did, and the leftovers heat up really nicely in the microwave.

And I was excited to have some leftover cashews in my pantry to snack on. Apparently, they’re a lot more interesting than I ever knew and have come a long way from being a “poisonous” nut on a tree to hanging out in my crockpot.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 19, 2020.

Tags cashew, chicken, Chinese, garlic, ginger, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce

Crockpot Main Dish

Parsnips can help keep your pot roast rooted

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date April 23, 2020

At the start of the stay-at-home order, Joey and I made our normal trip to the grocery store, planning to get ingredients for some meals that would yield plenty of leftovers for our freezer and keep us out of the public for a couple weeks.

We already had a roast in the freezer, so we were on the hunt for ingredients to put with it in the crockpot for a good, old-fashioned crockpot.

Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who made a trip to our local grocery store that day, and we found ourselves staring at a lot of empty shelves, especially in the produce section.

I was surprised to see there wasn’t a single potato to be had, and while I’d normally add carrots to my roast, there was only a tiny package of shredded carrots left, and I didn’t think that would do.

We weren’t sure how to pivot until Joey began examining the shelves for what was still available and wondered aloud what we could substitute for potatoes or carrots in our recipe.

A quick Google search yielded the solution: parsnips.

I’ve never cooked with parsnips before, but there they were, on the shelf, in abundance, so we bought a big bag and decided to see what would happen.

So, this week, I’m sharing with you how we normally put together a pot roast and highly recommending that you give parsnips a try.

Pot Roast with Parsnips

Pot roast is a versatile dinner. This roast was made using parsnips instead of potatoes and carrots due to quarantine shortages.

Course Main Course

Keyword beef, carrots, crockpot, mashed potatoes, onions, parsnips, pot roast

Ingredients

Chuck roast we normally get a 3- to 5-pound roast, thawed
4 to 5 stalks celery cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 to 8 cloves garlic minced
1 small yellow onion cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 to 5 carrots cut into 1/2-inch rounds
2 pounds potatoes or parsnips cut into 1-inch pieces
salt and pepper to taste
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3-4 cups beef broth or a medium to dark style of beer

Instructions

While you prepare your vegetables, pull the roast from the refrigerator to get it closer to room temperature.
Start with adding the roast to the center of your crockpot and then sprinkle in the vegetables, herbs and spices around it. Pour over the broth and Worcestershire sauce and place the lid on the crockpot. You don’t need to have the broth all the way to the rim or completely covering the roast, but I’d recommend having it at least three-quarters of the way up the meat and veggies.
Cook on low for six to eight hours or on high for about three to five hours. (The cook time will really depend on how big your roast is, but that’s pretty standard.)
For proper doneness, a pot roast should be at least 145 degrees in the thickest part.
Check the doneness of the vegetables by piercing them with a fork. If they’re done to your liking, serve the roast by slicing it and then spooning lots of vegetables with it. We like to eat ours in a bowl so we can serve it with some of the juices from the crockpot.
Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer. Make sure you include juice in the containers, too. It will help it stay moist when you reheat it.

If you’re curious, a parsnip tastes a bit like a carrot but with a bit more of an earthy, nutty flavor. We didn’t miss the carrots or potatoes too much with the addition of the extra flavor.

There are probably a million ways people make pot roast. I have a friend who uses French onion soup mix, water and frozen, mixed vegetables in hers.

A lot of folks also like to thicken up the juices to make gravy and serve the roast over top of mashed potatoes.

The best part is that it’s a flexible dinner to make, and as we discovered, despite potatoes generally being considered a staple with pot roast, you can even get away with leaving those out, too.

Our local store is certainly returning to normal for the most part, but if nothing else, I suppose this quarantine has taught me how to be flexible—both in life and in the kitchen.

This piece first appeared in print on April 23, 2020.

Tags beef, carrots, celery, onions, parsnips, pot roast, potatoes