Sunday Dinner has long been a tradition in homes around the world. When I lived in New York, my two roomies, Neen and Maha, and I made it a tradition in our home, too! Every week we looked forward to sitting around the table together, talking about the fun NYC weekend and plans for the week ahead. Often we invited our 'family of friends' to join us, and Sunday Dinner at 20L became a part of their lives and weekly plans, as well! It was wonderful, and I miss those days often! (For our wedding gift last Spring, Neen gave us beautiful settings from Williams-Sonoma of a table cloth, place mats and napkins, reminiscent of our many dinners together. Love them!)
Most of the time Neen cooked, because she's our Martha. When I cooked, I went all out and experimented with new recipes. And on Maha's turn, she would either serve up a great Mediterranean dish from her homeland- or take out ;). She's the finicky eater. Neen and I will pretty much eat anything!
Now that I live in Dallas with my hubby, we too have made a tradition of Sunday Dinner. One of our favorite Sunday meals is Pot Roast! And I'm sure for obvious reasons, right!
1. It's delicious and nutritious.
2. It's a 'one pot' meal.
3. The slow cooker does all the work, besides your trimming and chopping.
4. You can go on about your day and know that 6 hours later a little piece of heaven awaits you and your loved ones- and they'll rave about how good it is!
Since it's Thursday, and we're all making our plans for the weekend, I thought I'd get you this recipe so you can plan accordingly!
Pot Roast
Serves 4 generously
Ingredients:
1 4 pound boneless chuck roast, trimmed
2 10 ounce cans low-sodium, cream of mushroom soup, with roasted garlic
1 10 ounce can water
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 large sweet yellow onion, chopped
4 large carrots, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 package white button mushrooms, chopped
4 tablespoons fresh grated parmesan
Preparation:
Step 1:
Set your slow cooker on LOW. Chop onions. Trim any larger pieces of fat from roast. Add roast, water, soup, herbs and spices, and chopped onions to slow cooker. Mix all together. Let simmer for 4 hours.
Step 2:
When timer goes off, add the rest of the vegetables (carrots and mushrooms). Set timer and cook for 2 more hours.
Step 3:
Serve your pot roast, vegetables and gravy on a large platter, or in individual bowls. Top individual servings with a tablespoon of parmesan cheese (and maybe a dash more of oregano) and enjoy!
Cook's Notes: Depending on how you want to serve it, I often cut the roast into smaller pieces to allow more thorough trimming and easier, individual serving. Especially if I'm serving to a large group, I want there to be several good smaller pieces of roast, not just one big one. Also, most traditional pot roast recipes usually call for small red potatoes, which you see I served that way at my corporate catering luncheon (pictured at top). But if you want to enjoy this meal with as little guilt as possible, leave out the starchy white potatoes!
xxxxx,
Lindsey