Crock Pot French Dip Sandwhiches

So, you are going to have to use your imagination for this post.

Why?

Well, because I forgot to take pictures. 

Totally and completely forgot.

Planned the meal, specifically for this post because it is crazy easy and it makes your house smell delicious in the process.

And then life got busy that day and I forgot.

Yeah .. um ...

Ok, so life didn't only get busy ... it also got, uh, messy.

You see we are potty training our 2 year old.

You can see how that could be messy, right?

Between the refusing to poop in the potty and the 100 trips running to the potty when she never actually went, well, that day was sort of a bust.
But I was so glad to have this meal already in the crock pot!!  It was a life saver, because there was no way I was going to be able to cook anything that night.  And that is what this week of quick and easy meals is all about! 

So, just use your imagination for me, please?  I promise you will love this meal!

Ingredients

3-4 lb Roast
1 Package Au Jus Mix (usually found in the spice aisle, with the chili packets, etc)
1 Package Italian Dressing Mix (Found in salad dressing aisle - the dry seasoning package)
1 Can beef Broth

Mix the last three ingredients in your crock pot until all lumps are gone.  Add roast.  Cook on low for 10 to 12 hours.  Usually after about 7 or 8 hours, I pull the roast apart and then put it back in to soak up so more juice.

To serve, we make sandwiches on hoagies with lettuce, onion and tomatoes.  The kids just eat the meat, no sandwich, cuz that's how they roll.  I usually cook up some steak fries or serve with chips.  The best part is there are left overs, so this can be two nights worth of meals!!

Hallie

P.S.
You'll be happy to know that potty training is going much better! We are 100% accident free, we even conquered the poop!!

Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese

I do not have good luck with baked macaroni and cheese.

The cheese separates and looks curdled.

I don't know why this happens...all I know is that it's gross looking.

Tastes fine, but looks awful. There are a ton of recipes that call for canned cheese soup or Velveeta cheese to prevent this from happening, but that just seems like cheating to me.

I have read and heard many things about crock pot Mac and cheese and decided to give it a shot, because really, it couldn't be any worse. The thing about crock pot cooking is that once you've added your ingredients, you let the equipment do the work for you.

This is good in two ways. For one, it's easy. For two, it's hard to blame yourself if the meal fails when you've followed the recipe.

I had a hard time deciding which recipe to try because if there were reviews they were usually about 50% success and 50% curdled failure. So I decided to try one with no reviews to lesson my anxiety that it was destined to turn out horrible.

So, this recipe did have a bit of the curdling, but not as bad as others. Before I added the cheese to the top, the cheese in the sauce had started to separate, but I was able to stir the sauce and smooth it out.

It could be the quality of the cheese i used?

Next time I'll use a better cheese or I'll just cheat and use processed cheese!

I think I earned a participation medal for this one.

Ingredients

 1 8 oz. box elbow macaroni
1 cup medium cheddar cheese
1 egg beaten
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese
1 large can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter (softened)

Prepare macaroni as instructed on box, then drain. I cooked mine 1-2 minutes less than instructed to allow for the remaining cooking time.

Spray crock pot with cooking spray. Add all ingredients to crock pot except for the 1 cup of medium cheddar cheese.

Once combined top with remaining cheese. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Bryn