In my almost 30 years of life, 5+ years of marriage and maybe 12 years of cooking on my own, this is probably the third time I've made pot roast. The first two times were not very successful - it always tasted pretty bland. So, when trying to find a better recipe I found a link to McCormick's site and decided to give their seasoning packet a try - recipe here.
The website said to use red wine or water but the packet only mentioned water. I decided to give the wine a try. Now, since I've never tried it with water I don't know for sure, but I think the wine may have contributed to the fact that the resulting sauce looked a lot like sludge. It was very dark and made all of the meat and veggies the same color. Granted, I only used potatoes and onions since that's all I had on hand but I think it might have had the same affect on anything else that was in the crockpot.
The taste was okay, but I felt it was fairly salty (as can be expected from packaged mixes and one of the main reasons I usually don't use them). Hubby thought it wasn't salty enough - but later pressed said it was a "different kind of salty" - I think he means the difference between pulverized packaged salt mix and the lovely kosher salt we usually use but I can't be sure.
If I were to make this again I would try without wine (or with significantly less) and add more veggies. However, I think that I will keep searching for pot roast recipes. On the plus side, it was very easy to put together and really nice to have it ready to eat when we got home. Now I remember why I love crock pot meals! I really need to find more of them that hubby will eat.
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Estimated cost of meal:
Beef: $3
Sauce packet: $1.50
Wine: $1.25
Veggies: $.75
Rolls: $1.50 (we splurged and got Farm to Market sourdough rolls - $.50 each!)
Total: $8
Former life total: Dinner @ Freddy T's: $22
Leaner Life Savings: $14 or 64%
The website said to use red wine or water but the packet only mentioned water. I decided to give the wine a try. Now, since I've never tried it with water I don't know for sure, but I think the wine may have contributed to the fact that the resulting sauce looked a lot like sludge. It was very dark and made all of the meat and veggies the same color. Granted, I only used potatoes and onions since that's all I had on hand but I think it might have had the same affect on anything else that was in the crockpot.
The taste was okay, but I felt it was fairly salty (as can be expected from packaged mixes and one of the main reasons I usually don't use them). Hubby thought it wasn't salty enough - but later pressed said it was a "different kind of salty" - I think he means the difference between pulverized packaged salt mix and the lovely kosher salt we usually use but I can't be sure.
If I were to make this again I would try without wine (or with significantly less) and add more veggies. However, I think that I will keep searching for pot roast recipes. On the plus side, it was very easy to put together and really nice to have it ready to eat when we got home. Now I remember why I love crock pot meals! I really need to find more of them that hubby will eat.
------------------------------
Estimated cost of meal:
Beef: $3
Sauce packet: $1.50
Wine: $1.25
Veggies: $.75
Rolls: $1.50 (we splurged and got Farm to Market sourdough rolls - $.50 each!)
Total: $8
Former life total: Dinner @ Freddy T's: $22
Leaner Life Savings: $14 or 64%
1 comment:
My mom makes awesome pot roast and uses no seasoning and always buys bottom round. Just learned this as I have been trying to make pot roast for years using different recipes and was finally told the secret. It does cost more but makes a HUGE difference in taste.
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