The Perfect Sunday Dinner.

I love when I can use my crockpot, especially on a sunday...throw all your ingredients together and let them cook! Then when dinnertime comes all you have to do is serve :) Today we had My momma's roast beef, white bread and for dessert it was granny smith apples with warmed caramel. 

This Roast Beef recipe is the one my mom always made when I was growing up...and still does...I have added my own touches to it, as I try to do with every recipe..it was a family favorite then, when I was a kid, and its a family favorite now with my family. You can pick whatever kind of  boneless beef  you would like for this, this time around I used a Boneless Bottom Round Beef Rump Roast.

My momma's Roast Beef

What you will need:                                                                

Beef, cut of your choice

2 Pkgs Lipton Onion Soup Mix

Vegetable Oil

Salt and Pepper

1 stick of butter

All Purpose Flour 

4 Cups Water

about 6 regular sized potatoes

half of a regular sized bag of baby carrots

First get your crock pot ready and set it on the high setting. Put about 1/3 oil in a skillet at heat.

Rinse your roast off with water and place on a plate and then salt and pepper to taste.

Mix both packages of Lipton onion soup mix with your 4 cups of water.

When your oil is hot, use Lg forks to place roast in skillet (You will most likely get a lot of popping and splattering of oil at this point, so once you have quickly but gently set your roast in the skillet, back away until the popping lessens.)

Brown roast on all sides

Once roast has been browned on all sides, remove from skillet and place in crockpot.

Now to make the gravy, mix your flour in with your hot oil in the skillet, the exact amount of flour is going to depend on how you want your gravy, start out adding little amounts of flour at a time to avoid over flouring, this is easier then trying to add oil later if you added too much flour.

When your oil and flour mixture becomes dark brown, add the Liption Onion Soup mixture to the skillet and stir continuously.

Keep stirring until the gravy has reached the consistency of a creamy soup, and then pour over roast.

Take your stick of butter and cut it into 3rds.  Add 1/3 of a stick of butter to the top of the roast and coat each side of the roast with the butter, once you have done this let the remaining butter fall into the gravy and stir.

 

Cover and let cook on high for about an hour.

Now for the Vegetables!

Peel your potatoes and cut into wedges, about 16 per potato (you don't want them too big or I swear they will never fully cook!)

Slice your baby carrots in half long ways.(I have no picture of these because I cheated and used canned sliced carrots because thats all I had...you could use the baby carrots, canned carrots or even fresh whole carrots, it really is just up to you!)

Put potatoes and carrots in a bowl and salt and pepper to taste, add to crockpot and turn heat to low.

Make sure all your veggies are in the gravy, add another 3rd of your butter to the top of the roast and let it sit there...it will melt and run into the gravy :) 

About an hour before its done, add the last of your butter and stir. Dinner will be done once the Roast is done and the veggies are tender...I usually let mine have a total cooking time in the crockpot of 8 hours! I also like to slice the roast about 30 mins before its ready and return it to the crockpot so that each piece can soak up as much juice as possible.

And thats it!!! Serve it up and enjoy!

I love this roast beef...it is so flavorful, everyone loves it and I always have plenty of leftovers :)  It makes for a great Sunday dinner because it does not require a great deal of time in the kitchen, it is simple, yet fulfilling and delicious :) 

Slap some butter on some bread and serve with dinner. I should have made homemade bread with my bread machine for this, but well...I didn't. We will just save that for another meal :)

And last but certainly NOT least was dessert....mmmmmmm is all I can say...and that was all the hubby and kids could say too. It hit the spot :)

Caramel Apple Dessert

What you will need:       

Cold Granny Smith Apples  (How many depends on how many people you are serving, I use about 1 apple per person)

6 of the individual cups of T. Marzetti's fat free caramel apple dipping sauce. (They come 6 to a package)

How to make it:

Fill a large pot about half full with water and place a large glass mixing bowl over the top, so that just the bottom of the mixing bowl is touching the water. Turn burner to high.

Empty all 6 containers of the caramel into your glass mixing bowl and stir. 

If you want to peel your apples, go ahead...I like to do both, a mix of peeled and unpeeled....IMO the skin on provides the apple with more flavor. 

 Slice your apples into wedges and place in individual bowls.

Allow caramel to warm, stirring often. It is ok when the water starts to boil in your pot, you want to test the temp of your caramel often to make sure that it does not get to hot. The degree of warmth is up to you, I like mine to get to the point where its ALMOST to hot, but it isn't, just right as I like to call it :)

Once the caramel has reached the temperature you desire, use a spoon to drizzle the caramel over the apples and serve immediately.         

Thats it! It is quick and simply and DELICIOUS! It goes perfect after the tasty roast beef you served for dinner. And also by using the fat free caramel, you are serving a low in fat awesome dessert that won't blow your calorie count for the day. The warm caramel on the cold tart apples is such a wonderful combination. And I must say, the apples I got this time had so much flavor and were soooo juicy!

I hope that anyone who tries these recipes enjoys them as much as me and my family do. And as always please leave me your feedback, ideas, and comments :)

Happy Cooking! 

Favorite Kitchen Gadget of the Day!
 

Today my favorite kitchen gadget is definately my potato peeler!!!

 Not only did it make peeling the potatoes so much easier, but also the apples :) Such a time saver then the regular old peel with a knife (which I have never been very good at) My peeler is a farberware brand that I got from walmart. It works super great and I love it....so if you don't have one, make it a point to get one!