Lazy Pot Roast

Lazy Pot Roast... I hope by now you all know that this blog is about creating Dahlicious well rounded meals on regular ole weeknights with love and care and occasionally a little bit of work, but I also hope by now you see that I am all for cutting a few corners when I'm in a crunch or when I'm just not interested in the long version of a recipe. Last night was one of those corner-cutting nights. I happened to pick up TJ's Fully Cooked & Seasoned Traditional Pot Roast (it's found near the chicken sausages and the Mexican Style Carnitas in the refrigerated section) when I was shopping on Sunday, unsure of exactly what I'd do with it - just knowing that I like pot roast and I trust they'd do a good job of this since I love their carnitas version.

The package suggests just heating and serving, which you could absolutely do, but I figured I'd go ahead and make it just a tad bit snazzier - turning it into a proper one-bowl kind of meal.

On the Menu:
Lazy Pot Roast with Onions & Green Beans over Brown Rice

The Roast:
In a large saute pan over medium/high heat I tossed my chopped onion and chopped green beans (inch long pieces) in a little bit of olive oil salt and pepper, just until it caramelized a bit. Then I gave the pot roast (which comes in one large hunk) a chop - well it started off with me cutting a few pieces with a knife and quickly turned into more of a "hands on" shredding. I kept the pieces fairly large knowing they'd break down later. I threw all of the meat into the sauteing veggie mixture and let the pieces of pot roast get a little crispy. I added a splash of beef stock just to deglaze the pan and let it simmer for just a minute. I then transferred all of the contents of that pan into a Pyrex baking dish, poured a bit more of the beef stock over the entire dish (about halfway up the meat/veggies) covered it with foil and popped it in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Once it was nice and hot and steamy, I removed the foil and let it go on the top rack for another 10-15 minutes just to get a nice crust on the top layer.

I took it out and let it sit for a minute while I got my brown rice steamed up, and served it in a bowl.

This meal was obviously hearty, but I must say that it was decently healthy too. Besides the obvious fact that red meat has more calories than say tuna or salmon might have, the only additions we had in the meal were the onion, the green beans, a little bit of beef stock, some olive oil, and a few carbs with the brown rice. I wouldn't suggest it as a light meal, but I would say that if you are in the mood to make something easy & hearty - yet not chalk full of butter or flour to create a thicker gravy, than this might be right up your alley!

Hope yall are having a Dahlicous week! Happy October!