Crock pot cooking. Pot roasts and cold meat.

It has been cold here and is dark well and truly by five thirty pm.  It is the weather for hot food!  This week I am covering pot roasts.  Now, this is also useful in summer as you can cook meat and use it as cold meat, warm chicken salad, platters and sandwiches etc. Here we do both. A roast is a hot comforting dinner. Then left overs re appear as other meals. Sometimes many other meals!

A roast usually contains some fat. So the first thing is to lift the meat up from the bottom of the crock pot so the fat will drain down and away. Why oh why crock pots don't come with such a thing I don't understand.  I use two metal trivets that fit just right. This comes from the traced template that I take with me to watch for things that will fit. These are perfect. They keep everything up a little bit and nothing falls through except fat. You could use anything that will fit and do the job, in an emergency scrunched up balls of al foil could work.

You can do any roast you can think of I think. This is my recent lamb roast. 

Think of the flavor combinations you like. With lamb I put in rosemary and I often cover the lamb with mint jelly and reserve some to serve with the meal. This is yum. Add in your vegies. Put on high and forget. About 8 hours ish... more or less is still fine. If it went on earlier I often will turn to low the last couple of hours. There is no water in the bottom, I thought I should mention this...

It is fall off the bone tender. 

Very comforting and warming for dinner! The next day the lamb became wraps for dinner in soft round wraps, spread with tatziki dip, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, onion and cheese. Then two of those became  work lunches. This was great and like a night off.  I warm the meat for dinner wraps but it can be cold. These are DELICIOUS and the kids can assemble them. 

On the weekend we had a chicken pot roast. With a chicken as the meat is delicate I place a square of baking paper just on the spot where the chicken sits on the racks. I put the chicken breast side down as you want the juices to run into the breast meat. 
In this case I cover the chicken with some cranberry sauce/jelly as we like that...

This had been cooking for a while when I remembered to take a picture!  It was just lovely and so tender...

Of course I had cold chicken for the next day. This time I am making Wendy's chicken flan (My Abundant Life.) but other times I would make wraps, warm chicken salad, cold meat and salad or work lunches. There are so many things you can do with left over chicken. 

Other pot roasts I love are pork with whole apples, turkey, cranberry and apple, beef or venison and winter vegies...

Any combinations that you love and lots of vegetables will make it go so much further plus be so good for you. As I am thinking of baby food these can be lifted out and mashed and voila you have instant baby meals!

These are the kind of meals you put on and forget. If you have been out when you walk in the house smells like Nana has been making you a meal. It is a huge help and relief. If you have a baby and dinner is a tiring time, it is all done. You just serve. If you are running children around to after school sports etc. dinner is cooking. You have left overs for other meals. Just so helpful. Let your crock pot help you out. The number of times my crock pot has saved us from having take away would be some ridiculous number! 

Any time I need to make lots of sandwiches or rolls I cook some meat this way and use it then instead of Deli meat. This is usually a fraction of the cost and healthier. If you see a roasting piece of meat take a look at that price and compare it to the same weight in the deli department or pre cut packs. It is a big difference! Plus it is going to be so tender and good!

I hope you have a great week! We are nearly into July! I have so many things I want to get done...

and I love to get going on a Monday and start the week off well. See you on Wednesday! xxx