"I caught this huge roast on sale last week. I normally would not buy such a large piece of meat to cook at one time, but my sister-in-law, Deb, and I have recently teamed up to do some freezer cooking. I have been freezer cooking for my son and I for about 6 years.
My sister-in-law is diabetic, and has other health issues, so we take frequent breaks, and only plan a few items at a time to prepare on my days off from work.

Anyway, I thought I would tell you about our adventures with this humongous cut of meat. The plan was to add celery, onion, potatoes, carrots and a little beef broth to the crock-pot, then cook it all day while we were doing some other things for the freezer. We planned to have it for supper, and freeze the leftovers. I brought it home from the grocery store, trimmed the layer of fat from the bottom and plopped it in the big crock-pot. Guess what? It filled the crock-pot up. No room for anything else in there except a cup of chopped celery and onions. YIKES! Oh well, change in plan....we would cook the roast in the crock-pot and steam the veggies to go with it on the top of the stove right before supper.

We proceeded with the other items on our list for the day. We started with some bakery croissants that were on sale, added these combinations for quick grab and go sandwiches: ham and cheese, beef and cheddar, and turkey and cheese....48 total. We packaged them in sandwich sized baggies and put them in gallon sized freezer bags, sealed, labeled and popped them in the freezer. Time for a break, as Deb was getting tired. One of us glanced over at the crock-pot. Oh, my! The roast had expanded and pushed the lid of the crock pot up about a half inch away from the rim. We put aluminum foil over the roast and crimped it around the edges of the crock-pot to hold the heat in then continued with our break.

After a short break, we proceeded with the planned items. Next up was breakfast burritos. We cooked and assembled 80 breakfast burritos. We used 10 dozen eggs, two pounds of sausage, three pounds of bacon and 3 1/2 pounds of grated cheese. LOL, sounds like a lot for 80 burritos, but I had picked up the 12 inch tortillas instead of the 10 inch I normally buy and it took more filling than normal. Oh well, the boys will enjoy them. By the way, "the boys" are my son, and my two brothers. I am fortunate to have my house situated between the houses of my two brothers, one married, one single.

Two o'clock, time for another break.....check crock-pot.... the roast has expanded even more. The lid is now almost two inches above the crock-pot and the foil is pulled away from the rim. Grab another piece of foil and re-secure it to the rim. By this time, Deb and I have decided the roast is not going to be done as planned, so we fix the boys something else for dinner.

That roast ended up cooking all day and all night in the crock-pot. The lid eventually went back down to where it was supposed to rest on the rim as the roast cooked. The next afternoon, when I got home from work, Deb had removed the roast to cool for slicing, and added the veggies to the crock-pot, so they were done. We had roast and veggies for supper that night. Packaged some of the leftovers with mashed potatoes and gravy in individual portions (TV dinners) for the boys and I to take to work for lunches. The rest of the veggies, juices and roast was packaged as "stew", and placed in the freezer for later use. All in all that 9 1/2 pound roast was made into one meal for the 5 of us, 15 "TV dinners" and two gallons of stew. Deb and I have decided next time, we will cut the roast in half and use 2 crock-pots. Live and learn.

 

Thanks for the sharing this great story with us!  I was unable to reach Barngranny. Barngranny, if you read this, please contact me at carol@30daygourmet.com to claim your prize!

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