Beef Roast with Potatoes, Butternut Squash

I love to use the crockpot on Thursdays. Not sure why? It’s nice to have one day a week where I can hang out with my kids before dinner instead of barking at them while I prepare dinner (let’s face it…we’ve all barked while making dinner…if you haven’t please tell us how you do it!!!). For me, making dinner while they are playing happily after breakfast is a much better option!

I scored some inexpensive meats this morning at the store. I got 4 packages of boneless, skinless chicken breast for $1.88/lb. Comes out to about $.80/chicken breast. I got 4 packages of ground beef for $1.49/lb. Comes out to about $1.10/meal if I use 3/4 lb for the meal. I got 2 packages of Smithfield ground Pork that was on “Manager’s Special” for $1.99 and I had 2 $1 off coupons (from recent insert), so eeach pacakge was $.99. Perfect for pork fried rice! It was a good week for meat purchases, so I’m all stocked up and the next few weeks at the store I should spend a lot less since I won’t need to buy meat!

Ingredients
Beef Roast ($2.73…I will use the other half tomorrow night to make TX Cowboy’s Pie! I don’t usually make 2 meat and potatoes meals right in a row, but since my crockpot was busy making applesauce for 2 days, I had to rearrange the menu plan!)
2 Potatoes, largely diced ($.50…10 lb bags of potatoes are on sale for $2.98 everywhere around here…be sure to grab a bag!)
Handful of baby carrots ($.48…recently bought these on sale with coupon for $.95)
1/2 onion, chopped ($.20)
Butternut Squash ($1.17)

I would have liked to add a can of tomatoes, but that would have sent me way over! This meal will have enough leftovers for Hubs’ lunch!

Directions
1. Place roast in crockpot with 1 cup water. Sprinke with salt, pepper or favorite spice. Place carrots, onions, and potatoes around roast. Cook in crockpot on low for 8 or 10 hours.
2. Cut butternut squash in half. Bake upside down in baking dish with 1/2 inch water at 350 for 45 minutes – 1 hour. Scrape out seeds. We eat it plain, but it’s good with butter and brown sugar as well!
3. Slice roast and save other half for another meal!
4. If you’d like a little gravy, use baster to transfer roast juices to small saucepan. Turn on medium heat and whisk in 1-3 T flour, depending on amount of juices you added. Whisk and let thicken. (Don’t use wheat flour if you want it GF!)
5. Let broth cool and pour it into a freezer Ziploc baggie. Freeze for use in upcoming soup!

Cost $5.08

I’ve got “free” broth for an upcoming soup, and a servings worth of squash to sneak into an upcoming Macaroni and Cheese Dinner! I also think I’ll be able to stretch the rest of the beef into 2 meals…TX Cowboy’s Pie and BBQ Beef Sandwiches!

For more “Slow Cooking” recipes, visit Diary of a Stay at Home Mom!

Tagged as: beef roast, butternut squash, carrots