Over-achiever, for the first time in my life!

Hello readers!  I haven’t been writing as frequently as I’ve been wanting to; life has just had other plans for me.  I hope all seven of you who are still with me haven’t missed me too much :).

Last week I was an overachiever: I made TWO crock pot meals on back to back nights.  Both were happily scarfed by O and Tots, and I’m pretty sure they made it to the “please-make-it-again” list.

Wednesday, I made barbeque beef for barbeque beef sandwiches.  Along with being nearly effortless to put together, I already had all of the ingredients in my kitchen (which rarely happens!):

2lbs beef roast

¼ C apple cider vinegar

2 C ketchup

1 medium onion (I actually had an onion on hand, but didn’t want to take the time to cut it before work, so I used several good shakes of minced onion)

¼ C honey (it called for molasses, but my molasses was low and I didn’t want to wait for it to drain into my measuring cup)

Pepper

Salt

Soy sauce (it called for Worcestershire sauce, but turns out I didn’t have at in my fridge.  Oops.  I substituted)

1/8 C brown sugar

Dry mustard

Mix all of your wet ingredients together in a bowl, and then dump it over your roast in your crock pot.  I cooked it on low for about 8 hours.  When it was done, I took it out and let it sit for a few minutes.  I shredded it with two forks and then put it back in the crock pot.  I could’ve left it at that, but I like my barbeque beef really barbeque-ey, so I added a little bit of my favorite sauce.  It was perfect.

The next night I made meatball subs, and it was SO much easier than I thought it would be.  I actually threw it together over my lunch hour.

2lb ground beef

½ C Italian seasoned bread crumbs

2 eggs

20 oz of your favorite spaghetti sauce

Pepper

Salt

Again, super simple.  Mix the ground beef with the eggs and bread crumbs, and put a little salt and pepper in as well.  Mold your beef into meatballs (this recipe makes about 24) and then arrange in your crock pot (I had to use both of mine).  I made sure my meatballs weren’t touching, and then I poured the sauce over them.  I cooked them on high for about 5 hours, and then put them on hoagie buns.  Three to a bun was just about perfect!