Recipe: QT's Quick 'n Easy Crock-Pot Bottom Round Roast

So a few weeks (or maybe several months!) ago, we bought a new Fancy Shmantzy Kenmore Nuker/Convection oven monstrosity with Auto-Cook Features that did everything except provide sexual favors...

And, at that time, I decided I wanted to tackle an oven-roastable beef-roast that wasn't gonna require a second mortgage on the house to purchase (IOW: Standing Rib Roast was out of the question!).  So, while I was shopping at our local "Low Price Leader" I happened upon Bottom Round Roast on a BOGO special...

My attempt at Auto-Roasting was "okay" (but not noteworthy enough for a blog-post!), and the second roast ended up in the freezer...

So LAST WEEK I decided I'd thaw it out in the fridge and do something with it...

One week later, I was starting to worry that - maybe it's gone bad and maybe I'd better sniff it!  

I pulled it out of the fridge only to discover that it was still partially-frozen!  Ahhh, but it's "mostly thawed" and didn't have any questionable odors so I think I'll do something with it TODAY!

Something that doesn't require a lot of effort or standing! (my footsies are still ouchy!)

Ohhhhh Goooooogle?!!  What do you suggest??? So I queried: "Bottom Round Roast Slow Cooker"

I found a couple of recipes: Here and here. They both sounded delicious, actually.

But in true QT Fashion, I smooshed 'em together.  This seems like it would be a SUPER easy meal to throw together in the morning, toss in the crock-pot, and have dinner (almost) waiting for you when you got home! 

This is what I came up with:

QT's Quick 'n Easy Crock-Pot Bottom Round Roast

Ingredients:

• 3-4 lb Bottom Round Beef Roast

Crock-pot veggie saucy stuff:

• 1 large onion, chopped into largish chunks (I chopped mine into 8-12 pieces)
• 3 carrots, chopped into 1" chunks
• 1-2 cloves fresh garlic, coarsely chopped
• 6 fingerling (or whatever smallish) potatoes, cut in half
• 2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary (appx 4-6" long)
• 1/2 of a mini-bottle of red wine (I used 187ml Cabernet Sauvignon)
• Several TBS Worchestershire Sauce (to your taste - I like Worchestershire sauce b/c it's an excellent tenderizer and tastes "damn good!")
• Envelope of whatever-brand of "Beef Stew" seasoning stuff (Mine was the store's generic-brand)
• 1 cup of water (Beef-Stew package actually called for 3 cups water - but I didn't want that much liquid)
• 2 bay leaves

Dry-rub:

• 2 TBS flour
• 1-2 tsp garlic powder
• 1-2 tsp onion powder
• 1-2 tsp dried, rubbed sage
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried tarragon
• Seasoning salt (your choice - I used "Prime Rib" Seasoning - but any "steak" type of seasoning would work)

Toward the end of cooking (Final Ingredients/Last Hour):

• Frozen veggies, "Stew mix" (full bag) and/or "Country Blend" (appx 1/2 bag)
• The other half of mini-bottle of red wine
• 1 can of condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• You might need to add a tsp of sweetener (I chose Splenda, but sugar would work) if the sauce seems too salty

Instructions:

1. Start by tossing coarsely chopped veggies in the bottom of your crock pot.  Mix up the Beef-Stew Seasoning with 1 cup of water and dump it in along with half of the wine.
2. Rinse the roast in water and tamp 'til mostly-dry with paper towels.  Poke thru the "fatty" side of the meat, several times, with a fork.  Sprinkle flour and dry-rub ingredients on a plate and mix together with a fork.  Roll the roast in the dry-rub ingredients until well-coated.
3. Plunk the roast on top of the veggie/stew-seasoning gloop, fat-side up.  Then drizzle Worchestershire sauce on top the roast.
4. Plop the lid on, and set the crock-pot to "Low."  Let it roast for appx 8 hours.
5. Appx 30-60mins before completion, pull the roast out of the veggie/seasoning gloop.  Remove and discard the rosemary sprigs and bay leaves, then add the "final" ingredients:  Canned mushroom soup, red wine, frozen veggies ("Stew mix" is pearl onions, carrots, celery and potatoes.  "Country Blend" is corn, carrots, green beans and lima beans - but use whatever makes you happy!), and salt/pepper/sweetener to taste. I prefer to add the froz-vegs at the end so they retain their original flavor, color and shape - and the whole thing ends up tasting less "Crock-Potty!"  Put the roast back in the crock pot, fat-side down, and continue cooking for an add'l 30-60 minutes...
6. You may, or may not, want to remove the roast toward the very end of cooking, then skim off the fat from the cooking sauce and/or attempt to make gravy.  In my case, the cooking sauce ended up 'Perfectomundo' for serving "As-Is."

Honestly, I think the "prep-time" for this meal is probably only about 15-20 mins at the beginning, and maybe another 10 minutes at the end (unless you want to skim-fat and make gravy - in which case, it'd probably be closer to 20-30 mins).

Serves 6 (I'm guessing) and you'll still have leftovers!

I'll attempt to post pictures when I'm done.  But what I'm seeing (smelling!) so far seems extremely deeeeee-licious!