Easy Crock Pot Recipe

Today is Saturday, which means that I cooked. This time I cooked something I did a few weeks ago because my virtual teacher hasn’t made any new stovetop dish – my oven is not working and I screwed it up trying to fix it too, so I can only make stovetop recipes until I get a new stove. The reason I chose this one to make again, of course, was because it’s the easiest recipe.

I also made mashed potato to eat with it. My first attempt at mashed potato was a few weeks ago, and I was so surprised that I’ve never had better tasting one than mine!!! Probably because most mashed potatoes I’ve had were instant kind. I could mash it the way I like, too – a little clumpy, not silky smooth.

I didn’t like the way the last recipe post looked with my blue comments all over, so I’m trying the blue on the actual recipe this time.

Ingredients

2 lbs of beef stew meat A package of beef stew meat contains beef cut in cube-like shape if you don’t know what it looks like – it’s a pain if you have to look at the description on every single package, you know.
1/2 cup ketchup I suspect most of you know what ketchup is.
1/2 cup chili sauce I didn’t know what chili sauce was but apparently Heinz makes this thing. I found it right next to Heinz ketchup. No, I don’t work for Heinz.
1/2 cup water Water was the only ingredient I didn’t buy when I made it the first time.
1/2 envelope of onion soup mix I didn’t know there was such thing
1/2 tsp regular yellow mustard I bought the mustard, but when I got home I found out I already had it… from 2 years ago. Is it still good after 2 years in the fridge?
1/4 cup vinegar Just normal vinegar without any color.

Instructions

In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients except the meat and set aside. The first time I made it, I mistakenly put the entire envelope instead of just half, so the teacher had me put more water while it’s cooking because it would have been too salty otherwise. She warned me that the sauce would be soupier because of added water, and it was.
Brown the meat at high heat, like a steak. Only a little bit, you don’t want to cook it all the way through.In other words, browning the meat means just cook the outside of the meat until it’s brown.
***Note: In all the crock pot recipes where you need to cook meat, except with ground meat, it is written in a lot of books that you need to brown the meat first. It helps keep the juice in, and also kind of caramelize the meat a little, like when you cook a steak.
Put the meat in the crock pot, pour the sauce on top and mix well. Cook for 4-1/2 to 5 hours at HIGH. Don’t remove the cover until the end. Whenever I cook something with a cover like this, I’m sooooo tempted to open the cover. I don’t know why but I’m always itching to open the cover and take a peek inside. Does anybody else have the same problem?

Hmmm… I’m not sure if this one looks any better than the last one. Any suggestions?