It has been a long time since I have made a pot roast in this house. When Hannah was little, I would make it all of the time because it was easy to toss into the crock pot and forget about it for the rest of the day. After having it weekly for close to a year, the family grew tired of it and no one, except me, liked the potatoes and carrots cooked along with the roast in the pot.  

I bought a roast on sale to make a pot roast a few weeks back. When the kids and hubby first heard of my plan, they weren’t too pleased, but unless they want to make dinner themselves, they will eat what is served. In hopes of winning them over, I decided to cook only the roast in the crock pot and make mashed potatoes and steamed carrots to go on the side.  

I seasoned my roast with sea salt and pepper and browned on both side in a hot pan with a touch of olive oil.

After the roast is seared on both sides, simply place it in the crock pot into roughly 2 cups of liquid. This time I used Pacific Simply Stock (vegetable) + water, but I have used all water in the past.  

Cover the crock pot with a lid and resist the urge to peek! If you do want to add potatoes, carrots and/or onions, try doing so half way through the cooking time so they don’t get as mushy. Or, if you like them mushy, add right away. Cook for 8+ hours on low.  

This meal turned out just about perfect! Hannah wasn’t overly pleased when she found out what we were having, but she loves mashed potatoes, so I convinced her to dip her roast in the potatoes. She quickly became a fan! I paired my meal with a nice glass of cabernet and took my time savoring every bite. 

Cheers!

Welcome to the last week of January. I’d like to thank Mother Nature for reminding us it is winter.  I tolerate cold decently until it gets below 20.  After that, I whine and moan about cold toes and frozen noses. Tomorrow the wind chill is predicted to be -25 to -35  Sounds fun, huh?

Pretty, but I am ready for some warmer temps.

The menu plan for this week:

Monday – Ribeye, baked potato and steamed broccoli

Tuesday – Pot roast, potatoes and carrots (crock pot)

Wednesday – Leftovers

Thursday – Chicken fettuccine Alfredo with salad

Friday – Make your own pizza night and salad

Saturday – Take-out

Week in Review:

GFCO: Recall of sorts on two Boulder Canyon products that contain malt vinegar.  Those products include MALT VINEGAR AND SEA SALT, WAVY POTATO CHIPS , KETTLE COOKED IN 100% AVOCADO OIL and MALT VINEGAR AND SEA SALT KETTLE CHIPS.

Review: Glutino Honey Mustard Pretzels

The Melting Pot – Gluten-Free Review

Chinese New Year recipes

 

Gluten-free pretzels are a staple in our house.  I have always loved pretzels, so when I first started the gluten-free diet, I was bummed that I either couldn’t find gluten-free pretzels or they were ridiculously expensive.

Glutino has several variety of gluten-free pretzels on the market, including Chocolate Covered, Yogurt Covered and Peppermint Yogurt Covered . The newest pretzel variety to join the Glutino family is the Honey Mustard variety.

I used to love Honey Mustard pretzels and to be honest, I was just happy I could eat pretzels gluten-free, I didn’t think much about missing the Honey Mustard variety until I heard about these.

Glutino graciously sent me a bag to sample and I couldn’t wait to dive in.  They are every bit as good as I remember, if not better!  WOW…these pretzels have such a wonderful honey mustard flavor!

Ingredients: Corn starch, potato starch, rice flour, soluble corn fiber, palm oil, canola oil, honey mustard seasoning (sugar, onion powder, dextrose, salt, maltodextrin, hydrolyzed soy protein, prepared mustard (distilled vinegar, mustard seed, salt, turmeric), dry honey, citric acid, spice, vinegar solids, canola oil, torula yeast, turmeric extractives, tricalcium phosphate, acetic acid, natural flavor), sugar, cellulose gum, soy lecithin, yeast extract, sodium bicarbonate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, salt, citric acid. Contains soy.

These may be my new favorite snack! They are the perfect addition to a deli-style turkey and cheddar sandwich.  Glutino products can be purchased in grocery and health food stores across the US or online.

Have you tried the new Glutino Honey Mustard Pretzels?

*The product reviewed in this blog post was sent to me free of charge for review purposes.  The thoughts and opinions shared here are mine and have not been influenced by anyone or anything.  

 

This time, I mean it!  I dropped off my HP laptop and MacBook Air to Apple the other day to have the important data transferred to the MacBook.  The HP wasn’t playing nicely, so it took much longer than I thought.  That being said, it is all done now and I hope to get back to some sort of a blogging schedule.  Thank you for your patience, it is greatly appreciated.

I’ll leave you with a picture for “Wordless Wednesday”.

It was just last week that I learned about Gigi’s Cupcakes offering gluten-free cupcakes on Fridays. I quickly placed an order so that I would be able to pick them up on Friday and continue my birthday celebration.

There are three different varieties of gluten-free cupcakes offered:

• White Hot Chocolate
• Birthday Surprise
• Wedding Cake

When I went to pick up my cupcakes I was told that they could make any variety they had in the case gluten-free as long as that variety didn’t contain cookie dough or alcohol.

The cupcakes came packaged in this super-cute box:

Both Jon and I quickly fell in love with these cupcakes! Aside from having more frosting than I like on my cupcakes, they were perfect in every other way. The cakes were moist, icing had a great flavor and no one would be the wiser if you didn’t tell them these were gluten-free.

Gigi’s Cupcakes has locations around the US. Gluten-free orders can be placed online or over the phone. Each Gigi’s location is individually owned, so if you have specific questions about the location closest to you, give them a call. Each gluten-free cupcake costs $3.25, which is the same price as the non-gluten-free cupcake.

Have you tried Gigi’s Cupcakes?  It is so nice to have this option right up the street from our house.

 

I promise I didn’t fall off the face of the earth.  The kids had an extended winter break thanks to Mother Nature and my computer has a mind of its own and only stays on for a short period of time, so I wasn’t able to blog like I would have liked to.  The kids are now back in school and I got a brand new MacBook (made the switch from PC…finally!), so things should be much better from here on out. 

The reason the kids were out of school an extra couple of days.  BRR!  I never thought I would be happy to see the 20 and 30 degree temps return!

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Today is my birthday (I share it with my Mom!), so I have been thinking about what kind of cake or treat I want to celebrate with.  I ordered a few cupcakes from Gigi’s Cupcakes, but can’t pick them up until tomorrow.  In the meantime, I may have to pick up a piece of flourless chocolate cake from Hyde Park.  If I wanted to take the time, I would make this Carrot Cake, but I am just not in the baking mood today. 

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The NFCA has launched a new campaign for the new year called, “Take the Pledge”.  Please join me and educate, empower and advocate for Celiac Disease.