blue artichoke

Sometimes a great idea makes so much sense that you're a bit embarrassed that you didn't think of it sooner. Such is the case of the crock-pot. I rediscovered my crock-pot last fall and used it quite a bit throughout the winter. Spring came and I zipped it up in its neat storage case and forgot about it. Now, all summer, I've been moaning and carrying on about how it’s too hot to turn on the oven, but it wasn't until yesterday that it occurred to me to get out my crock-pot. Duh! I can cook good meals without heating up the kitchen, and I don't even have to spend much time sweating over food prep. Shameful, really, that it took so long for me to turn to the crock-pot. But that's another great thing about crock-pots: they are there when you need them, and never complain or nag when you neglect them.

Last night I made barbeque beef sandwiches, cooking the beef roast in the crock-pot with cabbage, onions, rice and barbeque sauce. When I got home from work, the house smelled great, but faintly of sauerkraut. And, because dinner was ready to eat whenever we were, I could sit outside on the porch with Fat Larry, drinking iced tea, visiting with my neighbors and enjoying the relatively cool summer evening.

Even though the house smelled like sauerkraut, the bbq didn't taste like it at all. In a lot of bbq places, coleslaw is served right on the sandwich, on top of the pulled or shredded meat. That's what I thought the recipe was going for, but adding cabbage at the very beginning kind of takes away the cabbage flavor as it soaks up the bbq sauce flavor. It stretched out the meat quite a bit; I could use a small roast and still make a whole lot of bbq. Plus it makes the bbq a bit healthier. All in all, I think I've found a good friend in the crock-pot, and will be seeing a lot of it in the next few weeks.

Barbecue Beef Sandwiches

1 ½# beef boneless round steak
½ t. salt
¼ t. coarsely ground pepper
2 c. coleslaw mix or shredded cabbage
1 med onion, coarsely chopped (1/2 c.)
¼ c. uncooked regular long-grain rice
½ c. barbecue sauce
½ c. water
8 sandwich buns, split
8 slices (1 oz. each) Colby-Monterey Jack cheese, if desired

Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray.

Remove fat from beef. Cut into 3” pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix coleslaw mix, onion, rice, bbq sauce and water. Layer beef and coleslaw mixture in slow cooker.

Cover and cook on low heat setting ~8h or until beef is tender and falls apart when stirred with fork. Fill buns with beef mixture. Top with cheese.

Makes 8 sandwiches.

260C, 5g fat, 34g carbs, 2 starch, 2 very lean meat, 1 veggie

*Substitution: can make with tomato sauce instead of bbq sauce for a milder flavor.

Can also use bone-in round steak instead of boneless steak. Cut the steak into 3” pieces, leaving the bone attached to one of the pieces. The bone adds flavor. Be sure to remove bone before serving.