This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

A Pot Roast for the Imperfect

Super-easy pot roast for those of us whose nutty lives keep us away from the kitchen.

Re-posted from Juggling With Julia

I was going to call this Pot Roast for Dummies. Not very nice, I know, but seriously you could train your cat to make this recipe. No joke! He would only need to know how to use a can opener. Oh, and he'd have to actually give a toot about you and your needs, which cats famously do not.

So, skip that idea, and teach the dog instead. But make sure he's a vegan, otherwise the meat will never make it to the crock pot.  Ah, never-mind. Just do it yourself. Trust me, it only takes five minutes and then you're D-O-N-E. Then you can la-la-la all the way out the door as you head out to do your errands. You know - spin class and yoga, then off to see the pet hypnotist, have a tattoo removed, and finally to meet the parole officer at Starbucks. 

Find out what's happening in Readingwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But, enough about my day ;-)  What's your crazy day like? This pot roast is for those of us who occasionally have no time to cook, thanks to our crazy lives, but would still like a home-cooked meal. I don't know where this recipe originated from, but it has gotten me out of many a jam, and I come out smelling like roses (and cranberry sauce and onions) every time. It's a crime to even call it a recipe.

You simply take a nice pot roast (see here for choosing a good cut of meat) and add the following ingredients:

Find out what's happening in Readingwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Onion Soup Mix.

Jellied Cranberry Sauce.

That's right, this recipe has exactly 3 ingredients: a hunk of meat, an envelope of onion soup mix, and a can of jellied cranberry sauce. No water, no anything.

Plop it all in the crockpot, cover it, and cook on Low for 6-7 hours. It should be fork tender with plenty of delicious sauce, which is surprisingly strong in neither onion nor cranberry flavor, but a lovely fusion of the two along with the slow-cooked meat. 

Feel free to add carrots to the crockpot (a 1-pound bag of baby carrots would be perfect), and be sure to serve with something that likes to be covered in sauce -- like brown rice or mashed potatoes. Sorry for the sloppy plating job in the photo, but I just had to show off the yummy sauce. It goes well with everything, as you can see here! Enjoy!

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?