In our final installment of 3-Meal Crockpot Recipes for Nurses, we’re going to continue cooking strategically by focusing on Foundation Recipe #3.

If you didn’t read our first two blogs in this series, then let me explain what a 3-Meal Crockpot Recipe is...

Having a large crockpot is great for cooking large quantities of food, obviously. But who wants to eat the same meal multiple times a week? 

Even if you freeze portions, who wants to eat the same meal week after week? We know we don’t.

So instead of using the crockpot to make a lot of one meal, we use what we call a “Foundation Recipe” to make 3 entirely different meals that can be enjoyed in the same week without boring your spouse and kids. 3-Meal Crockpot Recipe...get it?

So far, we’ve shared 3-Meal Crockpot Recipes for pork and chicken. In this week’s blog post, Nursepower is going to share our recipe for savory beef dishes.

If you want to save time in the kitchen so you can spend it elsewhere, then please read on!

Foundation Recipe #3: Slow-Cooked Beef

The nice thing about this recipe is that you don’t need an expensive cut of beef. In fact, I would choose the largest, least expensive cut that you can find, such as top round, eye round, or chuck. The slow cooking breaks down the meat until it is fall-apart tender and juicy.

Meal #1: Beef and Vegetables

Image

First step is to season the meat with coarse Kosher salt (or sea salt) and coarse-ground pepper. If you only have table salt and pepper, that’s fine too.  Next step is to heat up a frying pan so that it’s real hot and then sear the meat for 1 minute on each side so it develops a nice, crisp outside. Set the meat aside and let it sit.

While the meat sits, slice a large onion and a package of mushrooms. Then prepare some potatoes — depending on what kind you are using, you may want to peel and quarter them or you may want to keep the skins on and leave them whole. Peel and quarter several carrots.

Layer the bottom of your crockpot with the sliced onions and mushrooms. Place the beef on top and tuck the potatoes and carrots around the beef.

This whole process shouldn’t take you more than 15-20 minutes.

At this point, you are ready to start cooking but I’m going to throw out 2 recommendations for you. Yes, you can just turn on the crockpot and cook the beef on low for 8-10 hours. The beef will be tender and juicy and the vegetables will be perfectly cooked. 

But I like to add some additional flavor in the form of liquid. A can of Campbell’s beef consomme is easy to find in the grocery store and will enrich your meal. Also, you can find in the soup aisle slow-cooker jumpstarts. College Inn offers a tomato-based broth for slow cooking beef that is “to-die-for,” I promise you.

When the beef is ready, remove and place on a cutting board. Let it sit for a few minutes while you scoop out the vegetables into a bowl.

Slice ⅓ of the beef and serve with the veggies. If you want, you can even serve over rice (although I find the double carbs of rice and potatoes to be unfriendly to my waist!)

Meal #2: Beef and Vegetable Stir-Fry

Image

If you’ve never stir-fried before then you are in for a treat because it is easier than ever to create authentic-tasting stir fry.

First, cook a pot of rice — whatever amount you normally use for your family. 

Alternatively, you could use a bag of frozen riced cauliflower. Lately, I’ve been using this instead of rice to reduce my carbs and I find it to be an excellent substitute.  

Next, chop up your ⅓ of the beef and the veggies into bite-sized pieces. For veggies, I like to use 1 broccoli crown, 1 bell pepper, and 3 scallions (separate the white bottom third from the greens). You can add sugar snap pods, water chestnuts, carrots, peas or whatever else you have on hand.

Heat some olive oil in a large flat pan — frying pan, saute pan, or wok. Toss the broccoli, peppers, and bottom third of the scallions in and cook until they soften. Sometimes I will add a splash of water halfway through and cover the veggies to steam the broccoli a little. Add the beef and continue to stir while they cook. 

Once the beef is heated and the veggies are done — remember, they can remain a little crisp if you like — put them in a bowl and set them aside.

Add a little more oil into the pan and crack two eggs directly into the pan. Scramble them with a spatula as they cook, moving them around constantly. Once the eggs look cooked, add the rice.

While it is best to use cold rice for making stir fry, I rarely think so far ahead as to prepare the rice the night before and put it in the fridge.

Stir the rice with the egg and add store-bought stir fry sauce. House of Tsang makes a great classic stir fry sauce that isn’t too salty. They also make a Szechuan sauce if you prefer some added spice. Sometimes I will splash the cooking vegetables with the Szechuan sauce and use the classic stir fry sauce just on the rice.

Add the vegetables and beef to the rice and toss until well-mixed. Serve and enjoy!

Meal #3: Open-Faced French Bread Sandwiches

Image

This one is my favorite because it is so stinkin’ easy. All you need is a baguette or loaf of Italian bread, 2 onions, and some mozzarella cheese.

Slice and saute 2 onions until brown and soft.

Slice ⅓ of the beef into thin slices. If the beef starts to fall apart, that is fine. Alternatively, you can shred the beef using two forks.

Slice open a baguette length-wise and place on top of a cookie sheet or shallow roasting pan. Layer the sauted onions on both sides of the bread. Layer the beef on top of the onions. 

Grate or slice the mozzarella cheese and then layer on top of the beef. 

Place on the top rack of your oven below the broiler and melt the cheese. Make sure you keep a close eye on the cheese because it will melt quickly.

When the cheese is all melted, remove from the oven and place on a cutting board. Cut the sandwich into 1-inch slices and serve with a side of your favorite BBQ dipping sauce.

This meal can be real kid friendly and served with french fries or you can make it more adult and serve with sauteed asparagus and nice salad. Of course, a glass or two of Pinot Noir adds a touch of refinement to the meal as well!

NursePower Empowers Nurses!

While NursePower is all about providing private duty nurses for our clients, we’re also all about improving life for all nurses. We know how hard it is to be a nurse because we’re nurses, too.

NursePower works very hard to give our nurses a better work/life balance. We created this blog series to help not only our nurses achieve better balance but to help all nurses achieve better balance. 

We really hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post and we hope it helps. We hope all our blog posts can in some way make your life a little better. At the very least, we hope that just knowing we’re here, thinking about you and praying for your well-being will help you carry on.

Check back next week for our newest blog post on Top Home Exercise Routines for Nurses.