Roast with Onion and Mushroom Gravy

This is a great way to take an inexpensive cut of meat and and make a delicious meal with very little prep time! Mama used to cook a roast in her cast iron dutch oven often on Sundays. She would brown the meat on all sides before Sunday School , put a envelope of onion soup mix, a can of cream of mushroom soup and a can or two of water and turn down low to simmer while we went to church, and we'd come home to feast! Sometimes she would also add carrots, onions and potatoes. -Claire

Here's a similar variation:
boneless beef chuck shoulder roast (or whatever beef roast is on sale)
fresh ground pepper
1 can golden mushroom soup
1 envelope dry onion soup mix (Lipton's)
2 cans water (or for more flavor 1 can low sodium beef broth)
1 to 2 pounds fresh mushrooms (depending on how popular they are in your family, I use 2)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Line your crock pot with Crock pot liner bag to minimize dirty dishes. Generously cover both sides of roast with freshly ground pepper. Place meat in crock pot. Combine soups and water or broth, pour over roast and cook on high for about 1 hr. Turn down to low for about 6 hours. Add mushrooms, cook about 1 more hour. Combine cornstarch and 2T water and mix well. Remove roast and mushrooms, covering slightly with juices to keep them moist. Add cornstarch mixture to juices in the crock pot and stir often for about 1 minute to thicken gravy. Serve with mashed potatoes and vegetables for a hearty meal!

Optional: add carrots, onions and potatoes with the mushrooms during the last cooking hour for a 1 pot meal. You may need to double all soup and liquid ingredients to immerse vegetables.

If you are heading out for work and will be gone for longer than 6 hours, skip the cooking for an hour on high and just put it on low and let it cook 8-9 hours.

Busy weeknight trick: If you are in a pinch, use instant mashed potatoes instead of the real thing. They are really not that bad!