Crock-pot roasts are the easiest meals you could possibly make. They’re good for either summer (you don’t use the oven) or winter (smells good all day) meals.
Pot Roast
1 2-3 pound boneless round roast
1 medium white or yellow onion
small white potatoes
baby carrots
red wine
beef buillon (1 packet or about 1 tsp)
If you have chuck roast, you can just put it in the crock pot for 8 hours, and it turns out perfectly. But a serving of chuck roast, even trimmed, is still about twice the fat as a round roast. So…here’s a way to have delicious pot roast and keep it lean. Using medium-high heat and a non-stick pan, brown the roast on all sides quickly. Spray the crockpot with olive oil spray and put the roast in it. In the pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and brown the onion slices until they just start to get tender. Mix in the bouillon and then pile the onion mixture on top of the roast. Pour in about 1/2 cup of red wine and throw in a bay leaf or two. Simmer on low all day. About two hours before serving, cut off any bad parts of the potatoes, and throw them and the carrots in the liquid. A 4-ounce serving of top round is about 240 calories and 10g fat.
Roast Pork Loin 1 2-3 pound boneless pork loin
Rosemary
Spray the crockpot with olive oil spray and place the roast in the crockpot. Sprinkle liberally with rosemary. Cook all day. That’s it! Serve with a salad and fresh bread (I buy small sourdough flutes so we don’t eat too much bread). A 4-ounce serving of pork loin is about 240 calories and 10g fat.
Roast Turkey Breast Our WalMart Supercenter now sells Butterball boneless all-white turkey breasts. I was so happy until I had already purchased 3 and read nutrition lablel. They’re infused with lots of sodium (and who knows what else). I’m still going to use them, because they’re so convenient for dinner and then sandwiches. But beware the sodium on these! We used to stock up on the bone-in kind around Thanksgiving, but that meant using the oven. Now I can just put one in the crock pot (spray with olive oil spray first), sprinkle with Mrs. Dash lemon pepper seasoning, and 8 hours later we have turkey! I make instant mashed potatoes and gravy (which are fairly low in sodium) and serve with no-salt-added canned green beans for a real comfort meal. And it’s so easy you can have it on a weekday, with enough turkey for sandwiches the rest of the week. A 4-oz serving of white turkey breast is about 180 calories and 3g fat.
I am a type 2 diabetic, but I’m not a chef. In fact, I hate to cook. I like convenience foods that taste good. But I have to eat healthy–low carb, high protein, high fiber, low sodium, high nutrient content. Balancing all that can be a challenge, but like so many other diabetics who finally start paying attention to their lifestyle, I drank the (sugar-free) kool-aid and became obsessed with learning to eat right. With this blog, I share product reviews, recipes, and just generally helpful hints I have learned from my obsessive research. My husband thanks you for reading, so he doesn’t have to pretend to listen to all my latest findings and be fascinated by them.
