Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli

We made it to the weekend my friends! I couldn't be happier about this. Even though this week went pretty fast for me, I'm still so glad that the weekend is finally here! I know I make a pretty big deal about the weekends, but isn't that what we all work for? We are going to dinner tonight to celebrate my mom's birthday. Other than that, I have no definite plans. I have a lot of de-cluttering/organizing that I would like to do around the house, but nothing planned other than that.

I have had a request from Leila to post this one soon. So here you go...

When I was getting ready to come back to work, I was trying to find some slow cooker recipes that would make good freezer meals, too. I found this one and thought that it would be pretty good. I prepped all of the meat and threw it in a bag. When I was ready to cook it, I pulled the meat out of the freezer and put it in the slow cooker, then I mixed up the sauce the night before, poured it over the beef, added it to the slow cooker and then put it in the fridge overnight. I like that this helps to marinate the meat a little bit, too. I pulled it out of the fridge at lunch and let it cook all afternoon. Then I finished it up after I got home. It was really pretty easy and I will definitely make this one again. I might try to make the sauce ahead of time and freeze it with the meat, just to save a little more time. Here's the recipe:

SLOW COOKER BEEF & BROCCOLI
adapted from Emily Bites
Points+: 8
Servings: 4

1 lb uncooked lean & trimmed boneless top round roast of beef, sliced thin and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup fat free beef broth
½ cup low sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 t sesame oil )
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 T cornstarch
2 cups frozen broccoli florets/pieces, unthawed

Combine the broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and garlic in your slow cooker and stir together to combine. Add the uncooked beef pieces and mix until the beef is covered by the liquid.

Cover slow cooker and cooke on low for 4 - 6 hours, until the beef is cooked through.

Remove 4 tablespoons of the liquid from your slow cooker to a bowl and stir in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Once combined, add the cornstarch mixture back into the slow cooker and mix in thoroughly. Add the frozen broccoli and stir in. Re-cover the slow cooker and cook on low for another half hour.

I rounded out our meal with some rice, but you can use whatever you would like. Enjoy!

I hope you all have a great weekend! Find me on Instagram to keep up with our shenanigans.

So long for today...

Slow Cooker Balsamic Roast Beef

Hey there! Hope your week is going well. It's another long one for me. 5 whole days of work. But it's supposed to warm up for the next few days. Hopefully, I will get a chance to get out and get some walking done outside. Also helps to get some Vitamin D from the Sun!!

I tried another Emily Bites recipe over the weekend. Actually, I tried a couple of them, but let me tell you about this roast. It was absolutely delicious. It made the house smell incredible all day. My mouth was definitely watering by the time dinner time came. Then when I tasted it, oh my gosh! So good! It was so easy to throw together and defintely didn't disappoint when it came time to try it. Here's the recipe:

SLOW COOKER BALSAMIC ROAST BEEF
adapted from Emily Bites
Servings: 8
Points+: 6

3 lb round raw, boneless round beef roast, lean and trimmed of visible fat
1 cup beef broth
¼ cup Balsamic vinegar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T reduced sodium soy sauce
1 T honey
½ t crushed red pepper flakes (I didn't use)
4 cloves garlic, minced

Place the meat in the slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix the remaining ingredients and pour over the meat.

Cover and cook on low for 6 – 8 hours.

After cooked, break it apart using a fork (the meat should fall apart easily). Ladle about ¼ - ½ cup of juice over the roast beef when you serve it.

EXERCISE:
Last night, I did the Floor Work portion of my Long & Lean Prenatal video. This was only the second time that I've done this. I thought I remembered it being pretty easy, but apparently I remembered wrong! Ha! It felt good to challenge my muscles and I plan to keep this one in the rotation more often!

So long for today...

Balsamic Glazed London Broil

I'm feeling a little frustrated today. I tried really hard to stay on plan over the weekend. Granted, I did have a couple of splurges here and there, but I still have plenty of weekly points to use and the scale was up a bit today. My official weigh-in day is tomorrow and I'm drinking so much water, I think there might be a shortage after today. I'm planning to do JM Ripped in 30 - Level 4 tonight, hopefully that will make the scale happy. We'll just have to wait and see.

I was going to have Cheesy Taco Pasta tonight, but thought maybe I should have something a little bit lighter. So we had balsamic glazed london broil with brown rice and green beans. Everyone enjoyed it. I had seen an episode of Paula's Best Dishes over the weekend and this looked really good. I've never cooked my london broil under the broiler, so I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but I followed the recipe exactly. I even kept the door open. This really helped me to keep a better eye on it, too. I'm happy to report that it turned out beautifully! Here's the recipe:

BALSAMIC GLAZED LONDON BROIL
adapted from Paula Deen
Servings: 8
Points+: 7

3 lb. london broil
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/3 c. balsamic vinegar
1 T. packed brown sugar
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 bay leaf

Preheat the broiler and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

Season the meat with the salt and pepper. In a large skillet over low heat, combine the vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, and bay leaf. Simmer until the liquid has reduced by half and is a syrupy consistency, about 5 minutes. Discard the garlic and bay leaf.

Put the meat on the baking sheet and slather it with the glaze. Broil the meat 4 inches from the heat until it reaches the desired level of doneness, about 4 to 5 minutes per side. Remove from the broiler to a cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes. Thinly slice the meat against the grain and transfer it to a serving platter.

So I guess the Cheesy Taco Pasta will get pushed to tomorrow night and the burgers will be served on Wednesday. I hope I can wait that long! For anyone who's keeping track, we haven't had grilled burgers on the grill for over 2 weeks! I think that might be a record!

So long for today...