A Good Day and A Recipe

This has been a lonnnnng week.  As in, I thought yesterday was Thursday and today was Friday.  It was a rude awakening.  And it has been busy.  Something to do almost every night.

But today was just one of those good days.  It was one of those days filled with small things, but all the small things just seemed to add up perfectly.

(Maybe it was the second cup of coffee?)

We have officially started Romeo and Juliet and I got through my lesson perfectly in every class today for the first time all year.

I decided to give up and just laugh with my crazy 6th period instead of trying to make them stop talking.

An out of the blue heart-warming conversation with our boy after school.  He is requesting a lime-green bedroom.  He said, "The minute you guys are able to come get me, I'm ready."  And then I melted into a puddle on the floor.

I had just enough time to grab a power nap before heading off to the JV football game.

I spent the evening enjoying time with my cheerleaders and being silly with them.

And finally, a student that I was SURE hated me and my class and was going to give me the cold shoulder for the entire school year, saw me walking by after the game on his way to the locker room and yelled me name so loudly and started waving that the whole football team turned around and started waving too.  I am calling that a small step for man, and a giant leap for teacher-kind.

And now for a recipe.  The biggest indication that my life is starting to spin crazily out of my control is that I stop cooking, grocery shopping, packing lunch, and generally anything that has to do with preparing food on a daily basis.  Chicken nugget day is a saving grace in these moments.  But yesterday I made a pot roast.  And it was dang good.  I got this out of Southern Living magazine last year, which my grandmother gives me regularly.  God bless my grandma.  She is awesome.  This is really easy and you can do it in the crockpot!  I have been making it for a while now.

1 package fresh mushrooms

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 3-4 lb. roast (I used sirloin, but I think you could use any beef roast)

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 14 oz. can beef broth

1 envelope of french onion soup mix

Put the onions on the bottom of the crockpot. Then layer the mushrooms. Set the roast on top of all that. Sprinkle the roast with pepper and the french onion soup mix. Dump the tomato sauce and the beef broth in and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Ok, this next part is optional but it takes the whole thing up a notch: When the roast is done, take it out and put it on a platter or something. Cover with foil to keep it warm. Into the crockpot with all the juices and mushrooms and onions, put 3 Tbsp. tomato paste and 1 tsp. of Italian seasoning. Mix 2 Tbsp. cornstarch in 2 Tbsp. water. Add to crockpot. Stir it all together and cook it on High for 30 min. It makes this awesome gravy/sauce with the mushrooms and onions in it to pour over the roast.

The first time I ever made this for dinner I served it with mashed potatoes and peas.  You should absolutely do this.  It will make you feel like a rockstar.  And the leftovers are even better.  It will make chicken nugget day look like chopped liver! 

 

So, here's to a good day, pot roast leftovers and all!