Frozen to Fabulous: Roast Beef in the Crock Pot

At the risk of sounding dramatic, this roast beef recipe has changed my life.

I can’t tell you how many times I have bought the “Buy One Get One” roasts at Jewel only to stick one in the freezer for a year until it develops freezer burn.  

I just never seem to have my timing down to defrost it in the fridge and I don’t like the way it defrosts in the microwave.

What took me so long to figure out that defrosting the roast beef is not necessary?

What is even easier is that you can put the frozen roast in the crock pot with just a few simple ingredients, forget about it for six hours and come home to a glorious roast beef!

Usually six hours is plenty of time, but that will depend on the size of the roast, so to ensure the beef is cooked properly, a meat thermometer is great.  You can get one at the grocery store for a couple of bucks, and they really are life savers.  

I chose to roast my potatoes and green vegetables separately from the roast because of the vegetarians in our house.  But I am sure you could easily chop a half bag of potatoes and throw in a bag of frozen vegetables with the roast, but if you do, cook it longer.

There are endless ways to vary this recipe. Add curry, hot pepper, giardinera, carrots, red wine in place of water, you name it!  I would love for you to send me photos or recipes of your variations.

When roasting potatoes on the side, simply chop any potato into small pieces, sprinkle with olive oil, your favorite herbs and as much garlic as you can handle, and roast at 400 degrees until potatoes are tender. The smaller you chop them, the faster they cook.

Take that roast out of the freezer today and play in the snow with your kids while dinner cooks. The smell is heavenly.

• 1 frozen roast beef
• 1 large onion cut into quarters
• 5+ cloves of chopped garlic
• 1 can condensed soup (cream of chicken is nice but anything will do)
• 1 can water
• a handful of mushrooms sliced
• 1 Tbsp dried herbs (I used thyme but Italian seasonings would be good too)
• 1 tsp or more salt
• 1 tsp or more pepper

Put frozen roast in crockpot and add all ingredients. Cover and cook on low for about six hours.  

Roast beef is well done when there is no pink left in middle, which is how most kids like it. But here are the following cooking temperatures from The Joy of Cooking:

• Medium rare: 130-135 degrees
• Medium well: 155-165 degrees
• Well done: 170-185 degrees

Enjoy a night off of cooking with the roast you got for free!