You'll need:
1 pound roast or larger, your choice of cut
variety of winter vegetables, such as carrots, potatos, cabbage, onions, celery, enough to fill the crock pot you're using
4 quart crock pot or larger
Seasoned salt
You'll also need at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours to let the dinner cook. It's a low-and-slow type meal.
Here's how I did mine:
Starting with the roast, take it out of whatever packaging it's in and rinse it off with cold water. Put it into the crock pot and add enough water to cover it. This becomes the foundation of the meal.
Next I decided I wanted cabbage for flavor and texture, but not the entire head, so I cut off about an inch-wide section from one side.
Put the rest of the cabbage away, and proceed to cutting up the cabbage section into bite sized pieces, in this case about 1" square.
After cutting up the cabbage wedge, add to crock pot.
I also added a few carrots, stalks of celery, and a very large potato, cut into bite sized pieces and added to the crock pot.
After adding all the big stuff, it was time for the little stuff, in this case, a handful of diced dried onions and a half handful of seasoned salt.
By this time, the crock pot should look pretty full, although you don't want the ingredients to rise above the rim of the crock pot itself.
At this point you want to add water until it's about 1/2" below the rim (where the lid will set). You don't want to fill it any higher than that because the vegetables will cook down over time, adding their juices to the broth.
Add the lid, turn it on high, and let it cook for at least 8 hours, but no more than 24 hours, checking and stirring occasionally. (It's ok if you want to put this on and head out to work--it'll be fine until you get home, and you can just stir it a couple times then.)
I can usually count on about 3 separate and distinct meals out of this, each one serving 3-4 people.. The first, pot roast and veggies, is scooping out a plateful of roast (which should be nearly falling apart) and veggies, great for a cold winter's day, especially when accompanied with warm biscuts, rolls or garlic bread on the side.
The second meal comes after the first has been taken out and enjoyed. Remove the remaining roast (if there is any) and cut or shred it into bite-sized peices, then return to the crock pot. Add 2-3 cups of (warm) water, and add seasoned salt to taste. (Make sure you taste the broth BEFORE you add more seasoned salt to determine how much more you'll need). You now have homemade beef veggie soup with no additives or preservatives. This can be put into individual serving containers and frozen for the long term, or served with a side of a warm buttered bread or garlic bread, also great on a cold day.
The last meal you can get from this is a loose stew. Take 1 cup of broth out of the crock pot and put it into a medium saucepan. Add 1 cup plain water and 4 Tablespoons of flour, stir well. Continue stirring while bringing the "gravy" mixture to a boil over med. high heat. Once the "gravy" has sufficiently thickened it can be added back to the mixture still in the crock pot and mixed in. This will give you a loose stew that can be served over bread, with bread, with mashed potatos, etc., and can also be put into individual serving containers and frozen for future use. :)
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