It’s Guest Chef Week (or weeks) at Once Upon a Spice and I wanted to start with some of the most popular recipes from our blog. It’s been difficult to streamline all of our incredible offerings, so in the end I had to resort to counting likes. 🙂

Once again, many thanks to all of the fabulous in home Guest Chefs! We applaud you!!

For those that know me, I am somewhat pedantic about prepackaged items. Yes, I’m finicky, and a bit of a purist, but I have found some very good and healthy quick to prepare items lately that I’m not ashamed to say that I use; sometimes With all of the Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and the like cropping up everywhere, it’s become relatively simple to find wholesome goodies sans a list of unpronounceable ingredients a mile-long.

In fact Jenny, my friend who initially gave me this recipe, suggested that I visit my local health food store for the prepackaged salad dressings and gravy mix—she’s sort of a snob too The blend of mixes just simply “work.” I consider them one fine combination that ends up serving as an extremely tasty gravy, combined with the juices of the slow-simmered roast and fresh veggies. Also, when it comes to veggies, buy fresh; carrots wearing their hats, crisp celery that breaks when bent, onions with firm skins intact, potatoes with a little shine to them—you get the picture. And so will everyone you serve this excellent dish to. Simplicity at its finest once again. Incredible!

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 1 (4 -5 lb) beef roast, any kind
• 1 (1 1/4 ounce) package brown gravy mix, dry
• 1 (1 1/4 ounce) package dried Italian salad dressing mix
• 1 (1 1/4 ounce) package ranch dressing mix, dry
• 1/2 cup red wine, broth or apple juice

Directions:

• Place beef roast in crock pot. Mix the dried mixes together in a bowl and sprinkle over the roast.
• Pour your liquid of choice around the roast.
• Cook on low for 7-9 hours.
• For roast with vegetables; add one chopped onion, 3 chopped carrots and 3 stalks of chopped celery at the very beginning.
• The last 2 hours add 2 large potatoes scrubbed and cubed. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve over mashed potatoes, noodles or rice, soft dinner rolls, and a crisp side salad or green veggie of choice.