A Roast and Mud Pie...First meal in our new home

So, I've been out of the cooking world for the last week because Dee Jay and I were moving so it was a lot of take-out and leftovers in our house the last week. We celebrated our 1 year anniversary on the 1st of June, so of course I had to get our kitchen ready first so I could make us a good dinner to celebrate! In true Okie fashion I made dirt pudding and chuck roast. If you have a Food Pyramid in your area, I think I should make it known that you can buy five packages of meat for $25. We got about $40 worth of meat for $25...what a steal!!! So I pulled out the boneless chuck roast and went to work.

This recipe can be found at Cooks.com after I googled what I had at home (I know the recipe says to use a dutch oven but I don't own one so I made do with my crock-pot), and found this little gem! You start with 3 to 4 pounds of boneless chuck roast and half a stick of butter. You're going to melt the butter in a skillet and brown the meat on both sides, then place it in the crock-pot. You will then sprinkle a half of a teaspoon of garlic salt, half a teaspoon of onion salt, half a teaspoon of salt, and half a teaspoon of black pepper over the meat. Cover it with one can of mushroom soup and one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. (I used about 2 and half tablespoons of Worcestershire because I love the taste)! Add about 3 cans of water, and set the crock-pot on low and cook it for about 3 hours. You are going to want to check on it about an hour in to make sure there is still quite a bit of liquid. Now, you can eat it after 3 hours OR you can let it simmer on low over-night to give it time to soak up the juices and it will end up being so tender it practically falls apart as you scoop it out of the crock-pot! Either way is fine we tested it both ways and preferred the over-night deal but 3 hours was great too!

You can eat this with some veggies or pull it apart and serve up as a sandwich. Either way it's fantastic! Save the liquid in the crock-pot, you can use it as gravy! 

Here is the direct link to the recipe, as well as the run-down!

Boneless Chuck Pot Roast 

3-4 lb. boneless chuck roast
1/2 stick butter
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. onion salt
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 can mushroom soup
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Cook in Dutch oven on top of stove. Melt 1/2 stick butter. Put roast in Dutch oven in melted butter, brown real brown. Turn over brown other side. Add garlic salt, onion salt, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Pour mushroom soup on top roast. Spread over roast. Put 2-3 cans water into Dutch oven over roast.Cover and cook 2-3 1/2 hours on low heat. Check to see if you need to add more water in hour or so. Makes its own gravy. Serve 4-6 people. Serve with rice or cream potatoes.

Now, onto the dirt pudding. It's been awhile since I have made this so I found the recipe at  Food.com and whipped it up in no time! Before I start to tell you this particular recipe, I'm going to vent. You know how you buy 10 hot dogs and then have to buy 8 hot dog buns and then if you need to cook all 10 you have to buy an extra bag of buns, only to have buns left over and you wonder why they do that?? Well in this particular recipe if it called for 14 oz of something I could only find it in 16, or 3 1/2 ounces....I found it in 4+ ounces. Sheesh!! Why can't everything just be easy?? So, all that to say, it calls for two packages (3 1/2 ounces each) of vanilla pudding. I bought two packages that were close to that it worked out fine. So don't fret and don't over-buy! Save yourself some money because I'm here to tell you it will work out! Okay....start with one box of Oreo cookies (close to 14 oz) and crush them as much as you can in a big Ziploc bag and set aside. In a separate bowl you are going to mix 2 packages (as close to 3 1/2 oz as you can) of instant vanilla pudding with 3 cups of milk. (I am allergic to regular milk so we always have Almond milk in our fridge, and it works great). 

In another bowl you are going to mix together one cup of powdered sugar, one 8 oz package of cream cheese, and 1/4 of a cup of butter. Now add the sugar mixture in with the pudding and mix well. Take a 14 oz container of Cool Whip (or as close to 14 oz as you can find) and fold it in with the pudding/sugar mix. I whisked mine until I got all the lumps out. Now for the fun part!!! You will take about half of the crumbled cookies and place them in the bottom of a flower pot...

Now fill it up with the pudding mixture, but leave room on top for the rest of Oreo dirt! (We had leftover so I made a mini "pie" in the Ziploc container). Top the pudding with the rest of the Oreo's...(you can also add gummy worms sticking out of the top to make it look more authentic...this was fun as a child and fun for parties but I left them out this time). Stick a flower in your pot and presto-magic you have a fun dessert that looks great on the table before you're ready to eat! 

 Here is a direct link to the recipe and you don't have to use the regular Oreo cookies if you don't want. You can mix it up and use whichever cookie flavor you like! 

Dirt Pudding

1 (14 ounce) bag Oreo cookies
2 (3 1/2 ounce) packages French Vanilla Pudding
3 cups milk
1 cup powdered sugar
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/4 cup butter or 1/4 cup margarine (1/4 cup)
1 (12 ounce) container Cool Whip 

Break up cookies, put 1/2 on bottom of preferred dish and save other 1/2 for topping. Mix pudding and milk together, set aside. Mix sugar, cream cheese and butter. Add sugar mixture to pudding; fold in cool whip. Pour onto cookies, top with remaining cookies. I like to let it cool for at least a half hour if I have time. Let's it all meld together and it tastes better cool.

~Happy Eating~