The beauty of the crock pot is that it can be stocked in the morning and left to its own devices all day. No babysitting required. And by the time you drag your sore body home at the end of a hectic day, your crock pot will greet you with a ready-to-serve home-cooked meal!



If you're curious to test the servitude of your crock pot, here's a quick (prep time wise) and easy recipe for barbecue beef. Remove the roast from your trusty crock pot and discard the juices. Shred the meat using a fork and return it to the crock pot.

Add the barbecue sauce and cook on high for another 30-60 minutes, or the amount of time it takes to change into something comfortable and check a day's worth of emails.

Crock Full of Beef

4lb roast of beef

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 large onion, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup water

5 cloves of garlic, peeled

1tsp salt

1tsp ground black pepper

2 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce

Add cooking oil to frying pan over medium-high heat. Brown the meat on all sides. Remove from heat.

To stock your pot, add 1/2 of the sliced onion to the bottom of the pot. Place the browned roast on top of the onion. Add the water, garlic cloves, salt and pepper and the remaining onion.

Cover and set timer according to the length of your work day for a minimum 4-6 hours or maximum 8-10 hours. The longer you work, the better your roast will be!

Fast forward 6-10 hours ...

Welcome home! Supper's almost ready!

Remove the roast from your trusty crock pot and discard the juices. Shred the meat using a fork and return it to the crock pot.

Add the barbecue sauce and cook on high for another 30-60 minutes, or the amount of time it takes to change into something comfortable and check a day's worth of emails.

Once the last email is answered, you will have yourself one happy crock full of tasty beef!

Serve it over rice or pasta, or make a gourmet sloppy joe and serve it up on a fresh bun.

For an easy all-purpose barbecue sauce, which tastes great with beef, pork or chicken, here's one of my favorites from ?Barbecue Secrets Revealed?.

The sauce can be made ahead of time and stored either in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container.

Amazing All Purpose Barbecue Sauce

1 cup Catsup

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 dashes Bottled hot pepper sauce

1 cup Water

1/4 cup Vinegar

1 tbsp Brown sugar

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Celery seed

1 tbsp Minced onions

Combine ingredients in slow-cooking pot. Cover and cook over low heat 2 to 3 hours.

Makes 2 to 2 1/4 cups sauce.

Happy crockin'!