Braised Chipolte Beef

Thank goodness today is a holiday, today's crockpot meal is a little time intensive.  I'd say it takes about an hour of prep/cook time before you put it in the crockpot.  The hubby read to Hess while I cooked.

The downside is I had to listen to Little Critter for the five thousandth time in the past week.  A little obsessed.

The upside is that today's meal is Diane approved.  She slept attached to me in the moby wrap the entire time I was cooking.

Today's meal is Braised Chipolte Beef.  It has 306 calories and serves 8.

The part that takes the most time is browning the 3 lbs of lean chuck roast cut into 2 inch pieces.  Brown it in 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil over medium high heat. You should cook it in batches, so it browns the meat more thoroughly. I did mine in 4 batches.  Took about 8 minutes per batch.  I used beef tips to cut down on prep time.  Remove it from the pan and place it in the crockpot.

Add 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil to the pan and reduce the heat to medium.  You want to cook 1 yellow onion, cut into pieces, until it is soft.  I cooked it about 4 minutes.  Then you want to add 2 red peppers also cut into pieces.  Cook it for 2 minutes.  Stir in 3 Tbsp of tomato paste, 1 Tbsp Chipolte chili powder, 1 Tbsp paprika, 1 Tbsp ground cumin, 1 Tbsp minced garlic, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp dried oregano and 1/2 tsp black pepper. I use the squeezable tomato paste so we don't waste the can.  I used 2 tsp of fresh oregano because we actually had it in the house for once.

Cook the spices and vegetables one minute, stirring frequently.  Pour on top of the beef in the crockpot.

Add 1 cup of beef broth to skillet, stirring to scrape up brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Pour the broth over the beef in the crockpot.  Stir in 14 oz of diced tomatoes.  I prefer the fire roasted ones, they seem to have a little more flavor.  Cover and cook on low for 7 hours.  Let stand 5 minutes.  Serve over rice.  We like Basmati rice cooked in chicken broth.  So much flavor.  Leaves me plenty of cuddle time with my overly affectionate kids.  Hess fell asleep at naptime face to face with me.  Forehead to forehead.  Nose to nose.  And Miss Diane fell asleep on the swing, only after holding my finger. Man, my arm is sore!!!  More tomorrow on the results of our cooking!