Pinned Up Mondays! Food Week!

Good Morning!

Today we're kicking off food week!  So far we've had Mom and Teacher Week, Kiddo Week and now we're doing Food!  There will be food posts and recipes all from Pinterest... with my reviews or anything that I would do different!  I'm no chef, I can follow a recipe just fine, but I don't have the vision to put things together and make up a recipe, so I'm just telling you what works for me and my family based on the recipes that we're trying! 

We'll be trying a little of everything, from breakfast to snacks and dinner... even some frozen yumminess since it's HOT-HOT-HOT!  And, since we tend to eat every day, there will be a new recipe every day!  Even over the Memorial Day Weekend!  Yay! 

Okay, so the first recipe that I'm sharing had numerous pros for me:
1.  You cook it in a crockpot!  Yes!  No hot oven on a hot day!
2.  I had all of the ingredients on hand - I think they're staples (except 1, but I didn't miss it)
3.  I can get 3 different meals out of this one recipe!  Yes!  That's 3 nights of dinner from 1 roast!
4.  Easy!  This recipe was super easy and didn't call for multiple pots and pans (ya for little clean-up!)

Shredded Beef Slow Cooker Recipe!

{Photo and Recipe courtesy of  cookingclassy.blogspot.com via Pinterest.com}

Shredded Beef Tacos

Ingredients:
1 (2.5 lb) chuck roast
1 (14 oz) can beef broth
1 1/2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 Tbsp cumin
1/2 Tbsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
Juice of 1 lime

Serve with:
Warmed corn tortillas or warmed fresh flour tortillas*
Green or Iceburg lettuce, chopped
Monterrey Jack or Cheddar cheese, shredded
Guacamole or diced avocados
Sour cream
Cilantro

Fresh Salsa
Freshly squeezed lime juiceHot sauce
Directions:
In a small bowl whisk together chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Place roast in a slow cooker, pour beef broth over roast then squeeze with fresh lime juice. Sprinkle roast with spice mixture. Cover slow cooker with lid and cook on low heat 8-10 hours. Remove roast from slow cooker, shred beef (remove fat) and return shredded beef to slow cooker. Cover with lid and cook additional 30 minutes. Remove beef from slow cooker with tongs to remove juices when plating or drain in a colander. Serve with desired toppings.

So, this meat was delicious!  Seriously delicious!  I'm a little bit of a Mexican food snob... I know, how can you be a snob about Mexican food, but I like traditional Mexican food, cooked the way my Mom or my friends Mom's (Mrs. Annaguey and Mrs. Juarez) did... and this recipe was so good, I'd do it over and over!  The only ingredient that I didn't have was the Onion Powder, but I did everything else exactly like the recipe called for.  It was super moist and had wonderful flavor in every bite!  I topped our taco's with chopped lettuce, finely chopped cilantro, tomatoes, Mexican style cheese, avocado pieces and homemade salsa. 

I also used homemade baked corn tortilla shells:

{Recipe and Photo courtesy of eatingwell.com via Pinterest.com}

Like I said, I used corn tortillas, but you could easily use flour if you prefer.  Here are the instructions:

Working with 6 tortillas at a time, wrap in a barely damp cloth or paper towel and microwave on High until steamed, about 30 seconds. Lay the tortillas on a clean work surface and coat both sides with cooking spray. Then carefully drape each tortilla over two bars of the oven rack. Bake at 375°F until crispy, 7 to 10 minutes.

So, I couldn't remember the exact times while I was making mine, so I ended up steaming mine for 1 minute - they were super pliable.  I then laid them on the paper towel in my sink so I could spray the cooking spray and not get it everywhere in my kitchen - I do not like cleaning up cooking over spray!  Since I got the times wrong, I ended up baking my shells for 12 minutes... they were crispy but still yummy.  Any longer and they would've burned, but I was lucky and took them out just in time.  Use a tong to grab them, I'm pretty sure I don't have fingerprints left from grabbing these hot guys with my fingers!  Yep, I wasn't thinking and kept saying "Oww oww oww oww" every time that I grabbed one while my 4 year old looked on, probably thinking that I wasn't using my thinking cap... which he would be right about!

Anyways - I would totally recommend this meal to everyone and anyone!  I couldn't have made it better if I'd tried!  I made Spanish rice and beans to go along with the the meal, but I think we would've been happy with just the tacos!

Ratings (1-10, 10 being awesome!):

Ease: 10!

Taste: 10!

Cost: 10! (I got my roast on sale and had it in freezer, but meat's pretty expensive - but I'll get 2 more meals from the roast, so it still gets a great score!)

Mess: 10! - little mess!

Recommendation:  Highly recommend - I think you'll be super pleased with the shredded beef recipe!

That's it for me today!  I'll be back tomorrow with another Pinned recipe from Pinterest!  Happy eating!

Andrea