My first crock pot meal!!! Yay!

I am hooked! Today I did my second meal. This was my first one with the crock pot. I have 'loosely' decided (unless life happens and it doesn't work out this way) (((smile))) that I am going to try to do my Company's Coming meals on Wednesdays, and my Crock Pot recipes on Sunday. This week at least it has worked wonderfully.

I didn't tell my family ahead of time what the ingredients were for this meal, as NONE of us are real big cranberry fans, in fact I think my teens probably wouldn't have even given it a try! The only reason I dared to give it a go were the reviews that came along with the recipe.

I threw this together before I left for my church meetings Sunday morning. My darling son and daughter-in-law and my grandson had stopped by this morning so that my son could program the itouch my kids (and hubby) had given me at a surprise b-day party they threw for me yesterday (it was a REAL surprise, as my birthday isn't til next week! Want to really surprise someone...that will do it!) So with that in mind, I hadn't read through the instructions and wasn't sure I would have time to get this started before I had to leave. I LIE NOT...this took me maybe five minutes to have all the ingredients in the crockpot and ready to go! I have never made a meal from scratch that was so easy!!!

When we got home the smell was intoxicating, and it still had about 2 hours left to cook! It doesn't taste at all like it has whole cranberry sauce in it, but it is YUMMY! I think it will be an 'I wish you made Sunday Dinner like my mom' kinda meal! I served it with mashed potatoes, some of the family had the potatoes on the side, (I put mine on top because it has a kinda gravy sauce) and then a tossed spring salad with tomatoes, avocados and cucumbers.


This will be a family favorite! And the best thing was there are leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Which is also amazing cause we all had seconds...! ( I won't lie, I had thirds) But I really can't stress enough how flipping easy this meal is to do! The taste doesn't tell the story, so my husband thought since I had worked so hard on the meal he would do all the clean-up! Anyway....once again forgot about the pictures until after we had eaten, so the picture is in the tupperware container about to go in the fridge instead of the serving platter I used for dinner.
Okay...get ready for one of the easiest recipes you could find! Here it comes!

I used stew meat, but the originator of the recipe says she used frozen beef chuck, but that it would be fantastic with any hunk of meat you've got lying around----beef, pork, or venison.
2-3 pounds beef or pork roast or stew chunks
1 tablespoon dried onion flakes, or 1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 (16-ounce) whole berry cranberry sauce

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Plop in the meat (frozen is fine), and add the onion and soy sauce. Pour in the entire can of cranberry sauce over the top. Do not add water. Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours, or on high for 5-6. If you are cooking on high, you may need to "help" the meat break apart by taking it out an hour or so before serving by cutting it into chunks, then returning to the sauce. I like it when the meat is tender and the juice has fully soaked in.

Serve over mashed potatoes, and with a green salad.