I’m always surprised at how good pot roast is if you get it in a restaurant.  So why cook it at home?  Indeed, that is the question.

In keeping with “Meals We Steal” theme of quickness, we recommend if you want to make pot roast at home, that you purchase a pre-cooked refrigerated one.  Don’t let your family know.   Just let them know in the morning, “I’ll be preparing pot roast tonight.”

Costco has a great one, but I’m sure you can get one at other supermarkets, given the craze with pre-prepared meals.  You now don’t have to check on the quality of the meat, make sure you cook it long enough to tenderize it, or determine the exact mixture of spices.  It’s all done for you.

Instead, just heat it up when you get home before everyone else, so the house smells spectacular.  Chop up some potatoes, onions, carrots and celery and cook them until tender (boil the potatoes for 20 minutes, steam the veggies for 10).

When the pot roast is ready, mix in the potatoes and the veggies and anything else you like in your pot roast and the juices.  It will make you appear to be a master chef.  If you don’t like it, try Black Eye Pea next time.  You’ll love theirs.  

If you listen to your kids, new meals emerge.  One of our family favorites is sour cream and garlic mashed potatoes, chronicled in a past “Meals We Steal.”  Our son Kirby decided to take it one step further.

Recently, he was cooking dinner with his girlfriend.  For whatever reason, they decided to make spinach mashed potatoes.  I don’t know what they started the recipe with, but they ended up with spinach in the mashed potatoes, and he said it tasted good.

Simple enough.  Make your regular mashed potatoes (boil the quartered potatoes for 20 minutes, add butter, sour cream and garlic, then mash it up).  Get some fresh spinach and chop it up (you can also chop it after sautéing).  Put olive oil in the pan, then the spinach.  Lightly simmer until soft.


When it’s done, mix it in with the mashed potatoes.  It sounds tasty.  I’m going to try it.  I might even add some mushrooms or onions.  Maybe both.  Experimentation is a good thing.

The best trail mix is the stuff you make yourself.  Then you like the taste, you put in the mixtures of things that meet your nutritional desires, and you know it won't grow stale.