You know how, despite your best efforts, you get stuck in ruts? For me, mealtime planning can become the ruttiest of ruts, and before I realize it, we’ve eaten spaghetti, tacos, or chicken for weeks. The thing is, it’s easy to make dishes I know everyone will eat, and trying new recipes takes foresight, and often, an extra trip to the store.

I ask you, who has time for that?

Despite my best efforts, it appears we’re becoming “busy” people. My seven-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son are active in scouting, and they both play a sport most seasons. My son participates in our town’s gifted program, which is an after-school commitment, once or twice a week. We haven’t crossed into “over-scheduled” yet, but we’ve got something pretty much every night, and for a homebody like me, that’s a lot.

I don’t want to spend my limited time at home with the kids in the kitchen, even though I enjoy cooking.

That’s one of my favorite things about Crock Pot Thursday. I love that my mother-in-law, my three sisters-in-law, and I take turns choosing our weekly recipe, because we get to try new dishes. I love that my slow cooker is doing the heavy lifting of mealtime while I’m at work, or talking to the kids about their day, or shuttling them around town. I love that my husband, who sometimes works late, still gets a hot meal even when he’s eating two hours later than the rest of us.

This Crock Pot Braised Beef Ragu is a dish that is right up my family’s alley, but is one I probably wouldn’t have chosen on my own, so big thanks to my husband’s sister, Sarah, for picking this winner. I was able to whip it up before work, even though the browning step took a little longer than I would have liked, and resulted in my showing up to work with a messy ponytail. You can skip that step if you’re pressed for time, but I don’t recommend it. The frying of the meat before slow cooking really adds depth of flavor to the dish. It’s worth the messy ponytail is what I’m saying.

Whenever I make the effort to try new recipes, I’m happy I did. I hope you’ll try this one, and I hope it makes your belly as happy as it did ours!

Crock Pot Braised Beef Ragu can be served with pasta, with cornbread, or over polenta. I topped ours with Parmesan cheese and parsley. YUM!

Crock Pot Braised Beef Ragu

Feedback

Linda

This was a real hit. When I took out the meat to shred, I used an immersion blender to smooth the ragu. I served it over cornbread the first night, and the leftovers over egg pappardelle noodles. That was really good also, but the corn flavor did add a great extra zest. I thought this was a great way to use a roast in a new and unique way!

Sarah

Our family ate this with cornbread and thought it was delicious! The flavors were great and it was a yummy way to use a roast!

Me

The flavors of this dish were fantastic! I served mine over noodles, but cornbread sounds great.

Recipe modified from Pinch of Yum.