Roast Beef Sandwiches

To make this, I followed a recipe I found for French Dip sandwiches. I was really excited about it. I'm not a huge roast beef fan, but when the cheese melts to the bread to make it chewy and then the rest of the bread soaks up the au jus, then I'm a roast beef fan! It turned out good, but it wasn't what I was expecting. Our sandwiches turned out to be more like pulled beef sandwiches. I couldn't slice the meat at all. As soon as I touched it, it all just fell apart. It was a task just to get the sucker out of the crock pot. Not that that's a bad thing, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

After last night's battle with the pierogies I was so ready to just throw stuff in the crock pot and let it go. D got the crock pot for Christmas (I think his mom was trying to make cooking as easy as possible for him, haha) but hadn't used it at all. So throughout the day it started to smell like burning rubber/plastic, I started to freak out but luckily we still had the instructions and it said it was normal. Just not appetizing. I thought there was no way I could screw anything up, but then I tried to toast our buns and cheese. I had never used the broiler before. IT IS VERY HOT!!! No joke, within 5 minutes the buns were completely burnt and (if we had fire alarms...) they would have been going off like crazy! It was no biggie since we had more bread and cheese, but D was so paranoid about it burning again he just turned the over on and kept setting the timer for 1 minute over and over and over again. Haha. So the buns ended up barely toasted and the cheese wasn't melted. I think next week our meal plan is just going to say salad, salad, salad. I feel like we have been eating a lot of heavy foods lately. I just never know what light, "summer food" is. Any suggestions?

Roast Beef Sandwiches

3.5 lb beef chuck roast
1 onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic
16 oz. beef broth
1/2 cup red wine
1 tsp garlic powder
1 bay leaf
Kosher salt and black pepper
Wheat rolls
Provolone cheese

Cut any excess fat from the chuck roast. Rub all over with salt and pepper. Pour beef broth and red wine into crock pot. Add garlic, garlic powder, and bay leaf. Now add the roast and place the onion pieces on the sides. Cook on low 6-8 hours (I cooked mine 6). Remove from crock pot and let rest under aluminum foil. Slice (ha!). Strain cooking liquid for au jus and salt it to taste. Place provolone on the rolls and toast them in the oven. Enjoy!

Served with vegetable tian.