Declicious Recipes from nutritionist Denice Hynd RD, MPH
and Chef Brianda Younggren, MPH

Slow Cooker Season Has Arrived - and so have Pot Roast Tacos!

Who doesn't slow cooked meals? Food simmering all day long is the perfect companion to any cozy night-in. With the price of gas and food, it can be overwhelming to decide if we should take the leap and go out for dinner, or worse take the leap and buy an expensive cut of meat all for it to become ruined in the cooking process. Slow cooker meals allow us to use the groceries that we have, and the long and slow cooking methods improve the quality of cheaper cuts of meat, such as a round bottom roast. This entire roast was ten dollars + the veggies were at most two dollars!

For our PD friends, tough cuts of any meat can promote choking, aspiration and can be an immediate declination before it even hits the table. Instead of serving whole cuts of meat, consider adding the entire cooked meal through the food processor to give the meal a more 'pureed' texture without sacrificing the flavor and ingredients. Here, we took a basic pot roast recipe, cooked in the slow cooker on low for 12 hours, and did the final step of pulsing it through the processor.

You can serve it over your favorite starch such as mashed sweet potatoes, mashed russet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, or even inside tortillas like this recipe did! This is guaranteed to be enjoyed by everyone in your dinner circle. It gives shredded beef taco-vibes, without the fuss of BBQ or roasting the cuts of meat. The slow cooker did it all! To add more moisture, add ready to serve gravy, sour cream, broth, or salsa. To increase iron absorption, add fresh lime to any cut of animal protein.

Think of all the other meals you can send through the processor that can be enjoyed by someone who has a need for modified textures! I'm thinking we could play around with the flavors of ground beef nachos over soft baked potato wedges for the corn chips (pulse ground beef and salsa, pour over potatoes), or green bean-dried cranberry-almond salad can be 'pulsed' into a minced salad. Ideas are endless! Enjoy!

Why we love this modified texture recipe:

it feeds an entire family

offers plenty of leftovers

a great party pleaser for $12 or less

it freezes well

requires little to no skill

texture can be modified for our PD and non-PD friends

doesn't use too much power

beef is an excelled source of protein, iron, B vitamins

carrots and potatoes offer significant amounts of potassium, fiber, and beta-carotene

set it and forget it!