Recipe - Swiss Steak

Remember when I said we wouldn't have any trouble making short work of my 30 pound turkey?  Well, between Thanksgiving dinner, turkey sandwiches, turkey/dressing casserole, a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, and school lunches today and yesterday, it's finally gone!  I don't know about you, but I'm ready for something different.

This Slow-Cooker Swiss Steak recipe takes a little time to prepare, but once it's in the pot, your troubles are over for the day.  As we all know, beef is like gold these days, but Maceys has Boneless Top Sirloin for $4.99/lb this week (an exorbitant price a couple of years ago, but not bad right now).  You should be able to make this for about $2.00 a person.  It's very healthy and lean, with a sauce full of diced vegetables your picky eaters won't even notice are there.  You can serve it over rice or alongside a baked potato or winter squash and add a salad or green vegetable for a hearty, cold weather meal.

When I made this a couple of weeks ago I ended up with way more sauce than we needed, but we ate all the meat.  So the next day I put the leftover sauce back into the crock pot with an envelope of Spaghetti Sauce seasoning, and it made the most delicious spaghetti sauce we'd had in a long time.  If any meat is left, all the better--you can break it up into the sauce.  But even without meat, it was really good over linguini and topped with cheese, so I got a bonus meal and nothing went to waste.

Slow Cooker Swiss Steak

1.5 to 2 lbs round steak or boneless sirloin steak

1/4 cup of flour
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt 
½ teaspoon salt
½  teaspoon black pepper
1 onion, chopped
2 - 3 large carrots, diced
2 - 3 stalks celery, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 large 28 oz can tomatoes or quart of home canned tomatoes, drained

1 small can tomato sauce

2 to 3 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons packed brown sugar

Cooking Oil

(If you want extra sauce, once and a half or double the sauce ingredients)

1. Cut steak into serving size pieces. Trim off any fat you see.

 I like to tenderize my steak on both sides with my handy roller tool, but you don't have to do this.

2.  Dice up the carrots, celery, peppers, onions, and garlic (I used some diced frozen peppers I had in my freezer, so they aren't shown here.  Also, use your celery leaves).

3.  In a shallow dish, combine the flour, dry mustard, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and pepper.

4. Evenly coat the steaks with the flour mixture.  (You may not need it all). Heat oil in a large skillet.

 5. Brown the meat quickly on both sides in the skillet (don't cook all the way through).  Set aside.

6. In the same skillet, sauté onion, carrots, peppers, celery, and garlic for about 3 minutes, adding more oil if needed.

7. Add the drained tomatoes, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and brown sugar to the skillet, scraping any browned bits off the pan and into the sauce.  Dissolve bouillon cubes in 1/4 cup water by microwaving in small bowl, then crush with fork.  Add to sauce.

 8.  Place meat and sauce in slow cooker, with layers of sauce between each layer of meat, starting and ending with sauce.

9. Cover and cook on high 2 hours, then Low for 4 to 6 more, or until ready to eat. Spoon the sauce over the meat when serving.  Don't stir, or the tender meat will break apart.

10.  Leftover sauce can be cooled and later (within 2 days) turned into spaghetti sauce by adding spaghetti seasoning from a packet and simmering in the slow cooker for a few hours on low.