This was not the most exciting week of the challenge for me. I do slow cooking when I DON’T want to think too hard about what I’m cooking. Just throw it in a pot and forget about it. That said, I’m supposed to be expanding my horizons here, so I looked through a slow-cooking cookbook that I had been given a while back and found a recipe for one of my favorite meals, French Dip Sandwiches.

For me, a French Dip Sandwich is an easy meal made from Steak-ums or frozen Philly Beef meat, topped with cheese on a toasted bun, and dipped in Campbell’s French Onion Soup. (Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!) But this sounded delicious so I tried it. Here’s the recipe:

3 1/2 – 4 pound chuck roast

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 bay leaf

3-4 peppercorns, crushed

1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon garlic powder

12 Sandwich Rolls, split

Place roast in 5 quart slow cooker. Combine soy sauce and next 6 ingredients; pour over roast. Add water until roast is almost covered. Cover and cook on low 7 hours or until very tender. Remove roast, reserving broth; shred with 2 forks. Place shredded meat in sandwich rolls and serve with reserved broth for dipping.

I didn’t really love the results, but it was edible. The au jus was a little strong as I ran out of soy sauce and substituted a bit Worcestershire sauce in its place. I probably won’t make this again, but you might like it.

My rating: 2.5 out of 5. Meh.

Hubby’s rating: ?????

Difficulty rating: 1 out of 5. Easy!

In other news, I’m woefully behind on 52 weeks of baking! Prepare to have your sweet tooth over-stimulated this week! And get ready for another 52 weeks of cooking challenge: Coffee!