CROCKPOT Beef and Noodles - a recipe

By far, this has become one of my most requested recipes when I am hosting a party for family....not always by a birthday girl or boy BUT by my nephews!  I think this is what won my title as 'Favorite Aunt' with my nephew L.  He has been asking for about a week for 'Aunt Sue's beef and noodles' so tomorrow he will be surprised when I bring him leftovers!

Here's how I do it:

6 quart crockpot
4-5 pound roast (MUST have leftovers!!!)
1-2 packages onion soup mix
carrots
1/2 cup dark soda
Extra wide Egg Noodles

Place the roast in the crockpot.  Add carrots (as much as you desire, whole or baby whatever.  Today I used about 6 whole carrots and left them whole) and then sprinkle soup mix over the whole mixture.  Add to the side 1/2 cup of dark soda.  Put lid on and cook on LOW for AT LEAST 10 hours!  When its almost done I will cook separately on the stovetop my noodles, using water NOT any broth from the meat.  To combine I will not only shred the roast but also cut into smaller chunks.  I have to use my large roaster to do all this so I put the meat and carrots in, add the noodles on top and THEN add broth to all of it and mix really well.  I then put the lid on the roaster and let sit for a good 10 minutes before serving to let everything get happy together.

My typical side dishes for Beef and Noodles are Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Pasta Salad and Green Salad, sometimes Sweet hawaiian rolls.

Hope you enjoy!

RECIPE REVIEW: Tamale Pie

Tamale Pie. I LOVE tamales hands down.  When I was preggo with #4 I went to the local Tamale restaurant and had at least 6 of them 3 or 4 times a week.  When I saw this recipe I was excited!!!  I've said I was going to make this for weeks on end and FINALLY did it.  This is the recipe I found for tamale pie,

I DID adapt it slightly.  It looked similar to my normal chili recipe covered in corn meal, so thats what I did.  I made my normal chili (using LOTS of veggies and 2 cans of kidney beans and a 4 ounce can of green chilis) and then went ahead and made the corn meal.

I thought it was YUMMY!  I did my own screw ups on my chili and somehow made it TOO spicy for the kids but they still ate it.  The corn meal topping was NOT enough in my opinion.  I need to learn how to use it in cooking to adjust it to my liking.  The kids gave it mixed reviews, not liking the corn meal, but i think with a little cheese it could be a winner.  This is definately a keeper recipe though!