Roast Beef and mashed potatoes

A seriously boring, ordinary Sunday dinner. But I ate it for three days straight and am still dreaming about it. Cory found it fine but nothing special. Not me. Something about the balsamic vinegar and tomato sauce and slow cooked onions with some buttery, salty mashed potatoes. YUMMMMMMMM....

** PS--I did the browning and all that business despite the fact that it was sunday morning before church and we had to cram in also making/frosting cookies and making a scrapbook page for Harrison's teacher...the extra work made us late but it was totally worth it.  Like "my life is crazy, why did I ever have kids, do I not get a spare minute EVER??.... wait? food? mmmm....this is SO good...what was I saying??" worth it.

Balsamic and Onion Pot Roast

Recipe Source: modified slightly from Kalyn's Kitchen

3-4 pound boneless chuck roast
Seasoning Salt

Onion Powder

Garlic Powder
black pepper to taste
1-2 T olive oil (depends on your pan)
1/4 cup water to deglaze pan
2-3 large onions, peeled and thickly sliced
1 cup beef stock, reduced to 1/2 cup (can use a can of beef broth, but be sure to reduce it)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup tomato sauce

Rub meat well with seasoning salt, onion powder, garlic powder and black pepper. 
Heat heavy pan with small amount of olive oil and brown roast well on both sides.
 This will take a few minutes; don't rush the browning step.

While roast browns put 1 cup beef stock in saucepan, bring to a boil and cook 
until reduced to 1/2 cup, then let cool slightly and mix in balsamic vinegar 
and tomato sauce. Peel onions and cut into thick slices.  

When the meat is brown on all sides, remove the meat and then deglaze pan with
 1/4 cup water. Add the pan drippings to sauce mixture.

Place onions in bottom of slow cooker. Put meat on top of onions and pour 
beef stock mixture over. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, until beef is tender. 
The meat might be partly submerged in liquid after this much time.

Remove meat from slow cooker and cover with foil to keep warm. Drain liquid from
 Crockpot and remove as much of the fat as you can with fat separator or skimmer. 
Cook down liquid byabout 1/3, and serve sauce with meat and onions.