Crock Pot Italian Beef

I used to live in a city where you couldn't by beef from a regular cow. All you could really get was yak beef. Yak beef tastes a little funny. So we stopped cooking beef for a good number of years. Every once in awhile I'd try some beef stew, but not often. Then I found this recipe. I decided I'd try it because, surely, with all those spices, I could cover up the funky taste of yak. It worked! This was about the only beef recipe I cooked for 2 years. I made it for the first time this past week with real cow beef. Even better! Enjoy!

Italian Beef

2 cups water

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp onion salt (I use onion powder)

1/2 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 bay leaf

1 pkg dry Italian salad dressing mix or 2 Tbs of your own mix from this post

2-3 lb beef roast

Combine all ingredients in the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. Remove bay leaf. Slice or shred meat, depending on how you are serving it.

Our favorite way to eat this is shredded on a sandwich. We usually season and stir fry some onion and bell pepper and slice some cheese to top it with. I think you could easily just slice and serve it with some vegetables on the side like a regular roast--just with more flavor!

I tried making this a few days ago with the Italian dressing substitute. I thought it worked just as well for the flavor of the meat as the real packages of dressing mix you'd get from the States. Enjoy!