Video summary
In this episode of Collard Valley Cooks, host Tammy demonstrates how to create a hearty one-pot beef dinner using a slow cooker and strategic grocery store deals. The recipe centers around "buy one get one free" items from Publix, specifically beef meatballs, sliced mushrooms, small red potatoes, and beef broth, which are layered together to form the base of the meal. To ensure the dish is complete and flavorful, Tammy adds a layer of rice at the bottom of the crock pot along with two cups of beef broth, creating a savory foundation that will steam and cook as the other ingredients simmer above it. She also incorporates a large can of drained green beans on one side to add necessary vegetables and texture to the plate.
The assembly process involves placing the frozen meatballs in the center of the oval slow cooker, surrounded by the potatoes and green beans. Tammy then pours a can of cream of mushroom soup over the meatballs and sprinkles fresh mushrooms on top, followed by beef stew seasoning that is primarily applied to the meatballs and potatoes while lightly dusting the vegetables. To ensure everything cooks evenly without drying out, she adds a small amount of extra broth directly onto the seasoned ingredients before sealing the pot. This method allows the rice at the bottom to absorb flavors and prevent sticking, while the steam from the cooking liquid gently tenderizes the tougher cuts like the meatballs and potatoes over several hours.
After cooking on high for about five hours, Tammy returns to check on the meal, noting that the top layer may appear slightly dry but becomes perfectly moist once stirred. She serves a portion featuring tender meatballs, savory mushrooms, fluffy rice-infused gravy, and vegetables that have absorbed the rich beef broth. Upon tasting, she confirms that the seasoning is balanced and not overly salty, praising the simplicity of the dish which effectively utilizes sale items to create a satisfying family meal. While she admits the canned green beans are not quite as good as her grandmother's homemade version, she concludes that the overall result is delicious and an excellent way to stretch ingredients into a full dinner for four or more people.
Read the full video transcript
Hey y'all. I'm Tammy and this is
Collarded Valley Cooks. Today we're
making a one pot crock-pot meal with buy
one get one free items from Publix and
it's going to be delicious. I'm going to
make a complete meal in a crock pot.
We're going to get started and I'm going
to show you what I'm going to do. So, I
got some meatballs, beef meatballs that
were buy one get one. They had mushrooms
buy one get one sliced.
They had a pack of these small red
potatoes.
They had their beef broth
on sale and buy one get one. Now, the
only things that weren't buy 1 get one
are these items I'm using right here. I
decided I'm going to add a little rice
to the bottom. And I know we have
potatoes, but I just wanted to add a
little extra to it. We're going to be
using some cream of mushroom soup
and a packet of beef stew seasoning. I
got their steak seasoning the other day
and it was so good. I'm sure this is
going to be delicious as well. And then
we're going to open a can of green beans
and put them on one side of the crock
pot as well. So, we're going to have
potatoes, green beans, meatballs, rice,
and good gravy in there as well. It's
going to be delicious.
So, I'm just going to take these over
here. This is a large can. It's
equivalent to three regular cans. 15.5
oz of green beans. We're just going to
drain it.
Cuz we don't need all that juice in our
crock pot.
I'm going to pour my beef broth in here.
I'm going to use about
two cups.
And you can use stock if you've got
stock. I have about two cups of beef
broth.
That's going to add a lot of flavor to
it. Now I'm going to put in our rice.
And this is just a riceerone rice
peeloff.
And we are going to be using that. If
you got a beef flavor, that would be
good, too.
And I think I'm going to add my uh rice
seasoning in with this.
We're going to whisk this together.
All right, we're going to start with
that in the bottom of our crock pot.
Now, I've got a nice big oval crockot,
and that is going to allow me to kind of
uh spread the stuff around.
So, I have a crock-pot liner in here,
and they are uh made to withstand the
heat of the crock pot, and it just makes
clean up so much easier. All right, you
can find these crock-pot liners in
anything you see me use in the kitchen
right on our website. All you got to do
is go to www.colored
valleycooks.com,
click on shop now, and pick your
category. All right, so we've got this
down in the bottom. Nice and neat.
Now we're going to add Now we're going
to add our beef meatballs. And these are
frozen right now. We're going to put
them in the middle.
Like so.
Let me just get me a spoon so that I can
kind of move this stuff around.
On this side, I'm just going to take my
spoon and scoot it over. I'm going to
put my green beans.
We're going to have more vegetables than
we do meat.
But isn't that the way things go these
days? As much as meat cost,
it's just how it is. And then we're
going to put our potatoes right here.
So, if your potatoes are kind of big,
you need to slice them in half so that
they have plenty of time to cook.
I'm going to take my cream of mushroom
soup and put it on top of my meatballs.
So, we've got our meatballs. We got the
rice on the bottom with the broth. We've
got our potatoes and our green beans.
Now, I'm going to take the mushrooms
and just sprinkle some of them on top.
might save some for a pizza later. You
can use them all if you want to. And
then you're going to take your beef stew
seasoning
and you're going to mostly season
the meatballs and the potatoes with it.
You can put a little bit on the green
beans.
And now I'm going to take some more of
the beef broth. Just maybe a cup or two.
And we're going to rinse this off a
little bit. Get those seasonings down in
there. Just pour it lightly.
Don't wash all your soup off your
meatballs.
Just kind of barely
put some in there. And it's going to
help the rice on the bottom cook. And
then it's going to give the potatoes and
green beans a little bit of moisture.
Now, that's a complete meal in a crock
pot. Okay, this is similar to a recipe
we have in our master cookbook, which is
available on our website or on Amazon,
and that is our turkey crock-ot dinner
that I've been making for years, where
you have a complete turkey dinner in one
crockot. You've got turkey, you've got
stuffing, you've got potatoes and green
beans, and buddy, it's good for a quick
turkey dinner. Okay. Of course, it don't
replace mama's good old chicken and
dressing. And we've got recipes for
those. So, I'll make sure and attach
those to the end screen for you in case
you want to check those out. So, today
we're having a beef dinner that way.
When I saw all that stuff on sale, it
was buy one get one free. I thought, you
know what? You could put meatballs in
the crock pot and them do really good.
And they were beef meatballs. And right
now, if you can get beef on sale, that's
a great thing. I hope y'all enjoy this.
I can't wait to eat it tonight. And
we'll see it in about 5 hours. I'm going
to put it on high.
Okay, we're going to see how this
tastes. I just woke up from a nap. It's
nice to be able to cook supper and sleep
at the same time. Now, we're going to
take the lid off. And of course, it
looks kind of dry up on the top, so I'm
gonna stir it. Okay. Um, I'm gonna take
the mushrooms and kick them over there.
And we're just going to kind of come
under here
and see what these potatoes look like
down the bottom with the rice.
That rice is probably going to wind up
just flavoring everything,
which is kind of what I thought. I
didn't want it just to be dry down in
the bottom. If you're wondering what I
put the rice in there for. And now we're
going to see how these look.
The meatballs
look good. All right, let's make us a
plate.
Meatballs,
the mushrooms
and rice
with potatoes. Oops.
And green beans. All right, I'm going to
get me a different spoon for the green
beans so I don't get gravy all in them.
Reach down in there where they've been
in that broth.
Hit my green beans.
All right, there we have our plate.
We got our meatballs.
They're really good.
Mushrooms are good.
See how a potato tastes.
Everything's plenty salty so far.
Mhm.
It's got just right amount of salt.
It doesn't taste overs salted
or really undersalted.
Mhm.
Of course, the green beans aren't as
good as my Granny green beans, but
they're still good. They're really good.
It was a simple
uh Crock-Pot meal, and I'm going to see
how much it cost and put down at the
bottom per serving because I think this
would serve at least four people. Easy.
Four or five, maybe even six. Okay,
y'all have a wonderful day and I hope
you try this dinner in a crock pot.
We'll see you next time. Love you.