Clean Comfort

In case you missed it, the Austin area had an "arctic blast" this past week! (Which essentially meant it was cold outside and there was a chance for some sleet.  Central Texas gets excited any time the temperature gets close to freezing!)  It was pretty cold outside and a little dreary, which of course meant we needed some good ol' comfort food!

I wanted to figure out a way to make some comfort food and keep it clean. Most recipes for comfort foods that I have include cans of condensed chemicals and lots of fat and carbs.  One of my most favorite comfort foods happens to be my slow-cooker pot roast.  I typically throw a shoulder roast in the slow cooker with a few cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup (the reduced-fat kind, because that makes it better, right?) a packet of onion soup mix, and carrots.  I don't put potatoes in with the roast because I like them mashed on the side (I'm getting pretty hungry reading this).  I'm not going to lie, it tastes so good and is the perfect meal on a cold Sunday evening!

There had to be a way to clean up this comfort favorite. I first began searching for clean roast recipes and there were a few on Pinterest, but I couldn't really find one that looked great to me (and that didn't have a million ingredients).  I have a one-year-old.  We have to keep it simple.  So, I decided to break the ingredients down from my recipe above and just create clean versions of each to use for my roast.  First step was to get an all natural (organic, if possible) cut of roast.  I found one at the HEB meat market and it was a really nice cut of meat.  Next, I needed a clean version of the condensed mushroom soup.  I found this recipe on Pinterest from simplecleanliving.com.  It worked perfectly! Here is the soup before it went in the slow cooker.

The next ingredient I wanted to clean up was the onion soup mix.  I used this recipe from thegraciouspantry.com and it was super easy and created enough to use for the roast and put away for future recipes.

 I added organic baby carrots and it looked really good already! Check out all those mushrooms!!

8 hours later, we had this.

The soup mixture did end up making the roast look a little "gritty," but it did not taste "gritty" at all.  It tasted just as good (if not better) than my previous non-clean versions.  I added some mashed potatoes on the side (red potatoes boiled with skins on mixed with a little real butter and a little organic milk and pepper). I must say, we felt quite comforted after this meal! Be sure and use a slow-cooker liner for extra comfort in the fact that there is little clean up after you are done enjoying your meal.

I was so tempted just to revert back to my non-clean version, but I am so glad that I didn't!

I hope everyone has a Happy (and as clean as possible) Thanksgiving!