Tri-Tip Tuesday: A New Tradition!

In honor of possibly the most delicious tri-tip dinner I have ever made, we considered last night's meal the Inaugural Tri-Tip Tuesday in our house. Here is why I love this dish this much:

1. It is cooked in the crock pot. I have an abnormal love-love relationship with my crock pot. It's perhaps one of the greatest kitchen purchases I have ever made. If you don't own one, I suggest you follow suit and invest. (Target has a bunch, for cheap!) It will change your life.

2. I throw everything in the crock pot dish the night before and pop it in the fridge. The next morning when I'm running around like a chicken sans head getting ready for work, I pop the dish in the crock pot base and... voila! Dinner will be ready in about 8 hours!

3. When I come home at the end of the day, my whole house smells less like dog and more like heeeeaaaaven! Sigh... I feel like I've been cooking all day but in fact the good ole c-pot has been doing all the dirty work. Love that thing. My favorite moment (besides doing the consuming) is opening the pot for the first time and watching that flavorful steam escape. You can't see the steam in the photo below, but just imagine that it's there and give it a waft...

4. Just like a fine wine, leftovers are even better the next day. Gotta love double duty dinners. And fine wine.

Ok. So would you like the  recipe?

Here is what you will need (I don't do measurements. Get used to it, that's how I roll...):
1 Tri-tip (whatever size you want for however many people you're cooking for)
1 can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes (available at Fresh & Easy)
1 yellow onion thinly sliced
5-6 whole cloves garlic, trust me
1 small can of beef broth
about 1/4 cup Worchestershire sauce (I can never spell this)
Montreal seasoning

Rub some Montreal seasoning on that chunk 'o beef. Place the meat in the crock and cover with remaining ingredients. And the manual labor portion of the job is done. Cook in the crock pot for 8-10 hours on low. I usually go with 10 hours. Once it's been in there for 8 hours, what's another 2?

Once it's done the meat will shred and the veggies will be all soft and yummy. The garlic will be amazing, too. I usually pull out a clove and eat it whole. You can serve it with mashed potatoes and use the juice/veggie fixins as gravy, use it as filling for tacos, or do what we did and make open faced sandwiches on toasted garlic bread (again from Fresh & Easy)... heavenly! You could also add more beef broth and some roughly chopped celery and carrot (or Mirepoix for you francophiles) and dice up the beef prior to cooking and it would make a lovely stew.

You might wonder where the green in the above photo came from... As a last minute side, I sauteed a diced shallot in a couple tablespoons of butter and then added some fresh haricot verts (or green beans for you non-francophiles) and cooked them for a few minutes. I like my green beans with a nice bite but if you like them mushy and soft, just blanche them to your desired crispiness before sauteing.

Also of note, all the ingredients in this meal cost just under $20 and it could have fed 4 people... totally budget-friendly!

So thus began Tri-Tip Tuesday. Who will help me in starting this new catchphrase?