round roast

Yummy note: Trying to be a thrifty shopper I frequently watch for those great meat sales that go on and I managed to snag up this 2 lb eye round roast the other day for only like $5, which is a fairly good deal since we got two meals out of it. Eye of round is best for making Italian roast beef sandwiches, and really shouldn't be overcooked. Overcooking can be my nemesis. I have a tendency to do that... I'm working on that.. so this was a challenge for me. I honestly was a bit scared in trying to make this after I picked this up, not realizing it wasn't my "normal" cut of roast I get. But hey it was a great deal, so it was worth a shot. Needless to say the hubby was very excited about the turnout and is now hoping this is a regular in our meal rotations. Now on to getting the kiddo to eat a more variety of meat, other than chicken, hotdogs, and sausage.

Note on the eye round roasts- It's an extremely lean cut of meat you'll find, so anything past medium is pushing the tough and dry category. I cooked this medium, as I am not a fan or medium-rare, which good old Betty Crocker cookbook told me to do it at. You really want to use a meat thermometer for this dish unless you are a pro at the touch test...which I am NOT, so I rely on the thermometer for everything.

Ingredients:
2-3 lb eye round roast
1-2 tsp olive oil
garlic powder
salt and pepper
Steak seasoning


Directions:
Mix together a little bit of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a good amount of some steak seasonings. This mixture is really just a throw it all together to what you think will work for the amount of the roast you have. Sorry to be so vague, but I just tossed some seasonings together for this one. So I took the seasonings and sprinkled them around the entire roast to coat evenly.
I then used a cast iron fry pan and just browned all sides of the roast in a little olive oil on the stove, only for a few minutes. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Place the pan directly in the oven after you've just browned the outside of the roast. Bake about 20-25 min per pound or until you've reached your desired temperature of the roast. Betty Crocker cookbook says to take the roast out of the oven at 140 degrees for a final resting temperature of 145 degrees. This will result in a medium-rare roast. I prefer more medium, so I left it in the oven a bit longer and waited until the temperature was reading closer to 145 degrees before I took it out. My final resting temp was close to 150, which was probably almost too done for some people, but it was still good. Remember, you can usually expect the meat to keep cooking for the last few minutes while it is resting.















So after taking the meat out of the oven, let it sit for about 10 minutes before cutting into the roast. This roast is best sliced very thin and enjoyed that way. We ate it with sides of sliced fried potatoes and broccoli.

What's best about this roast is the meal the next day... we sliced the meat very thin, and saved it for Italian beef style sandwiches the next night. hmmm, toasty bread with beef and cheesy.