Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

Okay so it's 80something degrees out.  March was 2 months ago, so St. Patrick's Day is a distant memory.   No one is craving corned beef and cabbage on a day like today, but I still have to share this recipe.  I had planned to make it for St. Patrick's day, but I had class that night, so it ended up being a couple of weeks later on a night when my lovely friend Courtney was visiting from Colorado.

I have lots of memories of my mom making corned beef and cabbage - or, as we Irish call it, a boiled dinner.  She puts it all in a pot and boils it away for hours.  I was interested in trying out a slow cooker method of cooking it all, so that it would all be done when I got home from work.  I peeled the carrots, chopped the onions and and scrubbed my baby potatoes the night before, so that in the morning, I could just throw everything into the slow cooker with some water and be done with meal prep!

When I got home, the meat and veggies were almost cooked and ready to go.  The last step is to lay cabbage leaves on top of it all to steam them for a couple more hours.  Then: voila!  Dinner.

I obviously only ate the vegetables, and Courtney sampled it all, and we both agreed it was a success.  It was definitely simple and easy, and nice to come home and have a meal ready!  My one change is that I think I would cook it for closer to 6 hours.  My meat was a little dry after the 8 hours of cooking plus 2 more hours of steaming the cabbage.  I think I would add the cabbage at hour 6 and then steam for 2 more.

In other news, Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there - especially my own <3

Recipe:

slow cooker corned beef and cabbage
from Happy Money Saver

Ingredients:
1 2 1/2-pound corned beef roast
2 small yellow onions
10 medium carrots
10 - 15 baby medley variety potatoes
2 cups water
1 head cabbage

Instructions:

1) Rinse and prepare your onion, carrots and potatoes.  Peel and cut carrots into thirds and cut onions in fourths.  Peel and cut up potatoes if you're using russets, or just rinse if you're using baby reds or a medley variety.

2) Place onions and carrots on the bottom of a large slow cooker.   Next, remove the roast from packing, making sure to remove any seasoning packet that may be inside.  Place roast along with juices from package inside the slow cooker on top of the onions and carrots.  Season with the seasoning packet that it came with if you choose.  Add two cups of water.  Place potatoes all around the roast.  Cover and cook on high for 8 hours.

3) After that has cooked for 8 hours, take your head of cabbage and rinse it well.  Cut the head into fourths.  Open the slow cooker and place the pieces of cabbage right on top.  Cook another 2 hours to steam the cabbage.