German Pot Roast

Before yesterday afternoon, I had planned on doing a German pot roast along with some orange marmalade carrots for lunch today.  Yesterday afternoon, I found out we were having company over for dinner...thus the addition of potatoes and a dessert (they brought the salad and bread).  My final spread consisted of the German pot roast, orange marmalade carrots, mashed red potatoes, and applesauce bars. 

The German pot roast.  I used a cow's arm, which sounds kind of gross, but is tasty.  I'm not sure what the Germans were thinking when they came up with this.  Seriously though, random stuff.  Obviously there's the meat and an onion.  Not as obvious: bay leaves, cloves, peppercorn, a slice of bread, gingersnaps, molasses, and cider vinegar.  Weird, but delicious.  It cooked overnight in the crock-pot and was super tender and juicy for lunch.

Orange marmalade carrots.  Being me, I used the reduced-sugar marmalade and light margarine.  In line with being a diva, I did NOT peel and slice a bunch of carrots...I steamed frozen ones that were already peeled and sliced.  I think they could have used a little more marmalade, but I like steamed carrots so it wasn't too tragic.

The red mashed potatoes with parsley.  Fortunately, we got the potatoes scrubbed, cleaned, and sliced last night (or REALLY early this morning, depending on how you look at things).  Even though they were sliced pretty thin, they took their sweet time cooking.  Then, they were jumping out of the mixing bowl when we were trying to mash them with the mixer.  SO, they ended up hand-mashed (with a hand-masher thing...not my hand).  They weren't perfectly smooth by any means, but they were still good. 

The applesauce bars.  Don't let the name fool you.  While I did use unsweetened applesauce instead of sweetened (like the recipe calls for), there is still PLENTY of sugar...mostly in the icing.  There is, however, no oil, which I like.  Granted this is not the prettiest dessert on the face of the earth, but it is SO GOOD.  Moist, sweet, yummy goodness.  I guess if you made them "naked" they could be healthier.  Maybe I will try that sometime.  They are also lactose-free when they're naked, which is a huge bonus for me. 

If you want to read a soapbox:

Well, yesterday was kind of nuts.  I got like 5ish hours of sleep, got some Scentsy stuff together and hung out at the Nowlin Center at OC while some people checked in.  It smelled really good while I was there...just saying.  Then, I caught the last part of a birthday party (the cake was my lunch).  Then, I had to drive my mom and brother out to El Reno (LONG drive) so my brother could get his truck.  Next, I scarfed some dinner, started cleaning up the kitchen, and made the applesauce bars.  Then, it was off to Kohl's because we had Kohl's cash that was going to expire.  Then, we went to Wal-Mart to get the rest of the stuff we needed for lunch today.  After we got back, we had to finish cleaning the kitchen and get stuff ready for lunch.  Long story short, I didn't get in the shower until after 1.  My friend Julie can do the math for you, and let you know when I got to bed.  When I got to Bible class this morning, my friend Megan says, "You looked stressed-out."  So I told her about my adventures.  She instantly recognizes that I did not get to workout, which is bad news.  My instructions from her for today were to take a nap and workout...I must say I feel much better now.  So that's my soapbox for now.