Some days are baked chicken and salad days and some days are steak and potato days. Wednesday was more of the latter (with a side salad). I found the perfect slow-cooker recipe for two (a rarity) from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It uses a smaller slow-cooker so you don’t have to dirty your big one for just two or three servings!

On a side note, since I found these slow-cooker liners, I never have to wash a slow-cooker crock again. Plus Amazon is running a great deal (better than Walmart) right now on them! They come in two sizes and I use them all the time now. The small ones are an add-on item, but I would buy $25 worth of them just to save the money and have them on-hand.

These Slow-Cooker Deviled Steak Strips were fairly easy to throw together in my 1.5qt slow-cooker that I got in December. One ingredient that I had to look more closely for was horseradish mustard. We buy horseradish and we buy spicy mustard, but I don’t think we’d ever bought horseradish mustard. It’s also known as “deli-style” and can be found at common places such as Walmart in the condiments section with all the other mustards, in case you’re wondering.

One of the tips with this recipe was to grind your instant tapioca beforehand for a smoother sauce, but at my store I found this Reese Granulated Instant Tapioca cheaper than the other instant ones so it worked out and I had one less step to worry about! If you can’t find that particular brand, any will do.

One of the unknown best parts about this recipe in my mind was that, while it called for 12oz of boneless beef round steak, that is a little hard to find in that size at the store. I had to even ask the grocery store butcher to help me find that particular cut of meat. It turns out that it was a big roast. This was why it was actually a good thing because it was an inexpensive cut and now I have the rest of the roast in the freezer for later!

Speaking of meat in the freezer, I’m thinking about buying a “family meat pack” from a local butcher and filling up my deep freeze. Have you ever done this? Was it more cost-effective? Give me some tips!