Prior proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance...

I learned the 7 P's from a dear friend...actually I learned to practice them from my parents, but I learned the alliterative adage from my friend...who learned it in his career as a U.S. Army officer.  I always think of him when I find myself putting special effort into planning and preparation, because those 7 P's always pop into my head.

Today the planning and prep called for putting a couple of my favorite tools into action.

A roast went into the Ninja slow cooker.  I LOVE my Ninja.  I know I've said that before, but it bears repeating.  The insert is metal, and the Ninja has stove-top (and oven) settings in addition to low and high slow-cook settings, so when a recipe calls for browning meat before putting in the slow cooker, I can do it all in just the one.  Tonight I wanted dumplings, so after the roast was cooked, I removed it, turned the settings back to stove top, and cooked the dumplings.  One pan.  One.  

And, no, I have not been compensated in any way by Ninja, I just love it.  :)

Once I got the roast started, I put together and vacuum sealed:
2 Secret-Ingredient Meatloaves
2 pounds browned and seasoned ground beef, and
1 roast (a second one, not the one from the slow cooker)

Now they are all resting in my freezer, awaiting easy starts to future meals.  My future me will be SO grateful that I did this.  :)

And when the roast for tonight was done, this is the beautiful dinner we had:

Roast (with horseradish), Dumplings, Green Beans

I'll be putting the recipe up over at What's Cookin' 4 Miles North of Nowhere.