Roast Beef with Gravy

Last night's dinner was made with our trusty crockpot. Let me first say that if you've never used those new crockpot liners, you don't know what you're missing - cleanup is a BREEZE with them. I use my crockpot a lot more now than I did before I discovered them. Or I should say, when someone directed me to a free sample. I'm all about free samples. And once I used the sample I was hooked like a fish.
Now the trick with this particular crockpot recipe is that it doesn't take all day - so a crockpot with delay start is helpful. I don't have that, but I do have a hubby who works second shift who is more than happy to plug in the crockpot for me before he leaves for work. Of course he is - he gets the leftovers from all my attempts.
Here we go...

Ingredients you will need:

* 1 boneless beef sirloin tip roast (about 4 pounds) <-- per the recipe. I used one about 2 1/2 pounds because that's what we were given when we bought 1/4 of a cow last year. It was a good size for us, with plenty left for hubby's lunch and the stew I plan on making tonight.
* 1/2 cup flour, divided (a word I missed yesterday morning when I threw it together - but no worries, it all worked out in the end)
* 1 envelope onion soup mix
* 1 envelope brown gravy mix
* 2 cups cold water

And this is what you do with it all:

Cut your roast in half. Rub it with 1/4 cup flour. (Or, if you want to be like me - and I know you do - rub it with all the flour, and watch some of it fall onto the cutting board. After it falls off the roast, dump the fallen flour into the garbage.) Place roast in crockpot. I used my small one (3-ish qts.) but if you use a 4 lb. roast you may need a bigger one. In a bowl, combine the soup & gravy mix, and the other 1/4 cup flour (unless you're doing it my way, in that case, just dump some flour in, estimating what you threw away. No, it never occurred to me that I should just put in 1/4 cup flour until today. What can I say, but OOPS.). Add the water, and mix until blended. Pour over roast. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours (I did 6 since it was a smaller roast - which is why I needed hubby to plug it in for me) or until meat is tender. Slice roast, serve with mashed potatoes. Instant is great. I also made corn. Now, the gravy was a little runny when I took the roast out of the crockpot; that was probably because I guessed on the flour (it all makes sense now...). I simply added some flour and whisked it in there and it was perfect.
It was a plate full of pure goodness.
Pure goodness I tell you.