Giada makes it easy

As you know, I love a good bargain. I enjoy the anticipation of the weekly sales on the Whole Foods app and I love discovering bargains at Williams-Sonoma. Fortunately for me, I pass a Williams-Sonoma store every time I go to my gym. One of my discoveries was Giada De Laurentiis Braising Sauce - pot roast and porcini mushrooms. The robust sauce contained red wine, porcini mushrooms, onions, garlic and rosemary. The sauce originally sold for $16.95 but I purchased it for only $4.99.

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To make the dish, I purchased a boneless chuck roast and made my own 2-inch cubes of beef. Doing this myself was less expensive than purchasing boneless beef stew. However, if you’re short on time, then the extra expense may be worth it for you. I seasoned the beef with salt and pepper and browned the meat on all sides in two batches. Next, it was time to return all the meat to the pan, pour in the braising sauce, stir to coat, cover and bake for three hours.
 
After three hours, the meat was fork tender, no need for a knife to cut. I served the beef on a bed of creamy grits, a recipe by Louis Osteen that I found on the Food Network site. I also added some grated Piave cheese that I had left from a dinner party. It gave the grits a wonderful flavor. I will admit that on my Instagram post I called it creamy polenta.
 
The difference between polenta and grits is texture, polenta is coarser and grits are finer.  I used Geechie Boys yellow grits for this meal. Geechie Boys describes their white grits as coarse ground, so I’ll assume the yellow are a fine ground. Either way, to me they cook up similarly.
 
Overall, the Giada’s braising sauce with porcini mushrooms was delicious! A hearty and flavorful meal.
 
As a side note, I friend from a friend in the Chicago area saw my Instragram/Facebook post and emailed me that and she snagged some sauces at W-S for just $3.99!