This is the first chuck roast I have ever made and I am even writing a cooking column on it. It also has been around 20 years since I have made mashed potatoes. I ventured ahead and tried to make a masterpiece of a meal for relatively little money, and generally things were successful. I had olive oil on hand but had to go out and get some corn starch for the gravy.

Here meat is on sale marked down substantially. The chuck roast here is $2.38 / pound.

Chop some vegetables and stir fry them in olive oil.

Here they are coming along nicely.

Shown below the meat is coming along nicely. Put in a little water as it cooks. Here I put in a little too much water. The runoff from the meat is for the gravy. Pour this runoff into a cup, skim off the fatty oil if you can, and then mix in some corn starch for a tasty gravy and for thicker substance.

The potatoes are cut and boiled until soft. Then pour in some milk and use a masher to mash. I did not have any butter, but it is better to mix in some butter also.

The final meal is shown below. Of course one cuts away the fat from the meat. The mashed potatoes  were a little lumpy, but for me this was still a great accomplishment.