I do not recommend this for a beginner, but intermediate skill should have no problem. And if you don't have time, save this for the weekend.

But with the cat, I had a bottle of Cabernet Merlot on the shelf, but too close to the edge. Some point in the early morning the bottle found itself on the floor missing it's bottom. I figured one of my cats checked it out and knocked it off.

I didn't use any special ingredients. Sear a chuck roast, cook the onions and garlic, deglaze with half a bottle of red and then reduce around half. Add a few cups of beef stock with fresh rosemary and thyme. I would have added fresh tarragon, but I only had dry. I also used some celery leaf. Meat back in the pot, oven preheat to 325f for two and a half hours. Add carrots and celery and continue for another hour. Once our, I pulled the meat to a serving dish and added a thickener to the sauce. Once thickened, pour back over the meat and enjoy.

I make a stew like this and the secret ingredient is teriyaki sauce. I very much recommend it.

Cooking doesn’t have to be intimidating!

FWIW, pot roasts are pretty simple to get right. (Pretty much just tossing everything into a pot and, uh, roasting it. Or a slow cooker/crockpot)

They do take a fair bit of time, but most of it’s hands off.

If you can find a chuck roast for cheap enough it's pretty cost effective. Throw in a bunch of root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, whatever you want) to cook with it and it extends how far your food dollar goes quite a bit. These usually take a fair amount of time overall but a lot of that time is not active time.