Beef and veggies in crock pot turn out hard and tough

Meat is tough for two reasons:
1- An abundance of connective tissue.
2- When over cooked.

In your case I'd say you probably have both problems. Cheap meat is tough meat. It is from older animals or well worked muscle groups. This means that it has been fortified with a lot of extra connective tissue. It also means it has a lot of flavor.

The solution to #1 is slow, wet cooking that will melt that connective tissue into delicious gelatin. Braising is the normal way to do this. When meat is heated too far, even if the connective tissue has been carefully melted out, the meat proteins bunch up and stiffen- resulting in #2, a dry, unpleasant meal.

You are buying tough meat and cooking it relatively quickly with no thermometer. You don't have enough time or moisture to melt the collagen and you can't be sure you haven't over cooked the meat because you don't know the temperature. Using time doesn't work because chunks of meat are irregularly shaped so you can't know how long it will take for the heat to penetrate.

Buy yourself a probe thermometer to prevent #2. For #1 look for pot roast recipes. Some are easily done in slow cookers- others use a tent of sealed foil over the meat to seal in moisture. Plan on it taking much longer than your 1.5 hours. 3-6 hours are typical to produce a really succulent pot roast.

The searing is just for flavor and will not play a role in either melting collagen or cooking the interior of the meat.

Right now I'm thinking of draining the whole mess and making a new gravy but if there's a way to salvage what's already there I'd try it.

Before you pitch it, I'd consider cooking it even longer -- we're aiming for 'ragoût' (cooked to rags), not just your typical stew. We want the vegetables to completely disintigrate, until they're more a thickener for the stew, rather than indentifiable on their own.

You can then serve it over pasta, rice, or a baked potato.

If you'd prefer adding back in some vegetables for texture without further cooking of the meat ... I'd actually suggest roasting them in the oven, then mixing them in. Proper selection of vegetables can also be important -- a waxy potato (like a red potato) won't break down like a starchy (aka. flourly) potato (like a russet) will. If you're going to cook them in the stewing liquid, add tomatoes or a shot of vinegar into the liquid to prevent onions and potatoes from softening too much. Frozen peas or corn can add some quick texture (canned are typically mush, and might add to the metallic flavor).

As for the blandness issues, it's hard to say. If your basic salt and pepper aren't working, reach for other herbs & spices. You could try going heavy on the paprika and thyme to make it more like a goulish, or a blend of 'italian' spices to make it more like a ragù but beware of oregano which can have a metallic quality in large amounts. Sometimes alcohol can help, like a shot of sherry towards the end, or some wine, hard cider or beer earlier in the cooking process.

For both the blandness and metallic issues, vinegar or other acidic (eg, tomatoes but not canned) or sour (eg, serving with sour cream) notes might help.

... so, to summarize :

• Option 1 : cook longer, re-season, serve over rice/pasta/etc.
• Option 2 : re-season, add roasted vegetables and/or frozen peas or corn for texture.
• Add tomatoes, vinegar or sherry to brighten the flavors
• Serve w/ sour cream to mask metallic taste.