OKAY HELP

used my new SC for the first time and i was very concious about not using too much liquid, as in the instructions it said not to... and also i layered my onions first, then carrots, then the meat, as it said to in the instructions.... my problem is, the meat was quite tough, and i attribute this to the fact that it wasn't covered in liquid, as it was the top layer and quite high up, and also i didn't use much liquid at all, would have barely covered the carrots.... so there's my dilemma, if i have the meat sitting quite high as one of the last layers, then i would need a hell of a lot of liquid to cover it...

can anyone tell me what they do and where i am going wrong? do you have your meat sitting in sauce/liquid, or is it uncovered - if its uncovered does it turn out soft or tough?

help!