Pork Roast in the Crockpot

I guess by now you realize that I am back to the food blog and with a vengeance. My goal is to post at least 2 times a week. More if I have something really good to add.

I have been really busy and that is my excuse. Most of the meals I was making are the thrown together family faves that I never really think about blogging but I started to realize that most of us are probably in the same boat right now. Money is tight because of rising fuel costs and I don't know about you but my grocery bill is out of this world (busy looking for ways to keep it down...), and we're all busy...trying to keep it all together. Sometimes more gracefully than others LOL!

Today's recipe falls in the fast and easy and relatively inexpensive if you buy right. I was able to find pork sirloin tip roast at Costco for $1.69 a pound and they come packaged in about 2 lb packs. Which is perfect for us. One meal and leftovers for Tony's lunch the next day. So add some mashed potatoes and a quick salad to it and you have a perfect weeknight meal that will make everyone happy!

Pork Roast in the Crockpot

Ingredients

• 1 (2 pound) pork roast or tenderloin
• 1 medium sized onion cut in half and sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon (or cube) of bouillon dissolved in the following cup of water
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place pork roast in a slow cooker (I use the smallest one possible to hold all the liquid) with the onions.
2. Sprinkle with garlic powder and salt.
3. Pour water, wine, and soy sauce over the top, turning the pork to coat.
4. Carefully spread garlic over the pork, leaving as much on top of the roast during cooking as possible.
5. Sprinkle with pepper, cover, and cook on low setting for 4 hours.
6. Serve with cooking liquid on the side as au jus or thicken for a delicious gravy

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Pork Roast in a Crockpot

Sounds simple huh?  And something that you should be able to find a recipe for easily right?  WRONG!  Almost all of the recipes that I came across when searching for a recipe were sweet.  One thing Tony hates is sweet pork.  Sadly I am sure the rest of us like it but just never get to eat it…

This recipe came from about 10 different sources that I put together.  I am claiming it as mine and it is delicious!  I may have over cooked it a bit this time but trust me on this the first time I made it perfectly!  I will be making this again and again!

I used a pork sirloin roast. The one in the mesh cotton bag. I am sure any one but the tenderloin would work, would be too dry.  The picture below is only one of the 2 pieces in the bag.

Pork Roast in a Crockpot

Peel some garlic and pierce the roast with as many holes as you have garlic and push the garlic into the holes. I do about 3 or 4 cloves in each piece of meat. (the garlic will be pushed out during cooking, see pic, but the flavor is still there)

Make a mixture of:

1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/4 tsp rosemary
1 tsp lemon zest
dash of ground cloves

rub this all over the meat and place in the crockpot.

Add 1/2 cup of water around the side and cook on low for about 6 hrs.

Thicken the juice with some flour to make a gravy to serve with the egg noodles you will really want to have with this!!!

***As a rule we only eat “Happy Meat” but happy pork roast is hard to come by here.  I did break the rule on this one and used CAFO pork *hanging my head in shame* but my family really wanted pork…

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Beef, Wild Mushroom and Barley Soup in (get this) my Crock Pot!!!

The other day I was going through my freezer looking for what I could pull out and use up this week. I found a round steak that was in there from last year when I had ordered a 1/4 of a cow (Happy Meat). For some reason this steak was never eaten, probably because it was just one and not enough to feed all four of us…Anyway I pulled it out and thawed it to make some Beef Barley soup. Well, we know how plans change and recipes morph into other things so here is what I came up with…

Beef, Wild Mushroom and Barley Soup in the Crock Pot

Ingredients:

2 Tbs olive oil (more if needed)
1 1/2 lbs round steak or stewing beef, cut into bite sized pieces
1 lg onion (chopped)
2 sticks of celery (chopped-I used the tops and all)
3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 cup dried wild mushrooms (rehydrated with boiling water and chopped)
2/3 cup red wine
10 cups of water
2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1 cup pearled barley
1 tsp savory
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tsp beef base (I use better than bouillon)

Directions:

1. In a large pot heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the meat and brown well. Add more oil if needed. Remove the meat and place it in your Crock Pot (I used a 5 or 6 quart Crock Pot).
2. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the celery, onions and garlic and stirring occasionally until the onions are translucent and soft. Increase the heat to medium add the red wine to deglaze the pan (scrape the bottom to loosen the brown bits).
3. Add your onion mixture to the Crock Pot along with the mushrooms, water, and salt. Turn your Crock Pot on low and let cook for at least 5 hrs. About 1 hr before eating add the barley, thyme, white pepper and the savory and cook until the barley is cooked. Taste before serving and add beef base as needed.

***This was an absolutely delicious soup and it was even better the next day! Serve it with a nice slice of crusty bread and you have a fantastic week night meal!

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Chili Verde for the Crockpot

It was cold yesterday.  At least by Southwest Florida standards.  I think we reached a high of about 60F for the whole day.  I’m not complaining.  I live for the cooler weather but I knew that I needed something to warm us up for dinner.  Knowing that we would be at The BMX Track after the sun went down was pretty motivating too!

I pulled out my trusty Crockpot and went to work. 

Chili Verde

6-8 Servings

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of pork (this time I used pork steaks and cut them down to bite sized pieces.  Could use Pork Butt or Shoulder Roast)
• 3 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour (seasoned with a small bit of salt and pepper)
• 1/2 Cup water
• 1/2 Cup Tomatillo Salsa
• 2 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 1 (7 ounce) can of chopped green chiles, rinsed and drained.
• 1 small jar of pimientos (or 3/4 cup roasted red pepper strips)
• 1 (15 ounce) can of black beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

• In a large bowl toss the pork with the seasoned flour until evenly coated.  Stir in the water , salsa, cumin, chili powder, oregano, garlic powder, salt, onions and 1/2 of the green chiles.  Mix well.
• Cover and cook on low heat for about 6 hours (or on high for about 3 or 4), or until pork is tender.  Stir twice if possible.
• Stir in the remaining green chiles, the red pepper strips and the black beans.  Cover again and cook on high 20-30 min. longer until heated through and bubbling again.

Will I make this again?  Definitely.  This will be a go to winter meal for us.  I wanted to try not browning the pork in this recipe and I am really pleased with how it turned out.  Truth be told I ran out of time and needed to get this on.  Worked to my advantage.  The meat was spoon cutting tender.  Everyone in the house loved it. 

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Salsa Chicken Enchiladas

Quite possibly this is to be one of the laziest posts I’ve even written.  Why?  Because it is my lazy end of the week go to meal.  I got the recipe from my friend Lynn and have been making them regularly since!!!  This is a great recipe to use to feed a crowd and Lynn has used it to feed many over the years…

Salsa Chicken

Ingredients:

I jar of good quality salsa (or just you favorite!)
chicken (4 breast or 8 thighs-boneless skinless)

Directions:

Throw chicken and salsa into a crockpot on low and cook for 4-8 hrs depending on whether or not you had the foresight to thaw your chicken (yes, I throw frozen chicken in here).

Once the chicken is done.  You need to remove it from the crockpot and the sauce and shred it.  This chicken can now be used in tacos, nachos, or anything else that requires some nicely seasoned chicken!

We use it in enchiladas…

 

Salsa Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

corn tortillas
salsa chicken (see recipe above)
shredded cheese
onions, finely diced
enchilada sauce
jalapenos, finely diced

Directions:

Heat oven to 350F.

Using Elise from Simply Recipe’s process of heating the tortillas - “Heat a small light skillet on med-high heat. Add a teaspoon of oil (high smoke point oil as indicated above, we use grapeseed oil) to coat the pan. Dip a tortilla in the sauce (I used the sauce from the crockpot that I cooked the chicken in) to coat the tortilla with sauce on both sides. Place the tortilla in the skillet and heat for a few seconds, until the tortilla begin to show some air bubbles. Use a metal spatula to flip to the other side for a few more seconds. Set aside on a plate. Repeat with remaining tortillas.”

Using these tortillas place some shredded cheese, onion and shredded chicken in them and roll.  Place seam side down in a baking pan large enough to hold the amount you are making.  When the pan is filled top with enchilada sauce, onions, cheese and jalapenos.

Pop these in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned and the cheese is all bubbly.

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Marmalade Curry Chicken???

I have been told to never make this again...it doesn't look that bad does it?

Does it really sound that bad? You should have seen T's face when I told him what we were having for dinner. Funny thing is I don't really like curry or Indian food (see this post) but I thought that it sounded pretty good (and would be using up several things in my fridge that I needed out...see the plan here?), and it would be using my Crockpot which I sort of have a love/hate relationship going with!

I was at the girl's school this morning for the first time as a volunteer so that was kind of fun and I had a brief meeting with the "gifted" coordinator to find out how far along we had gotten with my oldest daughter's paperwork. So I needed something quick and that didn't require too much attention from me. This is where the Crockpot comes in to play. I guess the reason that I don't like it all that much is that most of the things that I come across to cook in it have Cream of Mushroom Soup in it????!!! Are the 2 things made by the same company? Is Rival somehow linked to Campbell's? Whatever.

Anyway I came across this when I was looking for something to do with the marmalade and chicken. This recipe, although it is for in your Crockpot, has no cream soup of anything in it so I decided to give it a whirl!

Before the recipe though I want you to check out Stephanie's Blog. Stephanie likes me. I mean really likes me and even blogged about it. Pretty cool huh?

Marmalade Curry Chicken (adapted from Allrecipes.)

Ingredients:

• 8 boneless, skinless, chicken cutlets
• 1 Cup flour
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/8 tsp white pepper
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1 (12 ounce) jar orange marmalade
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  
  

Directions:

1. Mix the flour with the next 5 ingredients. Dredge the chicken through the flour and place the chicken in the slow cooker. Whisk together the marmalade, chicken stock, curry powder, cayenne pepper, and ground ginger in a bowl. Pour over chicken breasts.
2. Cover, and cook on High for 3 to 4 hours, or on Low for 5 to 7 hours. Make sure to flip over the chicken breasts once during cooking.

This meal didn't turn out so well and although it was really simple for me to throw in and not worry at all about for the day, T. has made me promise to not ever make it again! I didn't think it was all that bad but then again I got hit with a monster of a cold this afternoon and can no longer smell or taste anything. I guess that's a good thing from what the kids and T. said!!!

What it used up in from my fridge and freezer:

frozen chicken cutlets
jar of reduced sugar marmalade that tasted like crap
some left over chicken stock from another recipe last week

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Chalupa-Not Taco Bell

A couple of nights ago I was thinking about all of the things that I have made that we really liked. I was going through my recipe box and I came across a recipe card that said "Chalupa". I made this probably about 13 years ago and T. and I really liked it. For some reason though I only made it once! I decided that I had better break out the old crock pot and try it again. Well let me tell you, it was truly a hit. My youngest one even opted to take it to school is a thermos for her lunch today! This is not the Chalupa that was famous at Taco Bell a couple of years ago. This is real Mexican pork and beans slow cooked until the meat is falling apart. It is a type of chili without the tomato base. Regardless everyone loved it!

Chalupa

3 lbs Pork Roast (I used a boneless loin)
1 lb dried pinto beans
1 small can chopped green chilies
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. cumin powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 Tbsp salt

Put everything in the crock pot and put in enough water to just cover the meat. You may need to check this later to be sure that there is enough water (the beans absorb a ton of it).
Cook on high for about 8 hours.

We served it topped with shredded cheddar cheese and hot sauce. The girls ate them in tortilla shells but we just ate ours with a spoon. So if you need a good, hearty, fast and easy, stick to your ribs meal this would be it!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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