Pioneer Woman's Spicy Dr. Pepper Pork

I made THIS in the crock pot instead of in a pot in the oven.  Pretty sure it doesn't make much of a difference except crock pot seems easier to me.  I served it on rolls with garden tomatoes alongside mac and cheese.  It's pretty good, but not my absolute favorite.  I like the flavor of some other crock pot meat dishes better, I think.  It was yummy - just not on my favorites list.  It's spicy but not overpoweringly so. 

Spicy Shredded Pork

This recipe is adapted from Pioneer Woman's Shredded Pork.  I would have made it exactly like hers but I had different meat and less time on hand.

• 3-4 pound pork roast
• 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
• 1 Tablespoon (to 2 Tablespoons) Salt
• Pepper To Taste
• 3 cloves (to 4 Cloves) Garlic
• 1 Tablespoon (to 2 Tablespoons) Olive Oil
• 2 Tablespoons (to 3 Tablespoons) White Wine Vinegar
• 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons dried onion flakes (you can use one whole medium onion cut up, instead)
• Lime Wedges
• Sour Cream, Shredded Cheese, Cilantro

Mix ingredients oregano through dried onion flakes in a blender until they are completely combined.  Cut visible fat from pork roast and rinse.  Put pork roast in a slow cooker and cover with the blended mixture.  Put two cups of water in the slow cooker over the meat.  Cook on low for about 8 hours.  Shred with a fork and serve however you'd like.  I put lime juice on top of my meat, on a tortilla, with cilantro, shredded jalapeno cheddar and sour cream.  Delicious!

Slow Cooker Sweet Barbacoa Pork

I've been using a lot of recipes from Skinny Taste lately and I love them!  I loved her take on healthier barbacoa pork.  I made it yesterday and I'm hooked!  I'll definitely make this again.


Slow Cooked Sweet Barbacoa Pork
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: about 10 • Serving Size: 3 oz • Old Points: 4.5 pts • Points+: 5 pts
Calories: 202.5 • Fat: 6.3 g • Protein: 26.2 g • Carb: 11.5 g • Fiber: 0.6 g 
Adapted from Favorite Family Recipes

Ingredients:

For the Marinade:

• 2.5 lbs pork loin roast, all fat trimmed
• salt and pepper
• garlic powder
• 6 oz Coke zero
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (unpacked)
• 1/4 cup water

Step 2

• 8 oz Coke zero
• 6 oz can sliced green chilies
• 8 oz tomato sauce
• 1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1/8 tsp cumin
• 1/8 tsp chipotle chili powder (to taste)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (unpacked)

Directions:

Season pork with salt, pepper and garlic powder and place in the crock pot. Add 6 oz of coke and 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Marinate refrigerated for a few hours or overnight turning meat at least once while marinating.

Remove crock from refrigerator, add water, and cook on high for about 3-4 hours (or until it shreds easily). Remove pork from crock pot and discard any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork with two forks.

Step two: In the crock pot, combine 8 oz coke, green chilies, tomato sauce, chipotle chile, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle chili powder and remaining brown sugar.

Put shredded pork back in the crock pot and combine with sauce. Adjust salt and pepper to taste, cover and cook on high 1-1/2 hours more.


Instead of using garlic powder I used fresh minced garlic.  I served mine with black beans, Chipotle's cilantro-lime rice, avocado and a little bit of cheese on top.  


Recommended!  

Slow Cooker BBQ Pork

I made this Slow Cooker BBQ Pork for friends on Friday night.  The recipe is the easiest thing on the planet and turned out really well.  I got the recipe below from All Recipes.

Ingredients

• 1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle root beer
• 1 (18 ounce) bottle your favorite barbecue sauce
• 8 hamburger buns, split and lightly toasted

Directions

1. Place the pork tenderloin in a slow cooker; pour the root beer over the meat. Cover and cook on low until well cooked and the pork shreds easily, 6 to 7 hours. Note: the actual length of time may vary according to individual slow cooker. Drain well. Stir in barbecue sauce. Serve over hamburger buns.

Seriously, it doesn't get much easier than this and it was a definite crowd-pleaser.  You can change up the final product's taste by using whichever BBQ sauce you prefer.  I used a Kraft one that was $1, and it was great!

Cilantro-Tomatillo Dressing, Cilantro-Lime Rice, Mexican Pulled Pork [Mexican Pork Salad]

Cafe Rio is a big hit around these parts and I used to be a huge fan.  I think I was too huge of a fan because now I don't really have the desire to go there.  I can still recognize how delicious it is, though, and I wanted to attempt a couple of their recipes at home.

I made their cilantro-tomatillo salad dressing.  This was my second ever salad dressing and it was very easy to make.  I just threw all the ingredients in to my trusty Magic Bullet and voila!  It turned out well, but it is very spicy.  Unless you love extreme spiciness, I would recommend using a very small jalapeno, half a jalapeno, or make sure you take the seeds out before throwing the whole thing in.  I thought I wanted a lot of flavor and that a whole jalapeno with seeds and all would be fine - not really so.  I had to add quite a bit of sugar just to make it  slightly less spicy.  It is a very good recipe though, and tastes exactly like Cafe Rio's (other than the extreme kick).  I used the recipe from a distant-acquaintance's awesome food blog.  Go HERE!

(Now we have a year's supply of spicy dressing.)

I made the dressing because I wanted to make a salad.  I found a slow cooker recipe for Mexican Pulled Pork that I wanted to try.  I have tried the sweet Cafe Rio pork recipes a couple of times and never really loved them - so I wanted to try something a little bit different.  This recipe was so easy to throw together!  I got it from THIS website. It turned out so well!  8 hours in the slow cooker and it shreds with barely being touched and the sauce is really yummy.  I will keep this recipe on hand and use it all the time.  It is really versatile.  Definitely try it if you want a fool-proof Mexican pork.  

I had a little extra time and ingredients on my hands so I decided to throw together the Cilantro-Lime Rice for the salads, too.  Again, I used Wire Whisk.  I don't really like rice much so this was my first time making it.  Ever.  It turned out okay... I think the recipe itself is good but my rice was brown instead of white, I didn't have enough of it (1 cup) and it was a little too limey and not cilantro-y enough.  I would follow the recipe closely if you make this one and I bet it turns out great. My husband liked the way ours turned out, though, so maybe I'm being too critical.

I crisped flour tortillas on the stove top, put them in bowls and filled them with lettuce, black beans, shredded cheese, rice, pork, sour cream and the cilantro dressing.

WHOA!  They were scrumptious!  I was truly, pleasantly surprised.  They tasted a lot like Cafe Rio salads but with the satisfaction of knowing I made them - they were better! Maybe.

This was a fun little experiment and I'm happy to report it turned out so well.  I'll definitely make these again.