That's a Load of Crock

Crock pot recipes that is.  I've sat at lunch with a friend and shared how I have meal planned my dinners for the week around some meat I've cooked in a crock pot on Sunday and she was amazed with the concept and how easy it was.  It was kind of a "why haven't I thought of that" moment.  So she thought it would be a good idea if I were to share some of my meal planning ideas with her and the rest of you.

Every once in a while (or maybe weekly, we'll see) I will share some of my meal plans and/or ideas for getting dinner on the table during the week.  I may include a recipe now and then and I will at least link you to some good recipe sites but these food blog entries are more about idea sharing, not a particular recipe.

I don't cook directly from recipes much.  I'll check out a few different recipes for the same dish online or in cookbooks and then come up with my own.  Or I may get ideas from cooking shows, magazines or menus, but I'll share more on those concepts another time.

So, back to crock pot cooking.  Here's a couple of my tried and true favorites.  The first is cooking pork in root beer.  Its pretty much as simple as that.  Get a pork roast (loin, tenderloin or whatever you like, I prefer a loin roast), put it in your crock pot and cover it in root beer.  That's it.  Well, turn your crock pot on of course, around 350 is where I cook it.  How long do you cook it?  I really don't know, I guess it depends on how large a roast you get.  I just check mine after a couple hours and when the meat starts pulling away from the roast easily, well, then its done.  You take it out and "pull" or shred it and then you eat on it for the rest of the week.  Oh sure, you can jazz it up a little more than that and put a spice rub on it before you sit it in the root beer but I don't know that its really necessary.  And if you are so rigid that you NEED a recipe to make it, well just google "pork" and "root beer" and many a recipe will come up, take your pick.

Now, how do I serve that wonderful tasting, melt in your mouth pork the rest of the week?  Here's some ideas:  Put some barbecue sauce on it, put it on a bun and top it with some cole slaw or french fried onions; or put some of that pork in a tortilla, top it with lettuce (or cabbage for a twist), maybe a little fresh cilantro and onion and some salsa and cheese and you have a killer taco; or wrap it with beans (and maybe some rice) in flour tortillas, put them in an oven-safe pan, top with cheese and canned red or green enchilada sauce and you have a great Mexican casserole; make a stew with it, American or Mexican again, by adding broth, veggies, rice or potatoes, maybe some green chilies if you're going the mexican route and serve with tortillas (again) or with biscuits or corn bread; stuff a baked potato with the barbecue pork; make a barbecue pork salad; make a barbecue pork pizza; make a cuban sandwich; make a oriental stir fry; or how about a thai pizza - the options are endless!

My other favorite is to cook chicken breasts (although I'm sure you can do whatever part of the chicken you prefer) in regular beer.  Same idea but instead of pork and root beer, its chicken and beer.  Go ahead and throw some poultry seasoning on the chicken if you want but again, its not needed.  And again, I cook it at 350 but for a shorter amount of time than the pork roast (breasts are smaller that a roast) and when it's to the point that when you try to lift it with a fork or tongs and it breaks apart, then its done.  All the dishes that I mentioned above with the pork can be done with the chicken too.  You can add to that list chicken and dumplings, chicken and noodles, chicken noodle soup, open-faced chicken sandwiches with gravy and mashed potatoes - and endless other options.

Just having that meat cooked on Sunday helps a lot to get a hot (or cold) tasty meal on the table on weeknights.  And having those meals planned and the ingredients on hand (and prepped if possible) will lessen the weeknight hassle as well.  Oh, and one more thing, if you kind of stay with a theme, like Mexican week, you can use a lot of the same ingredients over from night to night, just with a different spin, so it helps you use up ingredients and not have as much waste and it'll help cut those grocery bills.  Just think about it!  That's no load of crock!!