Tag Archives: slow cooker pork

Pork Guinness Stew

13 Oct

This is a hearty Irish stew made easily in the crock pot. It turned out very filling and delicious, and the calorie count was much lower than I expected. I call this guiness stew because you use a dark beer (like guinness) in the stew. It doesn’t have to be guiness. Any dark beer will do.  In fact, the one I used wasn’t actually guinness. One thing I love about crock pot recipes is how easy they are the day of.  For this one, I cut the meat, salt and peppered it and stored it in the crock pot insert in the fridge overnight.  I cut the onion/carrot/celery and stored them together in a ziplock bag in the fridge, and measured out all my spices and set them aside.  So on the morning that I put this together I just peeled and chopped a potato, and put everything in the crock pot.  This made life easy on one of those busy days, and the house smelled fantastic when I got home from work 🙂  One thing… don’t cut the potato the night before… it could oxidize in the fridge which is bad news.

Ingredients: 

  • 2 lb lean pork loin
  • 1 large russet potato
  • 25 baby carrots
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 3 celery stalks, chopped into 1 in slices
  • 1 can low fat chicken broth
  • 8 oz of dark beer
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp caraway seed
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 3 tbsp corn starch

Directions:

1. Cut your pork loin into cubes, about 1 inch x 1 inch, and place pork in the bottom of crock pot. Salt and pepper the pork to taste.

Note:  I find cutting the pork is easier if you freeze the meat about halfway first. If the meat is already frozen, thaw it halfway before attempting to cut (I just set a frozen pork loin in the fridge Sunday night, and I prepped this Monday evening to cook Tues morning).

2. Peel potato and chop into about 1×1 inch pieces as well. Spread evenly over meat. It’s important that potatoes are directly on top of meat so they will be covered with liquid while cooking. If they are not covered they will not cook through and they may oxidize and turn black (you don’t want that)

3.  Place carrots, onion and celery on top of potatoes.

4.  Mix broth, beer, vinegar, bay leaf, garlic powder, and caraway seeds together and pour over the items in the pot.

5. Cook on low for 10 hours. Don’t open the lid. Seriously. Don’t open it until it’s done.

6. After cooking 10 hours, mix contents with a spoon and remove 1/2 cup of broth. In a small bowl mix 1/2 cup broth with corn starch until a smooth cream is formed.

7. Pour cornstarch mixture into crock pot and stir to mix well with the stew. Turn crock pot up to high and leave uncovered for 10 min, stirring periodically. This will thicken your sauce.

Serve with rice, bread, noodles, or as is. Makes 9 1/2 cups of stew.

1 cup= 182 calories

Appx 4 weight watchers points per cup

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Crock Pot BBQ Pulled Pork

7 Sep

This one is a great meal for those days when you have folks coming over for dinner, and you want to have as much done ahead of time as possible.  There’s not much fuss involved with this delicious crockpot concoction, and Pulled Pork is a delicious staple in the South.  My husband doesn’t like barbecue sauce, so i left a little out just for him, with only the rub, and it also went over very well.   Traditionally made with a fattier piece of pork, this slimmer version, in my opinion, really benefits from cooking in the liquid low and slow.  Try for yourself, and let me know what you think 😉

Ingredients:

  • 3 3/4 lbs- 4 lbs pork loin (i picked one that was 160 cal per 4 oz serving)
  • 1/2 a large yellow or white onion, chopped
  • 1 can (12 oz) diet Dr Pepper (you could use regular diet soda, or diet cherry soda too)
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1 1/2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

The Rub: 

  • 1 1/2 TBSP paprika
  • 1 TBSP garlic powder
  • 1 TBSP sea salt
  • 1 TBSP Black pepper
  • 1 TBSP Dry Mustard
  • 1 TBSP Splenda Brown Sugar
  • 1/2 TBSP Crushed red pepper

Directions: 

  1. Mix all spices together in a small bowl.
  2. Pat your pork loin dry, and apply rub liberally to all sides.  Press the rub into the loin so that as much rub as possible is used to cover the meat.
  3. Place your rubbed pork loin into a large crock pot, along with chopped onions.
  4. Pour diet soda on both sides of the pork loin, and gently life loin up with a fork so some soda gets underneath.
  5. Cook on low for 10 hours.
  6. After 10 hours on low, meat should be easy to shred with a fork.  Remove meat and set aside on a platter.
  7. Measure out 1 cup of the juice from the crock pot.  This is what you’ll use for the sauce.  The rest of the juice can be discarded.
  8. In your crock pot, mix your 1 cup of cooking liquid, along with 1 cup of ketchup and 1 1/2 TBSP vinegar.  Mix well until ketchup is well incorporated.
  9. Shred the pork and return to the crock pot with the sauce.  Stir the sauce and meat together well, and allow to sit on warm until you’re ready to serve.
  10. Makes 12-15 servings (depending on how much meat you started with) of about 1/2 cup each.

I served each serving with a “lite” hamburger bun, which was 80 calories.  Those calories are not included in the count below.

1 serving= 229 Calories per serving

Appx 6 weight watchers points plus per serving

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