Crock Pot Pork Chops

So, apparently I have been into pork and using my crock pot. Both of which are good things and a nice change from chicken and having to cook everything after work. The crock pot saves me SO much time and energy! And of course I found this recipe on Pinterest.

Recipe adapted from Real Mom Kitchen Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops.

Ingredients:
1/2 inch bone-in pork chops
1 packet of Italian Seasoning
10 oz can of cream of mushroom soup
Russet potatoes
S & P
garlic cloves

Place pork chops and soup mix with italian seasonings into crock pot. Add chopped up potatoes. Mix all together. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Remove potatoes and mash them using a mixer. Add milk and butter.

Service pork over potatoes and drizzle with the soup/sauce from crock pot.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin

I came across this recipe on Pinterest, which is where I find lots of my recipes nowadays. I bought two pork tenderloins from Albertsons and cooked them both. The meat turned out so incredibly tender and juicy and the glaze was delicious. I made my favorite side dish rice, curried cauliflower and rice and a salad topped with strawberries and mandarin oranges. I highly recommend this recipe for an easy crock pot dinner. 

Recipe from C + C Marriage Factory.

Ingredients:

1 (2 pound) boneless pork tenderloin (or regular pork loin)

1 teaspoon ground sage

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 cup water

Glaze

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions:

Combine sage, salt, pepper and garlic. Rub over roast. Place in slow cooker with 1/2 cup water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. About 1 hour before roast is done, combine ingredients for glaze in small sauce pan. Heat and stir until mixture thickens. Brush roast with glaze 2 or 3 times during the last hour of cooking. Serve with remaining glaze on the side.

Pork Lettuce Wraps

I was going through my freezer trying to plan the week's dinners and found a butt-load of porkchops that I needed to use. I wanted to cook them all and then eat various pork dinners over the course of the week. So, I cooked the chops in a crock pot with an asian marinade and the first night we had pork chops, rice and applesauce. The next night I decided to get creative and use the asian marinade as inspiration to make pork lettuce wraps. I used P.F. Chang's chicken lettuce wraps as a guide (I mostly ignored the procedure but used the ingredients).

Crockpot Pork Chops (from Food.com recipe)

• 6 pork chops (1/2 inch-3/4 inch thick)
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 Tbls minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp ginger (I didn't use this)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce (I don't really like soy sauce so I only used 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• black pepper
• I also added a couple of Tablespoons of honey and a splash of sesame oil

Mix all ingredients, put chops in slow cooker and pour mixture over chops. Put on the low setting and cook for 7 hours.

Lettuce Wraps:

• water chestnuts
• mushrooms (i used brown baby bellas)
• yellow onion
• minced garlic
• iceberg lettuce
• leftover pork  (After the pork was cooked in the crock pot, I shredded the leftover pork and let it sit in the leftover sauce in the fridge overnight

Lettuce Wrap Sauce:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbls soy sauce
• 2 Tbls rice wine vinegar
• 2 Tbls ketchup
• 1 Tbls lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp sesame oil 
• 1 Tbls hot mustard (I just used a cheap dijon)

In a saute pan, heat up 1 Tbsp vegetable oil and then add minced water chestnuts, mushrooms, garlic and onions and saute. Add rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil (I used less soy sauce and more sesame oil), sugar, water, lemon juice, ketchup, and hot mustard to the pan and saute into the vegetables. 

Add the pork into the mixture and let absorb the flavors. 

I washed and set out the iceberg lettuce and shredded some carrots as a topping. Put the pork on a dish and serve family style!

Mom's Chili

1-1 1/2 lbs. hamburger
1/2 of a yellow onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno diced
1 pkg. chili seasoning (Lawrys is best!)
12oz. tomato juice, you can use spicy if you want
1 cup water
1 can diced green chilis
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1/2 cup el Pato jalapeno salsa
4 cans of beans: pinto, chili, kidney black, or whatever you like for beans. (Some come in a flavored sauce and you don't have to drain them, otherwise drain the others)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions and jalapeno. Add meat and brown. Add half of the chili seasoning packet and combine.  Then add the remaining ingredients and continue adding seasong packet to taste. Simmer or cook slow in a crock pot!

Sprinkle with cheese and serve with yummy bread!

Serves 4-6 depending on the size of the bowls!