Slow-Cooker Pork Tacos Al Pastor With All the Fixings

Slow-Cooker Pork Tacos Al Pastor With All the Fixings

I finally put up my Christmas tree today. For whatever reason I was unmotivated to do it earlier in the month. A large part of my lack of motivation had to do with the fact that going into our front hall closet literally takes hours. Everything is nicely organized, but it requires lots of moving of bins and when a 5-year-old is helping it seems to take 10 times as long. I also finished wrapping all the Christmas gifts that needed to be done. Granted some of them were customized by my youngest with 6 different gift tags, but they're done all the same. I wrapped everything in the same roll of wrapping paper, the idea of going back into the closet for the other rolls just wasn't happening. Regardless, the presents are wrapped, the tree is up, and I finished my meal plan and grocery list for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Overall, it was a productive day and I got it all done before my oldest got home for the last day before holiday break. Now I just have to hope that my two boys don't cause the tree to come crashing down or open all the gifts when I'm not looking (with two boys anything can happen).

I've been keeping my meal plans simple the last couple of weeks. My crock-pot has been used numerous times to save time and I love that I have leftovers for at least another meal. This week I tried a new recipe for Slow Cooker Pork Tacos Al Pastor with All the Fixings from the December 2013 issue of Southern Living Magazine.

Slow-Cooker Pork Tacos Al Pastor With All the Fixings Southern Living December 2013

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 8 hours and 20 minutes of total time (including crock-pot time), 20 minutes of which is active, and makes 8 to 10 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First since I eat gluten free I used gluten free beer instead of white ale. I bought one big can of pineapple tidbits instead of two smaller cans since per ounce the bigger size was a better deal. For the topping I used goat cheese, cilantro and avocado. My boys aren't big fans of radishes so I left them out.

This recipe made a lot of food. There was more than enough for my family of 4 plus leftovers for another two lunches. My husband absolutely loved these tacos. They were some of the best tacos he thought that I had made in a long time. I love that everything was done in the crock-pot, making for a quick and easy weeknight meal. The tacos are a little on the spicy side so if you like dishes milder or if you have kids you might want to leave out the crushed red pepper or reduce the amount of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Overall a great taco recipe that I would definitely make again in the future.

For the recipe go to Slow Cooker Pork Tacos Al Pastor with All the Fixings.

Slow-Cooker Pork Tacos Al Pastor With All the Fixings

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A flavorful pork taco recipe that is done completely in the crock-pot. Slow cooking the pork in pineapple and beer makes for delicious and easy tacos!

Preparation Time: 0h, 20m

Cooking Time: 8h, 8m

Total Time: 8h, 20m

Yield: Serves 8

Thai Coconut Chicken with Pineapple Salsa

Thai Coconut Chicken with Pineapple Salsa

We live in a college football town. Once the college football season starts, during every home game the city gets a little crazy. Everyone literally bleeds green and white. This past Saturday I had forgotten it was a game day until we pulled into the drive thru and the person in front of us had painted themselves green. Yeah, it's that kind of city. Everywhere I went - the bank, grocery store you name it everyone was wearing green. Our state is divided. There are two big schools, Marshall and WVU (West Virginia University). Since there are no professional teams in our state, college teams reign king. While both schools have a large alumni base, most of the fans of both teams never went to school at either university. Somehow though they feel a connection to their football teams and get very adamant that their team is the best during games. According to my husband twitter gets a little crazy with back and forths between fans. So for Saturdays during the season we are a Marshall town through and through. Football season means lots of chili and game day foods, but with 95 degree days we are still enjoying food that sticks to the ribs a little less. I am a little behind on posts, so the recipe I am sharing tonight I actually made a few weeks back. I tried a new recipe for Thai Coconut Chicken with Pineapple Salsa from the April 2012 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

B'nai Shalom Synagogue Huntington, WV

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. First, since I have never actually seen a fresh Thai chili at any store in my area, I substituted a jalapeno. I left the seeds in since my kids weren't going to be eating the dish. For the oil I used peanut oil, I love cooking at high temps with peanut oil, it's great. The recipe states that the dish turns out brothy, but I found that it didn't make as much broth as the photo in the magazine showed. It was still enough for three servings, but not like the soup shown in the photo.

B'nai Shalom Synagogue Front Steps Huntington, WV

My husband and I were big fans of this recipe. The flavors from the fish sauce and ginger were delicious and the spicy kick from the jalapeno was perfect. I liked that the broth was slightly sweet and savory, while the salsa was a little on the spicy side. They worked perfectly together and the flavors played off of each other nicely.

For the recipe go to Thai Coconut Chicken with Pineapple Salsa.

Recipe for Hawaiian Burgers

Hawaiian Burger with Gluten Free Bun

My kids love burgers. It doesn't matter what type, they will eat them. My husband and I are also burger fans and I make them at least once every couple of weeks. I try to change up the type of meat I use since I make them so frequently. Some weeks I use pork, some chicken and occasionally beef. I try to make sure that the beef burgers that I make have something special since beef burgers can be a little boring and often dry. Pineapple is an add-in that my family loves in burgers and it is great with beef. This week I tried a new recipe for Hawaiian Burgers from the August 2012 issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 8 servings. I did make a few changes. First I made my own buns. I ate gluten free buns and the rest of my family regular hamburger buns. Lettuce isn't a popular burger topping in my household, so I left it off. I used leftover ham that I had from a recipe a few weeks back and had then frozen.. Finally I grilled the burgers on my indoor electric grill. They took slightly longer than the recipe suggested, but that is normal when using an indoor grill.

My kids really loved these burgers. They can be hit or miss on what they will eat, but they really liked this recipe. The burgers turned out very juicy from the pineapple and blue cheese, without being overpowering. I was worried that since the recipe had so many ingredients in the burger that it would taste too busy, but the flavors ended up working perfectly together.

For the recipe go to Hawaiian Burgers.

Recipe for Grilled Turkey Burgers with Pineapple Salsa

Grilled Turkey Burgers with Pineapple Salsa

With the weather getting warmer it has been project week in my house. During the spring I set aside a couple of weeks to do all the projects that I have put off for the last year. This year it is painting furniture, my dining room and re-staining a few tables. I have completed half of the things that I need to finish so that's a start. It always seems ten times harder to finish anything with a 4 and 6-year-old. My youngest loves doing his workbooks, but hates playing by himself. Plus he is in a phase where he wants to to everything with mommy. So tonight after my husband got home I painted the dining room while he worked on a painting project of his own. I have been a little behind on my posts and cooking this week since I have been busy, but I should be back to normal in another week. This week I tried a new recipe for Grilled Turkey Burgers with Pineapple Salsa from the Food Network Canada.

Pineapple Salsa

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes 27 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First my mother-in-law gave me a number of frozen turkey patties that had sat in my freezer for months. So instead of making the turkey burgers from scratch, I utilized the frozen patties. All the red peppers at my local grocery store where not usable, so I substituted a yellow pepper instead. I chose to include the jalapeno in the salsa, but seeded it since my kids would be enjoying some. I served regular buns for the rest of the family and gluten free for me.

The salsa in this recipe is really delicious. It made the store bought burgers much better and was also delicious as a sweet side salad the next day. The taste of the fresh pineapple was sweet and blended nicely with the strong flavors of the onion and jalapeno.

For the recipe go to Grilled Turkey Burgers with Pineapple Salsa.

Stir-Fried Sweet-and-Sour Chicken

I miss living in an area with a vast number of restaurants. Growing-up there were restaurants on almost every block and pretty much every type of food you can think of was available. Now I live in a college town with tons of pizza and fast food. I am happy that one of the local pizza places now has gluten free pizza, so at least I can eat at one of the places in town. Since our dining out options are limited I have learned to make most dishes from scratch. The great thing is that many dishes are easy to replicate at home and taste just as good if not better than those available at restaurants. One of my favorite dishes to make at home is sweet and sour chicken. It is so much cheaper and you can modify the amount of fat. Last night I tried a new recipe for Stir-Fried Sweet-and-Sour Chicken from Everyday Food magazine, which with only 20 minutes of total time looked perfect for a busy weeknight meal.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Instead of cutting the ginger into matchsticks I chose to finely grate it. My two boys aren't fans of ginger when it is made into matchsticks so this modification insured that they would actually eat the dish. I did make a few more changes. I chose to use a whole Serrano instead of a half and I used closer to a half of a pineapple instead of a 1/4. Finally, I served the dish over brown rice instead of white since we rarely eat white rice. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My oldest son really enjoyed the pineapple in this dish. I was happy that pineapple is inexpensive currently and the recipe took very little time to prepare. My husband thought the recipe was fine, but was very simple in taste. He would have preferred if the dish had more flavors other than ginger and apricot. At the table my husband and I added crushed red pepper to our servings and this helped to add more dimension to the recipe.

For the recipe go to Stir-Fried Sweet-and-Sour Chicken.

Barbecue-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple Salad

My family loves pork. I'm pretty sure my husband could be a perfect vegetarian, as long as he could eat pork. I think that he needs to invent a term for this, maybe porcinatarian. He would be a perfect poster child for this movement. Given my family's love of everything pork related I have learned to make a large number of pork recipes. Some have turned out great, like any type of pork taco, others such as a curried pork tenderloin recipe I tried last year where pretty horrible. Bacon is always a popular option. If I mention a dish includes bacon my family will come running to the table. There is one other food that my two boys in particular absolutely love, sweet peppers. My oldest has been known to eat an entire red pepper like an apples, he loves them. Recently, as I was looking through the May issue of Woman's Day magazine I came across a recipe for Barbecue-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple Salad, which looked delicious and low in fat.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes a total of 30 minutes, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of these ingredients and I made no ingredient modifications. I did run out of ancho chili powder, so I used a combination of ancho and chipotle chili powder. Since I was making this recipe for my children, I made two different salsas. In one I used jalapeno and in the other I did not. I do this with a lot of recipes, make a slight modification for the part of the servings for my kids. That way we are still all eating the same dish, just with a milder version for the younger tastebuds. My tenderloin took exactly 18 minutes to cook and then 5 minutes of rest. I let my salsa sit in the fridge for an hour. I would definitely recommend letting the salsa sit in the fridge and chill, it enhances the flavor. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was really impressed with this recipe. The combination of sweet and spicy was delicious and even my two boys loved the pineapple salad. I like how the pork is simply seasoned, without a needless amount of extra spices. I would suggest that if you don't like a lot of spice reducing the amount of chili powder. Since my family tried to eat low-fat dinners most of the week, I really like that this recipe only has 8 grams of fat and 37 grams of protein. Overall, a very easy and nutritious dinner recipe.

For the recipe go to Barbecue-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin.

Taste of Home Pineapple Curry Chicken

Both of my children are currently in picky eating stages. My youngest has decided that he will eat nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and his older brother is determined to eat all the cereal in the house. Previously they were great about eating their dinners, but lately I have thought out my menu plans with their tastes in mind. One of the foods that everyone, including my children can agree on, is chicken. They both love chicken and will eat larger servings of it than pretty much any other food currently. I like to try a variety of chicken recipes since I prepare the protein so frequently and I was pleased to find a recipe for Pineapple Curry Chicken in the February/March issue of Taste of Home Magazine.

This recipe has 19 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of prep and six hours of cooking time and makes 6 servings. I made one major modification to this recipe. The price of bone-in chicken breast halves was higher than I cared to spent. It would have cost approximately 20 dollars for 6 breasts, so I chose to use bone-in thighs instead, which were less than half the price. I had to go to multiple stores in order to find light coconut milk, our area only had regular full-fat. Finally, I chose not to top the curry with basil and toasted coconut. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Substituting the chicken thighs for the breasts worked well and the chicken was very moist. The taste of the curry was very mild and kid friendly. My husband felt that the flavor was a little too mellow, but would be perfect for someone that wanted to try curry dishes that didn't want a strong/spicy curry flavor. If you like more curry flavor in your dishes I would recommend adding a lot more curry powder than the 3 tsp. recommended by the recipe. Overall, I liked that the crockpot did all the work for me and the prep was easy. My kids ate their servings and liked the mild taste.

For the recipe go to Pineapple Curry Chicken.

Womans Day Seared Tilapia with Pineapple and Cucumber Relish

My oldest son loves fish. Any time that I prepare a fish dish he eagerly eats his serving and then goes around begging for more. I love how easy fish is to prepare and it's a great solution for a busy weeknight meal. Growing up my mom only prepared salmon, which I love, but after moving out on my own I taught myself to appreciate a larger variety of fish. Currently I try to prepare at least one fish dish every week or two. I would prepare fish even more if it was less expensive and I could get my meat eating husband to be convinced that bacon isn't its own food group. As I was looking through the January issue of Woman's Day Magazine I came across a recipe for Seared Tilapia with Pineapple and Cucumber Relish, which looked easy and full of protein.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I actually had to go to multiple stores in order to find non-farm raised tilapia, but I was finally able to find some. I had no problems finding any of the other ingredients and made no modifications. I chose to seed the jalapeno since my five and three-year-old were eating it and they are hit or miss with eating spicy foods. In order for the fish to not stick I used slightly more oil than suggested by the recipe. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Fish recipes are great weeknight meals. They save time and are always popular with my children. This recipe has 40 grams of protein and 9 grams of fat per serving and took less than a half an hour to prepare. The relish was delicious, my husband added rice wine vinegar to his dish and thought that it enhanced the flavor even more. Overall, a healthy and easy fish recipe.

For the recipe go to Seared Tilapia with Pineapple and Cucumber Relish.

Woman's Day Beef Soft Tacos with Pineapple Salsa

Since my oldest started kindergarten this year, I seem to have less and less time to spend on meal preps. I always thought that as soon as one of my sons was in school, my days would get much easier. Boy was I wrong! My oldest gets home from school at 3 and my house turns into utter chaos as I try to get dinner on the table by the time my husband comes home from work at around 4. Since my husband starts work at 7 we eat a lot earlier than most households. I have tried switching out dinner time later, which just led to both my boys and husband eating way too many snacks and skipping dinner. One of the best solutions I have found is making a slow cooker meal at least once a week. This way I have one day where I don't have to run around trying to finish things up and have time to spend on homework etc. The November issue of Woman's Day magazine had a recipe for Beef Soft Tacos with Pineapple Salsa, which looked like a great combination of citrus and beef and a great way to save time on dinner prep. 

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 8-10 hours of cook and prep, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did have to make a major modification to the ingredients due to lack of availability at my local grocery store. I have never seen flank steak, so I chose to substitute flat iron steak instead. Honestly, that is one of my husband's favorite cuts of beef, so he was very happy with the change. Additionally, I always braise my meat before I place it in the crockpot. The flavor and juices are locked in and it really does make a difference in the resulting taste. I always use my crockpot on low. There is nothing wrong with using your crockpot on high, I just find that I like the flavor of meat more when it has been on a lower temp for a longer amount of time. I chose to add the ancho chili powder, since it is now readily available in my area and I love the flavor. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written. 

As with most taco recipes, this dish was well received by my family. I loved the pineapple salsa, it gave the beef a great flavor. The flat iron steak was a delicious substitution and turned out tender and moist. I chose to seed the jalapeno since I was cooking for kids, but the recipe would well with the seeds left in as well. Overall, a very easy crockpot recipe, perfect for a busy weeknight meal. 

For the recipe go to Beef Soft Tacos with Pineapple Salsa.

Parents Asian Burgers with Pineapple-Mango Salad

In the last couple of months I have made a large amount of soup and stew recipes. While, my whole family enjoys these dishes, I figured it was about time for a change in my menu plan for the week. My oldest son has been going through a fruit stage where he is literally obsessed with any and every kind of fruit that he can find at the grocery store. I'm proud of his love for fruit, but my husband has less of an enthusiasm for getting in his daily fruit requirements. I fall somewhere in the middle of the debate. I grew up in Washington state and never understood that apple prices at the grocery store could be high until I moved to West Virginia. I remember picking wild blackberries by the community college in our area and eating a large amount of locally produced fruit. I never really thought about whether I liked or didn't like fruit in general. As an adult I haven't been as vigilant about making sure that I eat my daily requirement of fruit, so I recently have begun to try to find recipe using fruit as an ingredient, in an effort to make my family healthier and my oldest son happy. Recently, the September issue of Parents magazine had a recipe for Asian Burgers with Pineapple-Mango Salad, which looked like a perfect way to increase my family's fruit intake.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It serves six and takes approximately 15 minutes. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store, with the exception that I substituted an English cucumber for the seedless variety specified in the recipe. I ground my own beef so that added 15 minutes to my overall preparation time. I chose not to add the parsley to the salad, my children can be picky about parsley in dishes and I knew that without it they would eat the fruit without complaints. I followed the remainder of the recipe as stated.

The fruit salad was the most popular part of the recipe for my two boys. My husband and I loved the flavor of the burgers, but felt that they were very dry. I would suggest adding the hoisin mayonnaise from this earlier blog post of mine. I think the combination of the flavors would be delicious and add greatly to the overall recipe. With the stated modifications I think this could be a great dish.

For the recipe go to Asian Burgers with Pineapple-Mango Salad.

Saveur Salsa de Pina Picante (Spicy Fresh Pineapple Salsa)

One of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of inexpensive fruit. I love just about every type of fruit and have passed on these feelings to my two children. My two boys love going to the grocery store and picking out fruits and vegetables for the week and will even ask for things by name. Recently, my five-year-old has been obsessed with pineapples due to one of the movies that he owns. When I was looking through the August issue of Saveur magazine I was pleased to find a recipe for Salsa de Pina Picante (Spicy Fresh Pineapple Salsa), using one of my son's favorite new fruits.

This recipe has 8 ingredients and literally can be prepped in just minutes. All the ingredients were easily found at my local grocery store, and I was happy that the price of pineapples is currently low. I actually had to make this salsa twice, the first one succumbed to a kitchen accident and fell on the floor. I was lucky that I had extra ingredients and I made a second batch. I did make one modification. All the fresh oranges at my local grocery store looked less than stellar this week, so I substituted refrigerated pure orange juice instead. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

If you don't like spicy food, this salsa is not for you. I used relatively large jalapenos and my salsa was spicy to say the least. If your family is not a fan of spicy foods, I suggest seeding at least one of the jalapenos, which will significantly cut down on the heat. I served the salsa with homemade curry tortilla chips (recipe to be posted later in the week) and the combination of the two was delicious. My husband really loved this recipe, he thought the combination of sweet and spicy was great. I liked how easily the recipe was to put together, even if I had to make it twice. My two boys picked around the salsa eating the pineapples, but this was definitely a salsa more for adults. Overall a great spicy-sweet salsa that would go well with a variety of dishes including meats or plain with chips.

For the recipe go to Saveur Salsa de Pina Picante.