Saturday, February 7, 2009

Crock Pot Numbers 4 and 5 (Apple Butter and Pork)

Had a nice, low key day today. Didn't do ANY exercise (yet?) except for walking thru the mall. oops. I am going for a run tomorrow a.m. (instead of today)- so there's that anyway.

I did do 2 more crock pot recipes. Overnight Apple Butter (pictured in the little ramekin above) and a pork roast. They were both really good. The apple butter I did to use up a backlog of apples from my organic produce box, so I used a variety of apples. It made the house smell soooo good while it was cooking, too. :) The apple butter works out to 2 points for 1/4 cup serving. It's really good and makes me think of our favourite American family restaurant (where we go for breakfast on holiday all the time): the Cracker Barrel. yeah!

Motivated in part because I had apple butter, I searched for pork crock pot recipes and found the following one on a CL board. (Thanks JackieO)

CRANBERRY PORK ROAST

1 - 3 lb boneless pork top loin roast (double loin, tied)
1 tbsp. cooking oil
Salt
Ground black pepper
1 - 16 ounce can whole cranberry sauce
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

2 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. cold water
Hot cooked noodles, rice pilaf or rice (optional)

1. In a large skillet, cook pork roast in hot oil over medium heat until well browned on all sides. Place roast in a 4 - 5 quart slow cooker and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. In a medium bowl, combine cranberry sauce, cranberry juice, sugar, mustard and cloves. Pour mixture over roast. Cover and cook on low heat setting for 6 to 7 hours or on high heat setting for 3 to 3-1/2 hours.

2. Transfer the meat to a platter, cover and keep warm. Skim the fat from the juices left in the slow cooker. Measure 2 cups of juices, transfer to a medium saucepan. In a small bowl, stir together the cornstarch and water; add to saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture is thickened and bubbly; cook and stir 2 minutes more. Serve with roast, and if you like, noodles, rice pilaf or rice.

Serves 8 - 10.

I ran it thru the WW Recipe Builder for 8 servings and it worked out to 8 points per serving. I used center cut loin roast. I asked the butcher about the "top loin" mentioned in the recipe and he looked confused. Does that just mean really good loin? like the best? lol. I turn to the butcher for all my meat questions- even the dumb ones. I know nothing!

Anyway, I had everything- except for the pork- already in my cupboard or fridge. Don't you love it when that happens? I'm trying to do a better job at using stuff I have on hand. I'm so wasteful sometimes. Trying to work on that!

Anyway, dh- my non-pork loving man actually really liked this roast. The girls did, too, though they wouldn't try the "gravy." I REALLY loved the apple butter with it, so kind of passed on the gravy, too. (wasteful girl, see?)

Have a nice Saturday night!

No comments: