Crockpot Pork Chalupas

Most nights I feed my family of four a really nice dinner for $3 to $3.50 total. But tonight I did even better than that. The giant pot of food pictured here was only $5.19 and made enough for 12 people. And it was easy. And, it was crock pot. My college roommate Lisa requested more crock pot recipes, so here you go.

When you are on a budget, it can make you feel sorry for yourself when you see other girls throwing all kinds of organic produce and prettied-up food packages into their carts, with no double-taking on the price of things. But the truth is, a lot of  girls are like me. We end up with newsprint on our foreheads from thumbing through sale fliers, and rubbing our brows in concentration after trying to put together a menu on sale items. Pity  us not, girls with a big grocery budget. We are happy for you, but we can cook great meals too with some real planning.

If you want to cook great meals for less, follow these rules:

* Stock up on pantry staples on sale and with coupons. Pantry staples can mean things like red and white wine vinegar, molasses, dried herbs and spices. However, it also means canned tomatoes, pasta, rice and dried beans. (please don’t buy instant rice — total waste of money!) If you stock up on pantry staples, you can literally go to the store and just buy what is on sale and create meals. Check out your dollar store — they will likely have a lot of your pantry staples.

* Buy meats and cheeses on sale, or at Warehouse stores, such as Costco or Sam’s Club and stock up. I get ground beef for $1.88 a pound on sale in large packages, for instance. I freeze the meat into 1 pound portions. I also use pork shoulder/butt a lot. My cousin actually just got it for 79 cents a pound, and I was totally jealous because I just paid 89 cents a pound. Green with envy I tell you. Green.

* When buying cheese on sale, also freeze into portions. I buy shredded mozzarella at Costco and freeze into 8 oz portions. Or, you can flash freeze it by spreading out evenly on a cookie sheet and throwing it in the freezer. After frozen, place into a large zip lock and take out what you need, when you need it. I also buy eggs for a great price (18 for $1.75) and milk (about $2 a gallon) at Costco.

* Check out ingredient search engines on places like allrecipes.com. After plugging in the ingredients you have, it will spit out recipes for you. Pretty cool.

* Use sausage and bacon in small quantities to give something like a casserole or pasta a lot of flavor.

This following recipe is a great budget meal to serve a crowd. If you don’t happen to have a crowd, freeze leftovers into portions. I serve these in tortillas with some shredded cheese (that I got for $1.88 a pound, thank you very much), chopped cilantro and onion. Now, I live in California so I did get 20 smallish avocados for only five bucks at a roadside stand, so I made some quick guacamole too. Put it all in a tortilla and truly divine!

When you read this recipe you will be tempted to cut back on a lot of the seasonings. I know, for instance, 2 TBSP of garlic powder seems like a lot. But, trust the recipe. The only thing I change is to add only 7 ounces of green chilies and at the beginning of the recipe. As you are shredding the pork, try and remove as much fat as possible. At the end I take the lid off and turn it on high for about 30 minutes to decrease the liquid and condense flavors. Condensing the flavors  makes the flavor a lot more rich, which is how you will feel every night at your dinner table  if you stock up and plan.

Pork Crockpot Chalupas

Allrecipes.com, Submitted by FANIFERGUS

• 1 (4 pound) pork shoulder roast
• 1 pound dried pinto beans
• 3 (4 ounce) cans diced green chile peppers
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 12 flour tortillas

Place the roast inside a slow cooker coated with cooking spray. In a separate bowl, stir together the beans, 2 cans of the chile peppers, chili powder, cumin, salt, oregano, and garlic powder. Pour the whole mixture over the roast, and add enough water so that the roast is mostly covered. Jiggle the roast a little to get some of the liquid underneath.

Cover, and cook on Low for 8 to 9 hours. Check after about 5 hours to make sure the beans have not absorbed all of the liquid. Add more water if necessary 1 cup at a time. Use just enough to keep the beans from drying out.

When the roast is fork-tender, remove it from the slow cooker, and place on a cutting board. Remove any bone and fat, then shred with forks. Return to the slow cooker, and stir in the remaining can of green chilies. Heat through, and serve with flour tortillas and your favorite toppings.

Let’s talk about dried beans/Crockpot recipe

I was looking for a budget-friendly recipe and found one that uses beans – - canned beans. I did the math and realized that if I bought four cans of beans at $1.20 each I could instead have a pound of shrimp on sale. Beans are so good for you and my kids love them, so I decided to beat the system and cook dried beans and divide them for the freezer.

Cooking dried beans is easy, and you can control the sodium and flavorings. Add chipotle, garlic and cumin to some dried black or pinto beans if you want. Cook chickpeas and have them ready for a quick hummus – - in fact I have some in my freezer right now.   You can get dried beans for 99 cents a pound at the dollar store and elsewhere. At some places if you buy two pounds at a time you might even be able to get them for 50 cents a pound. I have before. One pound of dried beans cooked up equals about three cans of beans. One can of beans is 1 1/2 cups, so divide them into those portions for recipes. Or, you could always flash-freeze them, which involves spreading them out on a cookie sheet evenly and freezing them. They will not freeze together this way, so you can throw them all in one gallon bag and take out what you want as needed.

One caution about dried beans — they often do have rocks. I almost always find one little pebble. Spread the beans out on a cookie sheet and inspect for rocks, wash the beans and proceed with directions on the bag. When I cook beans I add big slices of onion and whole cloves of garlic. And for sure, salt. Probably more salt than you feel comfortable with. At least a tablespoon, maybe more. Don’t cringe because you have probably been ingesting more than that eating canned beans. Experiment and see what you think. Next time you are tempted to get canned beans in the store, think of me saying into your ear in a little, sarcastic voice, “What, are you rich or something? Put down that can of beans, fancy-pants, and reach for the dried.”  Then, go buy some shrimp on sale.

Here is a recipe for refried beans in the crockpot, except there is no fat involved. We make these constantly at my house. I get tortillas from Costco – - 24 for $2.50 – - and use these beans for the filling. Now that is an inexpensive main dish! Freezes well too.

Crockpot Refried Beans

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 3 cups dry pinto or black beans, rinsed
• 1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped or 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 5 teaspoons salt
• 1 3/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin, optional
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 9 cups water

1. Place the onion, rinsed beans, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin into a slow cooker. Pour in the water and stir to combine. Cook on High for 8 hours, adding more water as needed. Note: if more than 1 cup of water has evaporated during cooking, then the temperature is too high.
2. Once the beans have cooked, strain them, and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.

Why I am starting this blog.

Ingredients

I love food. I really, really do. And I’m not talking about just eating it. I love food for everything it stands for – - tradition, culture, creativity and comfort. As someone who was not professionally trained as a cook, I love the fact that I learn something new almost every day about cooking. I make a lot of great recipes, and some not-so-great. (Tonight I made a not-so-great side dish, but I’m sure it is something I did wrong, since it came from Cooks Illustrated and they are the ultimate test of quality recipes. I’ll tell you more about them later.) As a foodie, I want to share the recipes I have gleaned from websites, out-of-print cookbooks, and magazines. As a foodie, I want to share my passion for cooking and make it yours.

Basically I’m this twisted — my favorite day of the week is the day I get the grocery store ads in the mail so I can plan my menu for the following week. I read cookbooks every chance I get. All of my Christmas and birthday presents involve cooking equipment and books. Through this blog you can benefit through my obsessive-compulsiveness and save yourself some time.

I am going to post a wide variety of recipes – - everything from a crockpot hamburger stew (Pirate Stew to be exact) from a quilters’ cookbook to gnudi, which is an Italian dumpling (savory) in case you didn’t know. What ever the dish I generally like rustic, fresh, healthy, and from scratch. Also, I am big on budgeting. I even make my own sandwich bread, and I don’t use a machine. It is easy. I will post the book I use, and you will feel like a total rockstar once you start using it.

So, for my first recipe I’m going to post from Cooking Light – - a magazine I adore. They deserve their own post so I will wax poetic about them another day. Regarding this recipe, I cut the chipotle in half because of the kids, and you can use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth if you want. If you are entertaining both meat eaters and vegetarians alike, this recipe is perfect. Kids love it too, and it makes a ton.   Every time I make this I wonder why I don’t make it more often. Maybe it is because it is a lot of work, and because I cook off my own beans to save money. However it is worth the time, and a family of four will get three meals out of it. Freezes great too.

Chili-Cheese Casserole for a Crowd

2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups uncooked bulgur or cracked wheat
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1 (16-ounce) can pinto beans, drained
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can vegetable broth
2 drained canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese, divided
2 cups baked tortilla chips

Preheat oven to 375°.

Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and next 7 ingredients (onion through garlic); sauté 5 minutes. Add water and next 7 ingredients (water through chiles); bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Spoon half of bean mixture into the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish; sprinkle with 1 cup cheese. Top with remaining bean mixture. Cover and bake at 375° for 40 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with 1 cup cheese. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Press chips into casserole.

Yield:  12 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

CALORIES 237 (21% from fat); FAT 5.5g (sat 2.4g,mono 0.7g,poly 0.6g); IRON 2.5mg; CHOLESTEROL 12mg; CALCIUM 198mg; CARBOHYDRATE 36.2g; SODIUM 459mg; PROTEIN 13.4g; FIBER 7.4g

Cooking Light, AUGUST 1997