Recipe: crock pot pork carnitas

With summer quickly approaching and summer temperatures already here, I have been trying to utilize my crock pot more.  I generally see the crock pot as a winter cooking tool but there are some many wonderful, season appropriate dishes that can be make in the crock pot.  I've recently tried a few new crock pot recipes and I have one cooking away on the counter as I type.  The first I'm going to share with you is for these super tasty pork carnitas.

Now, I'm not going to lie.  There is definitely a bit of prep work that goes into this recipe.  However, once the prep is done you just stuff everything in the crock pot and it's AMAZING!  If you like pork and Mexican food this is a must try recipe!

 You will need:

• 2.5 lb pork shoulder blade roast, lean
• 6 cloves garlic, cut into sliver
• cumin
• dry adobo seasoning (if you can't find this just omit)
• garlic powder
• 3/4 cup 99% fat free chicken broth
• 2-3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. (These add spice so start with less and add more if you need)
• 2 bay leaves.

Season pork with salt and pepper. In a medium sauté pan on medium-high heat, brown pork on all sides for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Using a sharp knife, insert blade into pork, cutting small holes and insert garlic slivers. Season pork generously with cumin, adobo and garlic powder all over.

Pour chicken broth in the crock pot, add bay leaves and chipotle peppers. Place pork in crock pot and cover. Cook low for 8 hours. After 8 hours, shred pork using two forks and combine well with the juices that accumulated at the bottom. Remove bay leaves and adjust salt and cumin (you will probably need to add more). Let it cook another 15-30 minutes.  



I ate this three ways.  The first night I just put the carnitas on tortilla shells with a bit of sour cream and taco sauce.  Divine, but high in calories if you eat your fill. The second night I ate this I roasted a spaghetti squash and tossed the carnitas with squash, black beans, cheddar cheese and bit of sour cream.  It was wonderful eaten with a fork and in a tortilla.  I also took it as a carnitas salad for lunch a few days.  I didn't do anything too fancy, just some shredded lettuce, black beans, carnitas, onions and tomatoes.  Such a good lunch!

Seriously, I couldn't believe how wonderful this recipe turned out.  It's worth the time and effort, trust me!

I'm back!

Wow, I cannot believe how long it has been since I've posted to this thing! I have to apologize that it's taken me this long to get back here. 


I have had a lot going on in the last 6 weeks.  Obviously there was that whole back injury thing that didn't make me very happy.  However, I am pleased to report that I have successfully graduated physical therapy and am feeling pretty good.  There is some minor, residual back achiness (if it's not a word it should be) that I've never had before but it's not something that I can't live with. In the spirit of full disclosure, I haven't been very faithful to my home rehab, it's a lot harder to motivate yourself when you don't feel pain.  I need to make sure that I work on those exercises so that I don't get into the same situation I was in. I'll tell you, I have a whole knew appreciation for chronic back pain sufferers.  If the pain that I was experiencing is anything like what they live with on a daily basis I don't know how they do much of anything but lie on the couch and want to die.

At the end of April I made an amazing trip home.  Fortunately my back played nice the whole time (my PT fixed me the day before I left!!) and it was so nice to be home, even though it was much too short of a trip.  I got to spend lots of time with the family.  I took Hailee to gymnastics and realized that she got the Warnke-lack-of-grace genes (poor girl), but I think gymnastics will help her. Most importantly she had an amazing time being there.  Yay for fun physical activity!! I also got to meet my newest nephew Peyton, finally.  He is so incredibly adorable (and no, I'm not an unbiased observer) and he's a really well behaved baby for the most part. I even got to spend a morning with him alone.  His baptism was wonderful and he LOVES the moose I got him for his present!  Karla and Justin assure me it's his favorite toy.

Work has been it's usual crazy self.  Right now I'm taking an 8-week course that meets all-day, every Thursday.  The class is a foundations class for managers.  It's been really great, I've learned a lot about the policies and procedures of the University but I've also learned a lot about myself.  We've had classes that look at communication and management style and that information is really helping me to see some of my flaws and work to correct them.  I know, it's hard to believe I have flaws but they're there ;-) We're also gearing up for a crazy summer.  It's our busiest season and we have our EPIC transition in August so we have a summer loaded with classes and inevitable change.  Woot...

I am really looking forward to this summer.  I have some great goals set for myself and I'm looking forward to a camping trip that I'm taking with some friends in the Traverse City area at the end of June.  I've never been 'up North' in Michigan so I'm really excited about this.  We're going to be tent camping and I know that we're going to spend a day at the dunes in the area, we're chartering a fishing boat for a day and I think we'll spend a day either rafting, kayaking or tubing down the Platte River and end up beaching it on the crystal clear blue water of Lake Michigan!  I cannot wait!

My weight loss life has been a bit meh as of late. When I hurt my back I was in excruciating pain just standing so I didn't have a strong desire to much of anything and exercising was simply out of the question. I found myself eating a lot of take-out and highly processed foods.  Pair that with no real physical activity and I just didn't feel good.  I was tired and irritable (although that could have been from the pain as well) and I just didn't have interest in making healthy choices.  Man, I was an idiot. While on my hiatus I gained a bit of weight back.  Not a lot but it was real weight gain, not just I ate too much sodium and crap weight gain.  This is the first time that I've gained real weight back since September of 2010 and  I am not happy with myself about it. 

I'm taking the steps to get back on the right track. First and foremost I was given the go-ahead to slowly get back into running. I have been doing interval workouts the last two weeks and I have to say that it's a bit discouraging to realize how quickly you lose fitness when you stop exercising.  Before I hurt my back I was in a great place.  I had just completed my fastest 5K time.  I could do a 5K, alternating between 5 and 5.5 mph and have an average heart rate in the low 170's.  I did a 60-minute interval workout yesterday where my 5 mph intervals lasted 2:15 minutes.  By the end of the runs, my heart rate was in the low 180's. Boo... However, I'm not giving up.  I'm going to keep working at it and get back to where I was.  I just have to give myself permission to take the time I need.

My eating has also been a bit abysmal as of late.  I've gotten into the habit of eating out way too much and I need to break that habit, again.  It's funny how I always go back to the same bad habits.  I wonder if it's just me or if it's everybody. When I got back from Iowa I told myself that my eating out had to stop.  I told myself that I wasn't going to eat out in May.  It simply was not an option. I told the girls at work that if I toyed with the idea of running down to Subway to remind me of my goal.  I told my sister that if I called her and said that I wanted to order Jimmy John's for dinner that she needs to tell me know. I'm happy to report that I've done really well.  I did eat out last Saturday for lunch.  I had a good friend in town with her husband and kids and they wanted to meet up.  We ended up have lunch out but I don't feel to guilty about it.  The eating out ban is not to keep me from eating out ever, it's to help me break the idea of grabbing dinner out whenever the mood strikes.  It's all about making the right, healthful choices the majority of the time. Not to mention, it's the time of year that I'm really inspired to cook so I should focus on that!

Anyway, I should really stop typing.  This post is already really long.  I have a few recipes that I'd like to share with you and and I'm sure there are other things, however, this beautiful weather is calling to me and I want to get out and enjoy it.  I hope that your May is going well!  I have lots of reading to do on your blogs, I can't wait to catch up!