Easy Lunch-Ahead: Slow Cooker Pork Chops

Kevin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:20:37 +0000

Active time: 20 minutesCooking time: long and slow (6 hrs+)

What do you do when you get home on a Thursday evening, you have no plans, there’s nothing good on TV, and you’ve already had dinner?

If you’re like me… you cook some more! I’m still in school, so I work on a limited budget, which meas I try to pack as many home-made lunches as I can to avoid eating out.

The simple trick to preparing a lunch that will taste great even after being reheated in the mircowave is to use a recipe that calls for low, slow cooking in liquid, since that’s the type of cooking a microwave recreates best.

I adore my trusty crock pot. It’s simple, easy to use, easy to clean, and pretty attractive as far as kitchen appliances go.

Alright, enough of my babbling about cookware. Here’s the recipe:

***The quick and dirty version – takes < 10 minutes

Meat: 3 pork chops

Fruit&Veg: 1 onion, 2 tomatoes, 1 sweet potato, a can of canned carrots, some olives

Flavor: 3 tbsp brown sugar, big spoon of thyme, small spoon of sage, itty bitty spoon of hot sauce of some sort (to taste)

Salt: yes, please.

Directions: chop everything up into bite size pieces. Chuck it all into the slow cooker. Add about a small coffee cup worth of water, but not enough to cover.

A bit of gourmet flare (add 10 minutes of cook time)

This recipe combines sweet, sour, salty, and spicy hopefully into a balanced mixture pleasing to the pallet. However, if you want to get a little more oomph, like the type bitters add to a good cocktail, then I would strongly recommend browning the pork chops before adding them to pot. In fact, I went so far as to brown everything in a cast iron skillet and then deglazed (sorta) the pan with water (i know, lame). Then I dumped the water into the pot.

Obligatory glamour shot of the cast iron skillet:

I <3 you, cast iron goddess.

Eat Good, Eat Well » Meat

Easy Lunch-Ahead: Slow Cooker Pork Chops