Simple and Easy Pulled Pork : Good Food , Cheap

Ive been meaning to get to this one for well over a month,  I must admit it slipped through the cracks lol .  A request from a friend reminded me that I never did actually finish this post , just got as far as uploading the photos.  Now , like making chili , or gumbo there are a million different ways to go about making a pot of pulled pork and I'm sure more than a few people have a very strong opinion on it :))  What I'm making here , is the simple and easy method.. just a few minutes prep and the slow cooker does the rest !!  

What you will need :  Makes approx 16 servings 

1 Large smoked pork shoulder -                $8.00 for 8lbs on sale 

--  Please note , when using a commercially smoked piece of pork DO NOT add any more salt.  I made that mistake once , and it was almost inedible.  

5 or 6 medium red or white onions             $3.00 for 10lbs = $ 0.60

2 large utility carrots                                    $ 3.00 for 10lbs = $ 0.25 

6 or 7 cloves of garlic                                   $ 3.00 for 3 heads = $ 0.50

3 hot dried chili ( You decide the heat here ... I should have used 6 !  )  

Chili Powder 

Black Pepper

Hot Sauce & Worcestershire Sauce 

1L of homemade Beef or chicken stock - prefer the beef  ( 4 cups ) - 

                                                   Total Cost $ Under $10.00  , or about 65 cents a serving 

Assemble your ingredients :)  Wash and peel the carrots 

I like to give the pork shoulder a good rinse first , to help remove any excess salt.  Then score the fat to the meat , using about 3/4 to 1" squares. 

IN a hot skillet, quickly give all the sides a little colour :)) 

Meanwhile , back at the slow cooker. I added the rough chopped carrots , beef stock , dried chili , Lea & Perrins, and some Bourbon Street Bad hot sauce for a southern kick :)   I set it to high for the first hour , then its slow and low the rest of the time!  Add a tablespoon or two of chili powder too 

Add the pork shoulder to the pot, lol and this is my BIG crock pot.  You my need to move things around a little :) 

IN the same pan I browned the pork in, give the onions and garlic a quick sizzle. Add them to the pot, and cover the lid.  Check back in a hour. 

IT should look something like this , and start to smell amazing . 

I ended up letting mine simmer for a good 8 hours,  you can get away with 4 or 6 .. but I like 8 .. makes it just fall  apart ! 

Remove the carrots , and get in there with a couple of serving forks.  Shred it well. 

Of course a sample is required to test the seasoning :)) 

Sampling the pulled pork ... plain so I can judge the flavours :))Mmmmm good!!  

Later I added some extras, a little red pepper, onion and mushrooms, on a toasted garlic ciabatta roll!!  

I also turned some into a loaded jacket potato :))
http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/2011/01/creative-leftovers-pulled-pork-n-beans.html

That's it ,  Its only about twenty minutes worth of work , and the rest is just waiting :))  Sampling is allowed so its all good :)) So what do you think of my latest Good Food , Cheap post ?  Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated :)  Happy Cooking !

Less Words, More Food 7

Hi everyone , and welcome to February :) Its been a cold one here with temperatures dropping to -40C with the wind on some days :)  Lots of good warm comforting food has been required :)  Here are a few of the dishes I have made so far this month.

An Amazing Mushroom Beef & Ale Soup 

Caesar Salad with Cheese on Toast , simple but GOOD! 6 year old cheddar helps :) 

Making Beef Stock, a recent blog post click here to find it:
http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/2011/02/simple-easy-beef-stock-10w5-9.html

Less Words, More Food 6

:)) After this post , I will finally be caught up ! Well, at least on the same month anyways.   Here are some of my dishes from January..  Keeping with the title , Less Words, More Food!!  Here you are :) Enjoy.

Always a fav, Bacon, Egg and Chips - Was also a blog post for the 10 with 5 challenge. 

:) And another recent blog post ,  Pulled pork n beans jacket potato!  

Just got to love frittatas :)   This one is Hamburger, Mushroom , Green Peppers and cheese 

Homemade Tostadas :) With spicy beef , peppers and cheese !  

A slightly more colourful frittata :)) MMmmm  

Cottage Pie :)) Yummy comfort food ! 

Smoked pork shoulder , in beef stock with carrots , onions, garlic and chili powder.  Soon to become pulled pork.  

Some of the bacon hummus , with a  nice granny smith apple

An interesting attempt to spruce up beans on toast ,   with some cheese, onions, garlic and red pepper on homemade garlic loaf. Was good, but i think this is one of those , less is more kinda foods.

So there you have it . :)  I hope you have enjoyed this post :)
Happy Cooking !!  

Less Words, More Food 4

I'm slowly getting caught up :)   What I really need is a full day at the PC, in a writing kind of mood.  This is the last of Decembers catch up posts, so at least now I'm in the New Year lol :)  I'm a little pushed for time , as I have dinner plans tonight... so Ill keep this one really short of words , and just show you some food!!!

Always a favourite:) Butcher's Bacon, Hand Cut chips, and farm eggs, cooked in a little bacon grease with chili . 

Free Range Beef, with mushrooms, peppers, onions and cheese on whole wheat nachos :)

Curry Turkey Tacos, with a red wine vinaigrette salad

Creative Leftovers Pulled Pork n Beans Jacket Potato

   This is my first food blog challenge, and I think it overwhelmed me a little, so many thoughts, options and ideas have gone thru my head that I've  had a serious case of blog block going on, and just couldn't put thoughts to keyboard all week.   So here we are almost a 1/4 the way thru the challenge and I'm just getting the first one done !! I'm happy to say , this will be my first entry in the 10 with 5 challenge,  10 recipes with 5 ingredients or less.  A good match for my creative leftovers series, which I started as a way to help people use up all that extra food. Which is the case here,  Id made 6lbs of pork shoulder into pulled pork a couple days ago... and still had lots left. What to do with it ,  Ive already had several sandwiches and wasn't really interested in having another.   Its been a very cold, snowy kinda week , and comfort food is needed.  I grew up eating Jacket Potatoes.. and that was just what I needed today.
 For those people who are just finding my little Food Revolution,  you should know ... writing recipes is insanely hard for me.   I almost never follow one , and rarely write anything down.  I do however take a lot of photos, hopefully of all the steps, and explain it that way.  So here we go, I hope you enjoy :)


Ingredients you will need for dinner for two:


2 large potatoes  - I prefer russets or Yukon gold for baking .
1 cup pulled pork
1 cup of baked beans
1 cup of your favourite cheese grated ( 6 year old cheddar )
Okay this last one took me a while to decide on, normally Id have butter, onions, mushrooms ,red pepper and just about anything else i could find on top as well.  Hmmmmm colour won!!  lol
1 red bell pepper

Start by scrubbing your potatoes , and puncture several times on both side with a fork. I like my skins crispy so I don't wrap them , and just toss them in the toaster oven for about an hour and half at 350F.  Cooking time will vary with the size of the potatoes.

You can tell when they are done by giving them a little squeeze, they should give slightly .  Do it quickly tho , remember the game hot potato ??  Well this is the real thing :)  

The nice thing about this easy meal , is there really isn't a lot of prep. You can slice them however you like, I went thin today , then cut them into 1inch lengths.  

Everything assembled and ready.  I put the potatoes back in for 10 minutes will I started on the topping. 

Creative Leftovers - Turkey Tacos, Jacket Potato and More

Hello everyone, Its taken a week but I'm back!! I had a bit of a disaster on boxing day , and lost my big hard drive ... and ALOT of photos, including my next 4 blog posts :(   The crazy thing is I had asked for a back up system for Christmas as my lap top is starting to die,  so I had amalgamated all my photos and music to my big drive on my desk top....  which failed while I was unwrapping the back up system :( Murphy must just LOVE me!!!  I managed to salvage 600 of about 5000 shots that were not backed up properly.   So lesson learned ,  make sure you back up weekly , not quarterly like I had been doing.

So since its Christmas time, and I'm sure your bored silly of Turkey by now, I thought I'd show you a couple of interesting way to use up the extras :)  Grab your leftovers , and lets begin ! 

You can use whatever you have on hand,   I went for my favourites .  Peppers, onions, mushroom, and a little sun dried tomato and garlic minced up together,

I like a medium chop :) 1:1  veggie to turkey ratio .

Click the link below to see the rest :)

Who needs words when you have food pics:) LWMF 1

Ive been thinking about , how to get an extra post in every week. I came up with this idea the other day ,  Once every week Ill post a week in review, kind of post.  With just captions, and maybe a short blurb. So here is my first try at this : Please let me know what you think ... all suggestions, and comments are appreciated. 

Marmite & Chili Roast Beef & Root Veggies.

Vegetarian Dinner, Jacket Potato with garlic/onion baked beans and cheese :)

Chicken Caserole .. Day 2 :) Creative Leftovers

Is anyone else like me?   Maybe one or two people eating, yet you cook for 6 , or even 10 at time... only to have to eat the same dish for 3 days in a row?   Until you so sick of it you don't make it for a year ? Well, I do this all the time ! I'm trying to stop, but for some reason .. when I grab a crock pot or a dutch oven ,  I just have to fill it up !!  LOL I am getting better , I'm down to cooking for 6 , instead of 10 like last year .  However this has taught me to be extremely creative with my leftovers turning them in to all sorts of interesting to eat treats. This week, it was Chicken Casserole. that started it off :)

This was a great dinner,  Chicken Casserole, loaded with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms,  peppers, carrots, broccoli and I used a 6 bean medley instead of potatoes for a change :)

For this dish you will need per person:

• Leftovers, about two cups, chopped in bite sizes - Warmed up
• One Medium/Large Yukon Gold Potato - Baked
• Butter, Sea Salt & Black Pepper, Chili Powder
• Mozzarella and aged Cheddar ( Or your favourite cheeses ) - Shredded
• Oven Safe Plate or Dish

Baked your potato for about an hour at 360F, I simply wash mine and prick the skin a few times with a fork and toss it in the oven. If you don't like a crispy skin , you can wrap the spud in tin foil .
 When done,  cut it half lengthwise ,  I like to slice down with a butter knife, but I don't actually remove any potato.  add butter, and salt and pepper at this point. 

Before adding you topping,  I liked to add a little extra flavour,  a few sprinkles of chili powder and a little bit of cheese go down first.

Now the fun part!  Take your preheated casserole , and pour it over the potato.  No need to be tidy about it , this is a knife and fork kind of meal :)

Add some more cheese, and your ready for the oven again .  I leave it at 360F and cook for another 15 minutes. If your in a hurry you can switch it to broil or grill, and get the job done in 5 or less minutes.

Chicken Casserole Jacket Potato Done!!  So good , so easy, and a great way to use up almost any leftovers.  Watch out the plate will be hot!  Grab a steak knife and a fork and dig in!

I hope you enjoyed my first in, what I hope to be, a series of Creative Leftovers :)

Im still learning how to write out the recipes, as I don't use one. Also this is my first post since joining the Foodie Blog Roll.  So if you have any questions or comments , please either post below or send me an email. I do appreciate and respond to all feed back.  

Happy Cooking

Rich