Puerto Rican Pork with Cannellini Beans and Squash (try and ignore the chip on the plate)
Sort of a boring title - but I figure this can sort of be a reoccuring theme...you know, since dinner is a reoccuring thing. Anyways, last night I tried out a new recipe, and it was a success! I made Puerto Rican shredded pork (adapted from Gina's WW Recipes) and served it with cannellini beans sauteed in olive oil with some crushed garlic cloves and some squash from the garden (I love saying that) roasted in olive oil and topped with some parmesan cheese. That might seem like a weird pairing, but I wasn't sure what else to pair with Puerto Rican pork - I would be welcome to suggestions though. Until I get a nice camera, my pictures might not look great, in fact some of them might look kind of gross (i.e. this picture) - but I promise it was so flavorful and good. A plus side too is that the entire meal was only 402 calories - not bad for a filling dinner! The pork is made in the crock pot, which I love. I got the marinade ready the night before and stuck everything in the crock pot and refrigerated it, then in the morning, all I had to do was stick it on the crockpot on low for 8 hours. When I got home from work it was ready to go! I will post the recipe for the pork below. For a while, I was just making meat and vegetables for dinner, but Nathan and I realized that we still feel hungry if there isn't some type of carbohydrate, so I have been trying to be creative with the carbohydrates that I choose, and keep them somewhat healthy. Beans are a great carbohydrate side, they are full of fiber, protein, and can be cooked in a variety of ways. For the cannellini beans, I just heated about a tablespoon of good quality olive oil (I use the spanish olive oil from Trader Joes) and then threw in about four crushed cloves of garlic. Then I threw in the drained and rinsed cannellinni beans and let it cook up for about six or seven minutes. In the words of Barefoot Contessa, "How easy is that?!" The squash was easy too - I sliced up two squash, and threw them in a mixing bowl with about two tablespoons of olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper. After they were coated, I put them on a baking sheet and sprinkled them with some parmesan cheese. They baked on 350 for about 20 minutes - until the parmesan had formed a crust on top. The pork made for nice leftovers, and we will use it tonight for some sandwiches!
Puerto Rican Pork
Adapted from Ginas Skinny Recipes
Original Recipe found here
- 3 lb pork roast
- 5-6 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tbsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp crushed black pepper
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (fresh really does make a difference)
- Juice of 2 limes
Directions:
Cut slits into the pork and stuff holes with small pieces of the crushed garlic. I cut each crushed piece in half and stuffed half in and kept the other half out to put into the marinade. Mix up the remaining ingredients and pour over pork. Place into the bowl of the crock pot, cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, remove the crock pot and cook on low, 8 hours.
Remove pork and it will shred easily. You can shred it using two forks. We ate it at this point, but Gina suggests to: "Remove liquid from crock pot and add pork back to crock. Add about 1 cup of the liquid back and adjust salt, pepper and cumin (you will probably need to add more). Let it cook another 15-30 minutes."
Remove pork and it will shred easily. You can shred it using two forks. We ate it at this point, but Gina suggests to: "Remove liquid from crock pot and add pork back to crock. Add about 1 cup of the liquid back and adjust salt, pepper and cumin (you will probably need to add more). Let it cook another 15-30 minutes."
No comments:
Post a Comment