Oooh Crock Pot, you're the best!

I truly love my crock pot. Besides my blender, which creates protein smoothies and fresh fruit margaritas, there really isn’t a better appliance. I love my crock pot so much, I even named her – Stay at Home Wife. If you have a crock pot, you know what I’m talking about. You’ve had a long day at work, went to the gym and when you come home, dinner is ready and you have barely lifted a finger. If there was some way for my SAHW to have a self cleaning option, I think I would never stray and make everything in my crock pot.

So this brings me to my Wednesday night meal. Almost 3 lbs of pork have been cooking while I was at work today. This recipe isn’t anything formal but I have experimented with pork enough to know what works. Luckily my boyfriend, Jim, has the same food interests as me and he’s always up for a home cooked meal. I have yet to make something he doesn’t like (or so he says), so I was very excited to get home and taste my newest experiment.

I’m not sure what to call this one, maybe Honey Moon Pork..?? The marinade is made up of 2 bottles of Blue Moon’s Summer Ale – Honey Moon, 1 chopped onion, 1 jalapeno (with the seeds if you like extra spice) and some minced garlic. I seasoned the pork with some Montreal steak seasoning and that was it.

So what was the outcome 10 hours later??? Fabulous!

Next step is to shred the pork. In my opinion, I find it easier to shred the pork in the crock pot. Remove the meat and put it on a plate or cutting board. Drain all of the marinade out of the crock pot into a strainer. Add the pork, onions, jalapenos and garlic back to the crock pot. Shred the meat with two forks and there you have it! The pork basically shreds itself since it was so tender. Jim and I topped our pork with our favorite BBQ sauce.

As a side (since I always believe in getting your veggies into a meal), I had some broccoli coleslaw and poppy seed dressing. The sweet of the dressing really complimented the spice from the pork.

My Stay at Home Wife has done it again! This is definitely a meal I will make in the future. It was delish and very easy to prepare!

Tuna and Chickpea Salad With Pesto & Pita Chips

With summer coming, I'm on the hunt for no-cook recipes. My oven has the power to make my apartment a hot box, so I really try to avoid using it by all costs.

I came across this recipe a few weeks ago, and not only was it no-cook, it was very easy to put all of the elements together. I did make a few changes to the recipe, such as I hate black olives so I added green olives in their place. (Capers would also be a great substitution) Adding onions and carrots will be something I will try next time. I did omit salt because I think the green olives are salty enough. The chickpea salad serves 6 people and has 373 calories per serving

2 15.5-ounce cans (3 cups) chickpeas, roughly chopped
1 12-ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained and thinly sliced
24 black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, thickly sliced
3 6-ounce cans tuna, drained
5 tablespoons store-bought pesto
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 sprigs fresh basil (optional)

Directions
1 In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, red peppers, olives, celery, tuna, pesto, salt, and black pepper.
2 Divide among individual plates. Garnish with the basil (if using).


An easy side with this dish is to make your own pita chips. (I'm aware this goes against my anti-oven summer.) :)
1. Set oven to 400 degrees
2. Spray wheat pita bread with cooking spray
3. Season pitas with your favorite spices. With this recipe, I used garlic salt, pepper and basil
4. Divide pitas into triangles
5. Cook pitas till brown and crispy, about 10 minutes.