PLANned Leftovers - Pork Roast Take 2

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Walt was rather surprised when I made a 3 lb. roast for just the two of us.  I had plans for that roast.  Here is dinner number two.  I wanted to make pulled pork, but I wanted it to fit into several requirements:

• moist, fall-apart tender meat
• filling & satisfying
• well balanced flavors
• fit into The Plan - these sandwiches clock in nicely at 4 ounces meat, 4 ounces grain (buns), 1/3 cups vegetables (V8 ), 1/4 cup fruit (BBQ sauce) per 2 sandwich serving




I wanted to use my crock pot to make the meat fall-apart-tender and moist.  But, barbeque sauce will get gluey and burn in extended cooking.  My solution - braise the meat in V8 Juice and add the barbeque sauce at the very end.  It worked perfectly.  The moist cooking made for moist meat. 

I wasn't sure about this idea, so I only made enough for one meal.  We were both sad that it was gone.  I'll be making it again SOON.    Here's what I did:

Pulled Pork from Leftover Roast
8 ounces leftover sliced pork loin roast (about 4 slices)
1 (6 ounce) can Spicy V8 Juice
1/2 cup Sweet Baby Ray's Original Barbeque Sauce
4 (2 ounces each) hamburger buns, 80 calorie or less, such as Healthy Choice brand

Spray the inside of a small crockpot with non-stick.
Pour in the V8 Juice.  Add the pork slices.  Turn them to coat with V8.  You should have a couple overlapping layers of pork.  If you don't, increase the quantities so it doesn't burn*.
Cook on high 3 hours, or on low 5 hours.
Using a potato masher or 2 forks, shred the meat.
Add barbeque sauce; stir to combine.  Recover and allow sauce to heat, about 5 minutes while you toast the buns.  Stir again and serve over toasted buns.

This recipe is so simple that you can double or triple it easily.  *Be careful about the ratio of meat and V8 Juice to the size of your crock pot.  If you have a large crockpot, you'll want to increase the quantities of everything.  You could also put the ingredients into a smaller heatproof container, cover it with foil and set that inside your crockpot. I've never used that method - so I can't comment on how well that works.

We used up the leftover roasted root vegetables as our veggie side.  Next time I'll make my Almost Fat-Free Asian Coleslaw improved version:

Almost Fat-Free Asian Coleslaw 
1/2 cup white corn syrup
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (from the Asian foods aisle)
2 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar OR apple cider vinegar
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
1 (16 ounce) bag coleslaw mix, shredded style
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
2 scallions, sliced diagonally

Combine the first 6 ingredients. Add the cole slaw mix. Stir and let sit 30 - 60 minutes. Stir in sesame seeds and scallions just before serving. 4 servings, about 165 calories each