MystikMushroom's Sunday Crockpot Surprise

Okay, so here's a really simple recipe!

1. Grab a crock pot

2. Dig through the freezer. Do you have old frozen vegetables? Grab them.

3. Dig through the fridge. See that log of ground beef that's about to go bad? Grab it. Grab those old potatos and onions too.

4. Dig through the pantry. See a few cans of vegetables you'll never use? Grab them. Do you have a half-open box of pasta? Grab that too. If you have some kind of tomato soup, you'll need that. I think it'll help the final product.

5. Brown the meat with some salt and pepper, add the onions. Drain off the fat.

5. Dump everything you gathered into a crock pot, put it on high for 4 hours, or whatever setting. You really can't screw anything up with a crock pot.

6. Pray it tastes OK after adjusting seasonings. It *IS* Sunday after all. Wait and hope it tastes good, otherwise you're ordering pizza for the woman and you tonight.

Here is an obligatory photo of what your "surprise" may look like:


If you have some frozen biscuits you can bake them, or put some butter on old hamburger/hot dog buns with some garlic powder and make faux-ghetto french bread.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

At my house we call that "slop", and we love it! Easy dinner, gets rid of the little bits of "this and that".
We always add the last bits of leftover veggies in the fridge before they go bad (broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, carrots, celery)

a reply to: tinker9917

Yup! Sometimes not really following a recipe and just kind of 'winging it' can yield some cool results!

Excellent, practical and thrifty! Looks good too.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

All good but...

Personally I would leave out the pasta until about 30 minutes before serving. Less mushy that way. Or cook it separately and put it in a bowl with the surprise as a sort of sauce.

But otherwise, Delish!

I am a big fan of crock pot surprise...Never the same thing twice.

For those with a rice cooker, works just as well.

Peace

I just got a crock pot for the first time and I have been loving it. Thanks for the recipe, mind if I share one I made recently?

It's already getting pretty late in the day, but if you want to plan for tomorrow this is a delicious recipe.

1 - Go to the store tonight and buy a pork shoulder (also called pork putt). I like bone-in

2 - take 1 cup of salt, 1 and 3/4 cups of sugar, a few garlic cloves, onion scraps, peppercorns, and a bay leaf or two. bring to close to a boil with 8 cups of water and then cool. This your brine. Throw the pork shoulder in the fridge submerged in the brine overnight

3 - Good morning! Drain the brine, and take 3/4tbs chilli powder, 1tsp cumin, 1tsp cinnamon, a little salt and pepper, dijon and maple syrup. mix this all together.

4 - Slice one large onion and a few garlic cloves and throw them in the bottom of the crock pot, then smother your pork shoulder in the maple dijon spiced rub it in the crock pot on high for 6-8 hours or on low from 8-12 hours. its ready when it pulls apart easily, but don't worry too much cause it's hard to overcook.

5 - Throw your cooked hunk of meat on a big surface and pull it all apart with 2 forks, throw away large pieces of fat and bones. Strain the onions and add them to the meat, then take all your liquid and spoon the fat off. Reduce it in a pan until you have only 2 or 3 cups left and then add it back to your pulled pork.

6 - Add bbq sauce for southern style pulled pork, use for tacos, pulled pork mac and cheese, salads, ect. and freeze for later! Thanks for reading, hope someone enjoys this as much as I do.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Just so long as you do it while sober. I tried to make soup the last time I drank alcohol and ended up burning it. How do you burn soup? Oh man. I love the ride while imbibing spirits, but the self reflection the next day is a dose of hard medicine. ;p

a reply to: Anhayser

Kahlua pork is almost like that, and really easy. You only need a few ingredients:

1. Pork shoulder/butt
2. Sea salt
3. liquid smoke

Stab the crap out of the pork butt, season it with the sea salt and place it in the crock pot. Dump about half the liquid smoke over the pork butt and cook it for 6-8 hours. You can use more liquid smoke -- it depends on how intense you want the flavor.

Make some rice and serve them together! BAM!

My girl actually made this yesterday for a potluck with some of her Hawaiian/Samoan friends. Being white, they said she did a pretty good job!

a reply to: MystikMushroom

That sounds pretty darn tasty, although I have never cooked with liquid smoke.
My roommate made some bbq sauce from scratch that we added to the pulled pork and I was so proud that everything we were eating (besides the buns) was made completely from scratch. Bottled sauces can work wonders though, I finally got my perfect pad thai dialed and it definitely uses a solid amout of condiments haha.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

That looks so good, my stomach is now growling.

I love the crock pot, so much. It's so quick and so easy and a great way to clean out the fridge.

I browned the meat with a little McCormick's "Ultimate Hamburger" seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic pepper.

I also added some jarred finely diced garlic. We get these huge containers of finely minced garlic in oil at Costco that lasts for ever. In addition to that, I put a few squirts of worcestershire sauce and about a 1/4 teaspoon of powdered beef base as well.

Fingers still crossed -- I don't want to have to order pizza! (That was the deal my girlfriend made me promise if it turned out nasty).

Sometimes if you get too many different flavors in something like that, it gets yucky. There are some foods that just do not go together. I didn't see any you had listed interfering with each other. But some do.

I made this for dinner this evening, with veg and tofu, after a weekend of Halloween and fireworks night snacks, sausage rolls, toffee apples, mars bars etc., it feels good to eat healthy.

These kind of meals are great for using up ingredients in the fridge, especially on autumn and winter days, keeps colds etc at bay.

Carrots, parsnip, banana shallot sweated in olive oil then yellow pepper (bell pepper), then lots of garlic, then tomato paste, sweated more, stock added, kale added, onion granules, thyme and chilli flakes added, simmered for 5 minutes then vermicelli and tofu added, simmered for a further 15 minutes.

It is delicious.

All done in a pressure cooker, the lid doesn't need on for long and only a gentle heat is needed.