Will and I have been living a very packed winter of week days. Here’s our schedule:
- Monday – Blog/Hobby Night
- Tuesday – Read by the Fire (or skiing)
- Wednesday – Board Games
- Thursday – Skiing (or reading)
- Friday – Pizza and Movie Night
The schedule is fairly flexible, but aims to accomplish a couple goals. We want to get our money’s worth of the night passes to Wachusett Ski Mountain we purchased this year and we also want to read more. Our schedule seems to have worked. By now the ski passes have already more than paid for themselves and I’ve finished my third book this year! The only problem with skiing during the week is that we have to run home and take Dany out to play for a while, then scarf down some dinner before heading to the slopes. This means our dinner menu on Thursday nights is pretty limited.
I started buying the pre-cooked Jack Daniel’s BBQ Pulled Pork from BJ’s to keep on hand for a quick meal. It is honestly pretty good – my only complaint being that it is extremely fatty. The 32 oz package is about the right size for a family of 4 or 5 (though it claims 8 servings?) and costs about $11 for the package. Not bad. Of course I started making my own pulled pork in the crock pot that costs about half that. Will thinks it is better than the Jack Daniel’s version, and doesn’t take much more effort. I throw the meat in the crock pot before I head out for work and by the time I return I have dinner waiting. Perfect for ski nights!
Lexi’s Crock Pot BBQ Pulled Pork
Ingredients
- 2 lbs of either Southern Style Boneless Ribs or 2.5 lbs Country Style Bone-in ribs*
- 1 19oz bottle of your favorite bbq sauce**
*I usually buy whichever is cheaper at the time. I tend to buy the pork when it is on sale at $2/lb or less and freeze it until I need it. The recipe works perfectly with either fresh or frozen pork as the starting point.
**I have been using Dinosaur BBQ Wango Tango which has a smidge of a kick. I get this from Job Lot for $2.50 a bottle which is apparently WAY LESS than what it sells for online!
All you need is a jar of bbq sauce, 2 lbs of pork (half what is shown here) and a crock pot! Grand total for pulled pork for 4 is $7 (less if your pork is <$2/lb)
- Put your ribs in the crock pot bone side or fat side down. (If you froze it as in the note above, just put the ribs in completely frozen.)
Put 2 lbs of pork in crock pot, frozen or fresh.
- Reserve 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce in the fridge for later and pour the rest on top of the pork.
Pour sauce over meat.
- Fill the nearly empty bottle with water, shake to dislodge any BBQ sauce still in the jar and pour around the pork in the crock pot. Take care not to disturb the BBQ sauce smothering the pork. Use enough water to reach to just below the top of the ribs, or the whole bottle, whichever is less.
Pour a bottle of water around the meat.
- Put the cover on the crock pot and cook on low for 10 hours.
Add lid and cook on low 10 hours.
- Remove pork from crock pot and remove fat and/or bones and discard. Shred meat with two forks.
Remove fat then shred pork with forks.
- Pour the reserved 1/2 cup of sauce on the meat and stir to distribute.
Stir to distribute reserved bbq sauce.
- Bask in the glory of your <$7 pulled pork! Then serve as desired – we like it on toasted french bread!
Example of a quick meal using your pulled pork!
