Pork Tacos

Tacos are one of my favorite meals.  There's a restaurant near us that sells awesome tacos al pastor, which I crave occasionally.  Unfortunately the last time I ordered takeout from there, dinner cost $40 for our family.  They were delicious but too expensive to have regularly until I realized that pre-cooked, shredded pork could make delicious tacos at home for a fraction of the price.  Plus they're super easy when you have the pork already cooked.  Now I just need to find a good source for horchata.

Serves: 4

6 cups cooked pork or about 1 1/2 pounds
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp chili
1 tbsp lime juice
chopped cilantro
chopped onion
warm corn tortillas
green salsa - I really like 505 tomatillo salsa

Heat a frying pan over medium heat.  Add the spices and toast for just a few seconds.  Add the pork and lime juice.  Heat the pork gently over low heat.  Cover when you're not stirring it to make the pork heat faster.  Serve the pork on corn tortillas with onions, cilantro and salsa.

Pork Noodle Bowls

This is seriously one of my favorite meals ever.  The combination of the pork with sweet, juicy mango and mint is simply amazing.  I have served it a number of times to guests and while some have been skeptical about such unusual flavor combinations, it has always been incredibly popular.  I make this using pre-cooked, shredded, frozen pork.

Adapted from: Smitten Kitchen
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Some Assembly Required

BBQ Pulled Pork

I wrote previously about cooking, shredding and freezing pork butt.  One of our easiest and most classic ways to use it is to serve pulled pork with BBQ sauce.  We sometimes have this as a sandwich and sometimes by itself.  Either way I always serve it with coleslaw.  I love fresh coleslaw on BBQ pork, and it's easy to make if you get a bag of pre-shredded cabbage from the produce aisle.  I really like this coleslaw, but sometimes I'm not in the mood to measure stuff.  In that case I just take a bag of the shredded cabbage, add a dash of apple cider vinegar, a squeeze of mustard, a spoonful of mayonnaise and salt, pepper and celery seed to taste.  It's fast, easy and delicious.

For the BBQ sauce you can, of course, use a store bought sauce.  I like the Stubb's brand personally.  For pulled pork though, I prefer to make my own mustard sauce.  My favorite is this recipe from Amazing Ribs, although I like to run it through the blender after making because I prefer it smooth.  I make a large batch of sauce when I make the pulled pork.  Then I divide it into containers and freeze as well. It's ready to go when I serve the pork.  You can serve the pork by heating the sauce, adding the pork and gently simmering until the meat is heated through.  If you would like to serve the sauce on the side, gently heat the pork in the microwave.

Freezer Meal Component: Smoked Pork

I posted previously about how I smoke, shred and freeze chickens to use in a variety of summer meals.  Another meat I love to cook in my smoker is pulled pork.  However, I didn't make pulled pork to freeze because I thought it wouldn't be as versatile as the chicken.  And maybe it's not as versatile as chicken, after all I wouldn't throw pulled pork on any old salad like I do with the chicken.  It was mistake to put off freezing pulled pork.  I have been missing out on deliciousness and what turned out to be some of my favorite meals.

We had guests for the Fourth of July and smoked two pork butts and served them with barbecue sauce and coleslaw.  Two pork butts make a lot.  I made so much with the intention of freezing it, thinking that we would have plenty for the freezer.  I did freeze a lot of pulled pork, but it did not last nearly as long as I had hoped.  A week later we had more guests over and served pork noodle bowls.  We enjoyed the pork so much we kept serving it every time we had guests over, and before I knew it, it was all gone.  I hadn't done everything I wanted with the frozen pulled pork, so a scant two months after freezing pork for the first time, I had to make another big batch.

Cooking the pork:

Pork butt is a very budget-friendly meat.  It is a tough cut though, so you will need to cook it in such a way to make it tender and delicious, generally either low and slow roasting or by braising.  Use your favorite method.  I have a Pit Barrel Cooker that I use to smoke my meats and I love it.  I highly recommend it if you are in the market for a smoker.  It's easy to use, affordable and makes delicious meat.

If you don't have or want a smoker, Amazing Ribs has excellent instructions about smoking meat in a gas or charcoal grill.  It's a super informative website for smoking meats.  Before I bought my smoker I used a gas grill to smoke pork butts using Amazing Ribs instructions with great success.  It is a project though and takes all day.  So if you want to do something easier, you can use a crockpot or roast in the oven.  I haven't tried either of those links, but they look promising (although I would leave out the liquid smoke).  Or if you have a favorite tried and true way to cook pork butt, use that.

Freezing the pork

After your pork is cooked, shred it and divide it into dinner sized portions.  The main difficulty with freezing cooked meat is that it gets freezer burn easily.  If this is something you do regularly, I recommend getting a vacuum sealer.  If you're not ready for that, then I recommend putting the meat in freezer Ziploc bags and squeezing out as much air as you can.

Serving the pork

Thaw the pork in the fridge overnight.  If you are serving the meat in a sauce, bring that sauce to a simmer and add the meat.  Simmer gently until the meat is heated through.  Otherwise you can reheat in the microwave.  Spread the meat out on a microwave-safe plate.  Reheat in two minute bursts at 60 to 70% power until heated through.  Don't overheat.  That will make the pork tough.

Pork spread out on a plate for heating in the microwave.

Ways to use the pork:

 Pork Noodle Bowls - One of my all time favorite meals!

 Bahn Mi - A delicious Vietnamese sandwich.

Pork Tacos - Another personal favorite.  And super fast and easy to boot.

 BBQ Pulled Pork with coleslaw - Classic and delicious.

Burritos - Fast and easy.

Beans and Sausage

This recipe is fairly inexpensive.  It is also hardy, easy and tasty.  And it's fast and easy to reheat, so it's generally a freezer meal win.

Difficulty: Easy
Category: Heat and Eat
Recipe Column: DP

Jambalaya

I see that I haven't posted since July! Ack! As much as I'd like to say I'm going to start posting regularly from here on out, I've said that before, and I've come to realize that I'm going to need to accept that, for me, posting about freezer meals is irregular by nature.  After all, the whole reason I started to do freezer meals was because I didn't have the time and energy to make a decent meal for my family every day.  It stands to reason that I would also struggle to find the time and energy to post blog entries on a regular basis.

When life gets really busy and tiring, like it did for the past couple months, I don't add a lot to my freezer or experiment.  I depend on the meals I've already made and frozen to get me through.  This means I don't have new stuff to write. Plus as I've mentioned before, the development of freezer meal recipes can be long.  Sometimes it's a year or more between my first attempt and the final recipe.

So while I can't promise regular posting.  Hopefully these recipes can still be helpful to you as they come.  It is certainly helpful to me to have a freezer full of delicious food when life gets particularly busy.  Please be patient and keep coming back!  I have several new recipes to post.  Plus I'm going to do a Thanksgiving series!

Baked Ziti

Last year I made a meatball pasta baked dish.  I haven't posted yet because I haven't quite gotten the proportions right, but it is one of my favorite freezer meals.  Due to having a baby recently I haven't had the energy this year to make it.  That many meatballs is a big project.  Instead I made this baked ziti.  It is much faster and easier but has a similar flavor profile.  I will eventually get back to my meatball casserole, but this delicious meal fills that slot for now.

Difficulty: Easy
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: DN

Get the recipe at Smitten Kitchen.  I pretty much make the recipe as is.  Undercook the pasta slightly and rinse it with cold water after draining to stop the cooking process.  Also I don't bother to cut up the spinach.  I just add the whole leaves to the sauce.

To freeze:
Divide the pasta into containers, bags or pans. If you do pans you can top with shredded cheese before freezing.  I use containers to save space in my freezer, so I leave the cheese off.

To serve:
Thaw the pasta in the fridge overnight.  If you haven't already, transfer the mixture to a pan and top with shredded cheese.  I use a pre-shredded Italian mix.  Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees until heated all the way through, about 45 minutes.  Serve with salad or vegetables.