Being educators, May is super crazy for us. Wrapping up a school year is no easy feat as we conduct testing and prepare for graduation ( P.S. check out my prior post for a cool graduation gift idea). Plus, it’s getting hot and during the week when I need dinner, even I ( who loves to cook) realize that I just don’t wanna. I need quick, simple meals and onesÂ
that go in the slow cooker are perfect. When I saw this pork roast on sale last week at Winn-Dixie, I knew pulled pork sandwiches would be on the menu soon. This pretty piece of meat was nearly five pounds for $7. This will give our little family leftovers for days, however pulled pork is super economical and easy to make if you are feeding a crowd.( Hint: Memorial Day is approaching).
Busy moms…hear me on this— this meal only requires 4 ingredients!
Well, to be technical, five if you count the hamburger buns I picked up at Aldi for $.89. I don’t count something that needs pulled out of a bag with no additional work a true ingredient. The photo features the real star players.
Pardon the clutter in the background. Honey isn’t an ingredient…it was just on my counter. Though, I suppose a splash wouldn’t hurt. I apologize for the confusing photo. You literally only need a pork roast, minced garlic, a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce and a can of crushed or diced pineapple.
I used a Boston Butt Pork Roast (Pork Shoulder). Pork roasts are usually easy to find on sale and always makes an amazing pulled pork. Go for the bone-in if you are slow-cooking. Boneless pork will cook faster, and the bone will add flavor and moisture as you go low and slow. This meat will fall off the bone. Toss the bone after you pull it from the crock ( or make a stock if you want to be really resourceful. For instructions on how to do this, you will want to save up several bones or purchase a few more, and then check out Jill Winger’s post on How to Make Pork Broth at The Prairie Homestead.)
I am about to blow your mind at how easy this is.
First, pull out your crockpot. Tough. I know. Lift with your knees.
I have said it before and I will say it again. I am in 
love with my Crock-Pot 6-Quart Digital Slow Cooker. JCPenney has this Hamilton Beach programmable cooker on sale right now for $40. I seriously couldn’t function without one.
We are often out of the house for 12+ hours and at that length of time, non-programmable slow-cookers will overcook anything even on low. This bad boy lets me set my time, while keeping my food on warm until we get to it. PLUS, it will automatically stir and shred, even if we are at Disney or the beach. Yes…there is an affiliate post above, but if you are seriously in the market for a crock-pot, you will not be disappointed with this purchase. It has created many amazing meals for us.
Moving on. Trim some of the fat off your meat and put your pork in the crock pot. Pour a 20 oz. can of pineapple over the meat. ( I would suggest crushed pineapple, but I only had diced in my pantry, so I rolled with it. You really want the tropical flavor, and bigger chunks would just need broken down a bit. This could be done during the shredding process.)
Next, pour in about 3/4 of a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce. I used Kraft’s Hickory Smoked BBQ sauce
to counteract a little bit of the sweet juice of the pineapple. But feel free to use whatever flips your fancy.
Finally, plop about 2 Tablespoons of minced garlic on top. Done!
I am not a morning person. I put this all together night before and put the crock in the fridge overnight. The flavors got nice and happy chilling while we slept. In the time it took my Keurig 
to brew my coffee this morning, I had pulled the crock out of the fridge, plugged everything in and it was go-time for my pig.
After a long day at work, we came home to the smell of tropical-ish, BBQ pork bathing in a pool of delicious juice. It was falling off the bone. We pulled the meat and some pineapple out to a dish and shred it with two forks. This important cooking technique (aka the shredding of the pork) proved to also be a great stress reliever for some post-work tension
. I poured the last 1/4 of the bottle of BBQ sauce to add some extra, well, “sauciness” to the cooked meat and the extra sauce was incorporated in as I was shredding.
I put the meat on some burger buns and opened up a bag of Sweet Potato chips from Aldi ( That counts as a vegetable, right?).
My family was eating within 15 minutes from getting home. The entire hands on time was less than 20 minutes.
You can definitely add onion or any spices your heart may desire, but these few ingredients made this flavorful enough for Mr. L and I, while still being “plain” enough for my kiddos. My three year old, Jessie, who is normally a weird, semi-picky eater, devoured this!
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Feel free to share your favorite summer slow-cooker recipe with me in the comments below!
