dead zone.

I'd just dropped the three's off at preschool.  I had two hours to drive across town, stop at three different stores (for the best prices), wrangle the groceries and mini, drive back across town, put them away and get back to the school to pick them up.  I was a woman on a mission.


I arrived at our first destination with ten minutes before the store opened its doors, which was perfect because I had yet to pick a recipe for dinner.  That meant I had 10 minutes to google something along the lines of "cheap dinner recipes" on my phone so I'd know what to get.  


Unfortunately, four tries later my phone would still not connect to the internet.  Maybe there was a weird kink in my phone that day.  Maybe I was in one of those mysterious dead zones.  Maybe the universe hates me.  Whatever the case, it seemed my phone was conspiring against me.  So I did the only thing I could.  I called mr at work and made him look online for me.  The only requirement was that it had to involve a pork roast, since I had one defrosting in the fridge at home.


He called back moments later with the ingredients for:

Which is NOT something I would have picked.  And while I admit it wasn't my favorite Yummy Monday ever, mr and my parents loved it.  So I guess it was a win.  Here's the recipe he gave me, found on food.com:

Crock Pot Shredded Pork Tacos
2 1/2-4 lbs boneless pork shoulder
1 T brown sugar
2 T cajun seasoning
1 T salt
1 T cumin
1 T paprika
1 T fresh ground black pepper
1 T chili powder
1/2 T mesquite powder
1/2 C frozen apple juice concentrate
1/2 C cider vinegar

Combine the dry ingredients and spiced. Spread over entire roast. Refrigerate roast in a Ziploc bag for up to 24 hours.Place the Apple Cider and Vinegar in a crock pot and add the spiced shoulder being careful not to lose the rub. Cook on high for two hours, then reduce to low for 10 more hours.  Remove the roast and let rest for 30 minutes.  Pull roast apart with two forks.  Serve in taco shells with all your favorite taco fixings.


I decided to make mr's aunt's bean salsa, since he's pretty much always craving it.  You've seen it here.  And here. I added a teeny bit to it, and here it is:

Bean Salsa
1 can chopped green chilies

1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can corn (drained)

about 6 chopped green onions (whites and crispy parts of greens)

1/2 bunch of cilantro

1 chopped red bell pepper

5 tomatoes (chopped well)

lime juice (to taste)

2 Cloves garlic, crushed

salt and pepper (to taste)

garlic salt (To taste)

Onion powder (To taste)

Teeny bit of cumin

Mix it all up together in a big bowl.  Chill a bit before serving.  

I also made homemade pico de gallo.  You've also seen that around here before, but in case you missed it, here's my recipe:

Pico de Gallo

5 - ish medium tomatoes - chopped well

1/2 yellow onion - chopped super fine

half a bunch of cilantro - chopped well

Teeny bit of fresh jalapeno - chopped well

three splashes of lime juice

dash of salt and pepper

bit of chipotle chili pepper

a few shakes of garlic salt

pinch of paprika

Throw it all together and stir it up.  YUM!

Notice there's no dessert?  Well, that's because I already shared it with you.  Back in October.  Here.  And it's delicious. Now you know how old this story is.

*Be sure to check just below for all the fun parties I link to!