Make-Ahead, Freezable Carnitas

I have no new recipe for you today - just a helpful hint regarding an old recipe.  A few years ago, I had posted a recipe for my favorite carnitas.  It is still a regular meal in our house, since I can get pork shoulder cheap (and, well, it's just amazingly delicious).  And since they're large cuts of meat, I make a lot and freeze the leftovers.  I was recently able to get pork shoulder picnic roast for 69 cents/lb.  I bought almost 16 lbs and paid just under $11.  I fed 11 people (7 adults, 4 kids) dinner with some leftovers, plus bagged 3 more meals for the freezer.  You can get the recipe here.  And you can do a lot more than just make tacos or burritos with this meat.  We also like to make taco salad, quesadillas, nachos, tostadas, omelettes, etc.  This week we made burritos and filled them with carnitas, homemade pico de gallo, avocados, cheese, lime rice, lettuce, sour cream, and hot sauce.

Once the meat is done cooking in the crockpot (and before it's put in the oven), I divide it up into meal-sized portions and place into gallon zip-top bags.  I also divide up the reserved seasoning into snack size zip top bags.  Then I take a seasoning bag, lay it on top of the sealed gallon bag, roll them up together, and put a piece of tape at the top to hold it all in place.  This way the meat and the seasoning are together and I don't have to worry about losing the seasoning (or forgetting where I put it :)).  Before I fill the bags, I write what's in them, the date, and cooking instructions. When I want to eat it, I pull a bag from the freezer and defrost.  I heat the meat, then place it on a large pan (I use a jellyroll pan) and sprinkle with the seasoning.  It's placed it in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until crispy.  This makes for a quick and easy meal.  In fact, before I had my last baby, I made sure I had some of this in my freezer for after baby came.

Seasoning packet and meat ready to be rolled up.

The seasoning packet is rolled up inside of this and
the whole thing is secured with a piece of tape.

The finished product, ready for the freezer.

Greek Salad with Chicken

I realize that salads are typically more of a summer meal, but we eat salads all year at my house (plus it's still very much summer where I live).  I'm not sure if this is because a) I'm too lazy to actually cook something, or b) we don't really have a true winter here (unless you consider lows in the 50s winter).  Salads are also economical as they allow a small amount of meat to go a long way.

One of our favorite salads is a Greek salad that I posted 5 years ago.  It's so good that it really deserves to be mentioned again, but I've tweaked it ever so slightly to make it an entree!  I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner because it's so simple.  Add some chicken to the salad and, BAM, you've got a healthy and affordable entree!  You can use any kind of chicken you want - grilled, sauteed, rotisserie, leftovers, etc.  If I've recently made a whole chicken and have leftover meat, I'll use that for this.  If I don't have any leftovers on hand, I'll typically season boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I can often get these for $1.66-$1.77/lb on sale so I stock up and throw them in the freezer) with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and sautee in butter or throw them on the grill.  And for our family of 5, I can get away with 2 chicken breasts and usually have leftover meat for the lunch the next day.

You can use a bottled salad dressing, but I highly recommend you make the dressing below.  It tastes a-maz-ing (thanks to my sister-in-law for sharing it with me!), and it's healthier and much cheaper than store bought dressings.  My 7-year-old daughter LOVES it and always asks me if we have *that* dressing, even when we're not having a Greek salad.

On an economical note, I realize that Feta can be pricey.  I typically buy a chunk rather than crumbled Feta, because it's cheaper per ounce, and let's face it - it's really not hard to crumble your own Feta.  I've been omitting the olives as half of my family doesn't like olives and not using them also brings the cost down a bit.


Greek Salad
Romaine lettuce, cut into bite-sized pieces
Tomatoes, diced
Green bell peppers, diced
Red bell peppers, diced
Red onions, sliced
Cucumbers, chopped large
Olives, sliced (either kalamata or black will work)
Feta cheese, crumbled
Greek salad dressing (recipe below)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  You can either toss it all with the dressing or have people put their dressing on individually.  If you choose to toss the salad with the dressing, make sure you add it immediately prior to serving so that the lettuce doesn't get soggy.

Greek Salad Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 1/4 tsp dried basil
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup red wine vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a salad carafe and shake well.  If the dressing is too tangy for your taste, you can add a little sugar to tone it down a bit.  To help prevent separation, you can put all ingredients except the oil into a blender or food processor.  While the blender or food processor is running, slowly add the oil.  

Note: For those doing Trim Healthy Mama, this is an excellent S!