Inexpensive Smoked Pork Loin

Hello consumers.  Which the price of everything going up I have been trying to find good healthy choices that won't make me go broke.  

My wife and I shop at Sam's Club and yes we are Plus members.  We do that for the 2% cash back on our purchases and there are many things we buy and share with family members.  Also, if you use the Sam's credit card, you get an additional 3% cash back on all credit card purchases in the store and online with free shipping.  Well, that is enough of a commercial for Sam's Club, don't cha think?

On my last run to Sam's last week I was searching around for a good choice of beef to prepare and cook with my smoker.  My DynaGlo offset smoker does a great job and I love to use it.  Well, beef prices are absolutely absurdly through the roof.  A decent brisket that used to be in the $25-$30 range, they are all $70- 80.  For a freakin' brisket!!!!!  That is unacceptable for such a low end beef cut.  I can't do it, or actually, I will not do it.  

So, what I did find as a great cut of meat at Sam's Club was a pork loin.  It was a smaller one as you can see my my receipt clip and ad on SamsClub.com.

We cut it into 3 equal pieces and packaged it for the freezer.  

This week I prepared one of the pieces on the smoker.  My process is simple.  I brine it for 2 days in about 3/4 cup of salt in water in the fridge.  I put a light coating of TexJoy BBQ Seasoning Rub on all sides and smoke it for 6.5 hours at 200-225degF. 

I find that it really does not matter what type of wood you use to smoke, hickory, maple, cherry, mesquite.....they all work equally well.

And this is what is left after my wife and I had 2 meals with this pork sliced at about 1/8-1/4" thick.  It is tender and moist, the flavor is outstanding, and there is little fat left on the meat. (Personal pet peeve, I do NOT like meat fats, the texture to me is just nasty)  There is enough in this dish for at least 2 more meals for each of us, maybe three.  A great way to eat the leftovers and harden up the soft fat is to lightly butter or grease a pan and brown both sides of the slices.  That is soooooo good.

Another tip, while the meat is on the smoker, cut up a bunch of your favorite veggies, we typically like yellow squash, broccoli, onions, cauliflower. Put them in a ziploc bag with enough olive oil to coat all of the veggies and a dash more, then season to taste.  Salt and Pepper,  I use all purpose seasoning, but not a ton.  Shake it up to evenly lightly coat your choice of veggies.  Then, put them into an aluminum foil hammock  to fully enclose them.  Poke about five or six knife slits in the top of the foil tent.  Throw that in the smoker during the last hour of your cooking.  You will be incredibly happy with those results, I promise you.  This is the day after photo, looks rough, but they are excellent. And I tell you I can smell the smoke when I opened the container.

Happy cooking, and enjoy.

My Diet Plan that works - 33 lbs (so far) in 84 days this year

 JC’s South Park Diet: My unique version loosely based on South Beach (Dr. Agatston) and The Zone (Dr. Barry Sears)  diets 🡨Read these!!

Typical Breakfast

½ cup Egg Beaters omelette filled with a layer of turkey bacon or sliced ham and mozzarella (I like hot sauce with my omelette)

Typical Morning Snack (any one of the following)

Celery

Cauliflower

Broccoli

Sliced tomato w/slices of mozzarella cheese

Mozzarella cheese stick

Slices of cucumber with salt

Typical Lunch/Dinner

Hamburger (no bun) 

Lamburgers

Buffalo burgers

Baked or grilled chicken

Salads with Olive Oil (1/3) and Red Wine Vinegar dressing (2/3)….but limit the onions (sugars), no carrots (lots of sugar), no corn

Baked spaghetti squash (a JC favorite) topped with low fat spaghetti sauce or a spicy salsa and parmesian/romano cheese

Broiled salmon

Diced ham fried in olive oil with melted shredded mozzarella on top; put over diced fresh tomato (this is fab)

Typical Afternoon Snack (usually I need a little higer level of fat with low carbs, energy food)

Sliced tomato w/slices of mozzarella cheese

Mozzarella cheese stick

Slices of turkey bacon

Great adders to recipes above

“Silk” soy coffee creamer

Hot sauces (RedHot, Tabasco, whatever you like)

Low fat salsa on top of anything is excellent 

Cook everything in Olive Oil or even better use Pam Olive Oil spray

THE RULES: (the most important part)

1. IF YOU ARE HUNGRY, EAT.  DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF, DO NOT WAIT TO EAT IF YOU FEEL HUNGRY.   MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ACCESS TO A SNACK WITH LOW FAT, AND LOW CARBS AT ALL TIMES.   Your whole goal is to keep your hormones that regulate insulin in your body at a low, even level throughout the day.  Insulin is the substance that your body uses to store fat.  At low levels, you will not store fat, you will have great energy all day.   This is the most important rule.  

2. Read labels on your food; your goal is LOWER carbs (not zero), and LOWER fat (not zero) and ideally you want a little of both when you eat to maintain insulin as described in rule 1.

3. Limit (and by this I mean avoid if you can):

1. Sugars

2. Breads

3. Pastas

4. Alcohol

5. High fat foods

6. High carb foods

7. Anything that reads “Partially Hydrogenated (blank)”

South Beach-esque Diet Works

 A quick note to again acknowledge the power that the Low Carb, Low Fat nutrition regimen works.  I have been able to lose 30 pounds in 59 days in 2022.

Six smaller meals or snacks a day, I never go hungry. I feel great, have more energy, sleep better and more rested.  It is an amazing transformation.  

I have 60 more pounds to lose this year.  I will do it.  Good luck to all.

Great Vegan Burrito MIx

I bought a great vegan product from Sam's Club last week, it is the Tattooed Chef Burrito Blend product.  It is a great meat substitute product that tastes excellent.  It is a frozen product that heats up nicely in a pan with 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil.  Now, that being said, I had to doctor it up with about an 1/8 cup of Tone's Taco Seasoning and 1/8 cup of water.  Otherwise I find it less flavorful.  It is certainly personal preference, I enjoy spiced (not necessarily hot, but flavorful) food so I do this a lot to many prepared foods. 

To serve:

Put the fully heated product hot in a burrito wrap or taco shell with some sour cream, and simple salsa and you have yourself a meal.  I like soft tacos and burritos so that is my go-to. 

Here are the links to the actual product at Sam's Club and the whole Tattooed Chef product line.  

Enjoy

https://tattooedchef.com/collections/all-products

https://www.samsclub.com/p/beef-burrito-blend-tattooed-chef-2-ct/prod25240128?xid=plp_product_2 

Crockpot Sweet and Spicy Chicken

I put together this recipe on a whim to see what I could do with what we had in the house.

I looked in the fridge and freezer and saw a big bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  Thought "that would be easy to whip up a meal".  I also saw a full bag of hash browns. 

So here it goes:

I took 6 pieces of good sized frozen chicken breasts and put them into the crockpot on high.  Add salt and pepper, I use a lot of seasonings, I find that many recipes are under-seasoned, and a little salt and pepper does the trick.(Hint: Use a disposable crockpot liner, it is the greatest invention ever.)  😉 

Added some diced onion, about a 1/2 of a large yellow onion.  Next time I will also dice up some jalapenos as well.  Cook in crockpot on high for 3 hours.

Then drain the liquid off. 

Put the chicken and onions back into the crockpot.  

Add a cup or so of Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet and Spicy BBQ sauce.  But hey, use whatever BBQ sauce you enjoy.   Next time I will use a cup of my homemade BBQ sauce.  Look up the recipe, I think it is excellent and have not had any complaints.

Add one cup or so of orange marmalade.

Cook this mixture for an hour or so on high in the crockpot.

For the hash browns, I used them as a base.  I fried a 4" circle of the hash browns in a skillet until browned on both sides using a light mix of olive oil and butter.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Place the hash browns on a plate put a piece of the cooked chicken on top.  Spoon as much of the sauce as you wish.  Enjoy.😀

Pickled Jalapenos

Easy, easy, easy to make.  10 Minutes is all you need to pickle your own sweet and heat.

In a pot boil:

1 cup vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
2 tbsp garlic
1 tsp salt
2-4 tbsp sugar (to taste)
1 cup sliced jalapenos

When it all starts to boil remove from heat and let cool.  Then take the jalapenos out of the pot and pot in mason jars up to the top. pour the liquid to cover the jalapenos and make sure you get a bunch of the garlic in the jar as well.  Screw cover to jar snug and put in refrigerator for a couple of hours.  You can enjoy these for the next 2 weeks or so. Yummy.

Versatile Cream of Chicken Soup

Cream of Chicken soup.  Is there anything you CAN'T do with it?
 
It is excellent on its own but the versatility in cooking with a can or two of Cream of Chicken is amazing.  It is creamy, "chickeny", it has a touch of salt and the right spices, it can be used as a thickener or binder.  Cream of Chicken is a great compliment to pasta, many vegetables, in all sorts of casseroles, (obviously) with chicken dishes, in ground beef dishes.  It goes great with green beans, broccoli and cauliflower esepcially well.

Always add a pinch of black pepper to your recipes when you use Cream of Chicken soup.  Pepper adds that little zing which enhances its flavor.

My advice is to keep a couple of cans on your shelves if you run out of ideas for cooking.  NEVER stop experimenting with foods, you will find combinations that you will enjoy for years to come.

Enjoy.