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)”

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.😀

BBQ Sauce

My first bottle of homemade BBQ sauce.

1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
4 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
4 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
4 tbsp garlic powder
4 tbsp onion powder
4 tsp chili powder
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp brown sugar or molasses

Put all in a pan and bring to a boil.
Then simmer for 10 minutes, take off of heat, and let cool to room temperature.

Place in sealed bottle or container and refrigerate. 

Enjoy

Sunday's Vegetable Chili

2 cups diced onion
2 cups shredded carrot
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup rice
2 cups water
1-6oz tomato paste
1-8oz chili ready diced tomatoes
1-8oz can black beans
1-8oz can kidney beans
1-8oz can chili beans
1-8oz can black Eyed Peas
1-8oz can garbanzo beans
1 small can green chilies
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon parsley
2 tablespoons minced garlic

put all in crock pot on low for 5-6 hours. Feeds about 20....LOL