Crockpot Tuesday–Seasoned Pulled Pork (low carb and kid versions)

As you may know by now, I’ve had to change my diet to low carbs.   Today’s Crockpot Tuesday recipe fits the bill for that, but also made the kiddos (who don’t need low-carb) very happy.  In fact, my 10 year old who doesn’t like pork at all asked for seconds.

Today’s recipe is called Seasoned Pulled Pork and it’s a great option if you want pulled pork without barbecue sauce.  It was inspired by a recipe called Spanish Seasoned Pork that I found on Food.com and only has 8.5 grams of carb.  It’s very easy to put together in the morning and the main ingredients are spices (which you can get for 99 cents each at Aldis.)

Here’s what you’ll need for Seasoned Pulled Pork:

• 6 or 7 Boneless Porkloin chops – mine were about 1 inch each and were frozen when I placed them in the crockpot
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 2 tbsp oregano
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 orange or I used 2 cuties
• 1/2 tbsp granulated garlic
• 4 tbsp onion flakes

Zest the orange and place that and half the seasonings in the bottom of the crockpot.  Mix them together and then place your meat atop the seasonings.

As you can tell by the picture above, my meat was frozen.  Sprinkle the remaining seasoning and zest over the top of the pork.

Then squeeze your orange so that the juice goes around the meat.  Add enough water, if necessary, to cover the bottom of the pot and moisten any seasoning that didn’t stick to the meat.  I added less then a 1/4 cup of water.

Turn the crockpot on High and cook for 5 hours total.  I did open the crockpot once in the middle and that was to separate the chops.  I did this after 4 hours cooking, however you could do sooner.  As you can see in the picture above, it was pretty much cooked through at that point. 

I let it continue to cook for another hour on High and then re-opened the crockpot and shredded the meat with a fork.  I turned it to low and waited until it was time to serve, which was above 45 minutes for the kids version.

The next two servings weren’t for another 1 to 2 hours so I occasionally added a bit of water to keep it moist.

For the kids version, I served up the Seasoned Pulled Pork on hot dog buns that I had leftover from the day before and sprinkled with cheese and a side of raw carrots.  As I mentioned above, all the kids loved it – even my daughter who says she doesn’t like pork.

I don’t have a picture of it, but my husband got his served on Italian Bread.

For my Low Carb version, I served it up on a bed of Romaine Lettuce and sprinkled it with cheese.  The dressing on the top is my new favorite condiment – Greek Yogurt.  I love making it into dressings/dips.  Instead of just empty fat calories that you get from mayonnaise or sour cream dips, the Greek Yogurt is packed with protein.  For this topping I used 2 TBSPs of Greek Yogurt and mixed it with 1 Tbsp Salsa.  I added a 1/4 of a Light Flat-Out for a bit of bread.  It was yummy and I look forward to eating the leftovers for lunch.

Speaking of the Greek Yogurt, Aldis sells the 17.6 ounce container of Fage Greek Yogurt for $3.09.  This is 90¢ cheaper than at Shop N Save or Giant Eagle.

If you’re looking for more low carb recipes, you can get a Free eBook filled with 50 Low Carb recipes here.