Earl Cooks Low Carb Pulled Pork & Riced Cauliflower UPDATE from 12/6/2017

In an effort to add more veggies to our diet that are good for weeknight meals, I discovered frozen riced veggies awhile back. The three I see most often are cauliflower, broccoli, and sweet potatoes. These are more expensive than their non-riced counterparts but are great for a quick side dish. But tonight, I am going to turn the lowly cauliflower into the main event! I found in my deep freeze the last of the smoked pork I saved from Captain Len's, and inspiration began.

First I took riced cauliflower, from Boulder Creek, and microwaved per package instructions.

Riced Cauliflower, Diced Yellow Onion, Pulled Pork,
Seasoned Pepper,  Fresh Ground Black Pepper & Butter

While that cooked, I diced a yellow onion and prepared the pork. I seasoned the onions with seasoned pepper and added butter to sauté. To the onions, I added the smoked pork to warm through. I then added the riced cauliflower. (You may want to DRAIN for quicker cooking). Combine onions, pork, and cauliflower together and let any liquid cook away. Shave some Parmesan and cover. The cheese should melt right into the other ingredients, and you can serve it up! I topped our servings with a nice bit of butter. This would also be good topped with parsley or with some Cajun/Creole seasoning. It needs a lot of seasoning because cauliflower seems to be a black hole for salt & pepper.


*This is a repost from 2017. I am updating my site with low-carb favorites from the past 

Earl Cooks 2 Dishes and a Snack for a Christmas Feast at Daughter #2's House - Baked Beans

It seems the more I cook, and the more I learn about cooking, the more I find recipes that seem to copy my ideas on cooking. I know they aren't, or maybe they are catching up to a lazier way to a similar result. This happened recently while I watched Cook's Country on PBS. Right there was the way I had been making my baked beans in an episode from 2016. They called theirs "Backyard Barbecue Beans", but the idea is almost the same as the way I have made them for years! I'm not sure when I first made baked beans, mine have always been unique, or so I've been told. Mine are loaded with meats and a variety of beans. Mine have cooked onion and a bit of uncooked onion and more often than not, raw celery to give them CRUNCH. I always make them in a Crock-pot, since I discovered crock-pots many years ago. Slow cookers are great for large gatherings because you can keep everything at a great serving temperature and you can prep it and forget it...almost.

Earl Cooks Riced Cauliflower & Pulled Pork

In an effort to add more veggies to our diet that are good for weeknight meals, I discovered frozen riced veggies awhile back. The three I see most often are cauliflower, broccoli, and sweet potatoes. These are more expensive than their non-riced counterparts but are great for a quick side dish. But tonight, I am going to turn the lowly cauliflower into the main event! I found in my deep freeze the last of the smoked pork I saved from Captain Len's, and inspiration began.

First I took riced cauliflower, from Boulder Creek, and microwaved per package instructions.

Riced Cauliflower, Diced Yellow Onion, Pulled Pork,
Seasoned Pepper,  Fresh Ground Black Pepper & Butter

While that cooked, I diced a yellow onion and prepared the pork. I seasoned the onions with seasoned pepper and added butter to sauté. To the onions, I added the smoked pork to warm through. I then added the riced cauliflower. (You may want to DRAIN for quicker cooking). Combine onions, pork, and cauliflower together and let any liquid cook away. Shave some Parmesan and cover. The cheese should melt right into the other ingredients, and you can serve it up! I topped our servings with a nice bit of butter. This would also be good topped with parsley or with some Cajun/Creole seasoning. It needs a lot of seasoning because cauliflower seems to be a black hole for salt & pepper.

Earl Cooks Smoked Pulled Pork & Beans with thanks to Capt. Len

As a kid, I didn't much care for pork and beans...they were mostly Van Camp's from the can, and the only pork seemed to be some pork fat in the can that seemed uncooked. That was in the sixties. Fast forward to eighties where I ate some BAKED beans at a BBQ restaurant near me, Joe Morley's. No Pork but he had shredded brisket and were they ever meaty! That inspired me to develop my own recipe. I started with a Crockpot. A friend of mine tried with a pressure cooker and covered her kitchen in bean goo...I had time and wanted a meaty rendition. My ingredients usually included almost a pound of bacon and at least 2 kinds of beans, along with veggies, brown sugar and molasses or maple syrup. THEY BECAME A HIT, but they were different every time because I used no recipe. I was often asked to bring them to parties and dinners and enjoyed doing it. I would make a  big pot full and have leftovers galore.

This recipe pays homage to the days when I didn't care for the pork and beans and to the discovery of real flavorful baked beans, with a twist. My good friend since high school, Captain Len makes some great BBQ and I have some of his pulled pork, which I will use as the meat base. He makes a great BBQ sauce which I am using as part of the sauce. In memory of my childhood and as a nod to where I first tried these beans I am using Van Camps Pork & Beans as well as canned garbanzo beans. This is not so much a recipe as a compilation in a Crockpot. 

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Earl Cooks Smoked Pulled Pork & Beans with thanks to Capt. Len

by EarlCooks November-4-2017

Pork & Beans on steroids

Ingredients

• 1-1½ cup Smoked Pulled Pork
• 1 can (15 oz.) Garbanzo Beans AKA chickpeas (canned)
• 2 TBLS BBQ Sauce (your favorite)
• 1 small stalk Celery (chopped)
• ½ small Onion, yellow

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a small slow-cooker , draining the liquid from the garbanzo beans first, but keeping the liquid from the pork and beansstir all together thoroughly in the crock and heat on HIGH for 1 hour.After cooking on high for the first hour, add the onion and celery, stirring everything together then reduce to low for the next hour.When the vegetables are cooked al dente, serve it up with rolls or biscuits and embrace the smokiness!

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 2 hour Total time: 2 hour 10 mins Yield: 2 servings