Honey Parmesan Pork Roast in the Crockpot

It’s week 3 of the “Good and Good for You” pork challenge here at Vanderbilt Wife. I have been so thrilled by this challenge: we’ve found some great new recipes, had friends over each Thursday night, and may have established a new weekly tradition!

I all but command you to make one of these fiesty dishes for your honey for Valentine’s on Tuesday night. Neither takes a ton of time, but these two pork dishes are so tasty.

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These Indian kebabs I made from PorkBeInspired.com are fragrant and the spice rub is simple to make yet delightfully complex. You blend garlic, salt, herbs, lemon juice, olive oil, and water in a food processor (I used a mini chopper) and let the pork cubes marinate in the mixture for a few hours. Then thread the pork, sweet bell peppers, and sweet onions on skewers and grill for a short while. Delicious.

I served the skewers over couscous and with a Pineapple Raita. Raita is a traditional Indian yogurt dipping sauce. Mine is not super-traditional, I imagine, but I went with what I had and it turned out wonderfully. I’ll be sharing that recipe later this week.

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The cut of meat that is on sale this week at Publix is bone-in sirloin roast. I have to say that for the skewers, that’s probably not the best choice. Get a boneless roast or a tenderloin; much easier to cut up!

But since I had a roast, and I love pork roast, I felt like I needed to make, well, a ROAST! But of course, I wanted something special. I had seen Honey Parmesan Roast on Pinterest and it looked like it had that “je ne sais quois” factor.

A few of my taste-testers went gaga over the amazing “gravy” that’s on this roast. You might want to just drink it instead of bothering with the meat. And you know what? Go for it.

Our Honey Parmesan Roast was served alongside mashed potatoes and asparagus with bacon and goat cheese. (Thanks, Leslie!)

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Honey Parmesan Pork Roast in the Slow Cooker

Adapted from Six Sisters’ Stuff and It’s a Keeper

3-4 lbs. bone-in sirloin pork roast
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (preferably real!)
3 T soy sauce
2 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 T cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water

Place roast in slow cooker. In a small bowl, mix together honey, cheese, soy sauce, basil, garlic, olive oil, and salt. Pour sauce over roast.

Cook on low for 7-9 hours, until the roast is falling off the bone. Use tongs to remove pork to a serving dish.

Carefully pour the sauce into a saucepan or large skillet over medium-high heat. Whisk together cold water and cornstarch and pour into sauce. Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the sauce has thickened to gravy consistency. Pour over roast and serve. Serve any extra gravy on the side. (Great over mashed potatoes!)

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So, hey! At the end of this four-week series, I am giving away a great package including coupons for $40 of fresh pork, a meat thermometer, a reusable bag, a pedometer, and a nice reusable water bottle. To enter, comment on any post in the series. You can comment once on each one, and then you’ll have four entries! I will choose a winner after the fourth post goes live around February 17.

Just leave a comment answering this question: which roast recipe from the Pork Be Inspired site looks good to you? I think I’d like to try Italian Porketta and Sassy Salsa Pork Loin.

Thank you to the Pork Board and theMotherhood for sponsoring this series of posts. I received coupons, a gift card, and a stipend for my time and groceries, but all opinions are my own.

Added to Ingredient Spotlight at Eat at Home.

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Valentine’s Ideas for the Time, Money, or Motivation-Crunched

You know I wanted to call this Valentines for the LAZY mom, right? But if you were really lazy, you’d buy a pack of Spiderman cards and hand them out. Not that I am blaming you if you do. I did that when they made me do Valentine’s from my three-month-old at her daycare.

But now, at 3 YEARS old (sob! wah!), Libbie likes to do crafts and I felt a little more motivated. Especially when I woke up this morning able to move up and down and sit again after the lovely back trauma of the past few days.

So maybe you’re like me and you want to put a little – but not a LOT – of effort into your kids’ Valentines to their little school buddies. Here’s what we did this year.


For David, I made crayon hearts. Jill led me to this Pin:

Source: flickr.com via Jill on Pinterest

 

Being me, I just tossed my crayons in a plastic baggie and added a little note. The hardest part was unwrapping all the crayons! My note had Matthew 5:14 from The Message translation on it:

“You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept.”

My advice would be to try to shake your heart mold as little as possible so that the colors stay somewhat separate. I would also toss out all the black and brown crayons. A lot of mine ran together, especially on the bottoms, leaving a brown mess. You’ll notice the person on the Pin only used brightly colored crayons.

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Together, Libbie and I made heart-shape mice that were super easy. I cut out all the hearts for the bodies and ears. (I used old scrapbook paper from when I used to scrapbook. You know, back in 1999.) I added glue for her to stick on the eyes, ears, and tail. I hot-glued the pom-poms on for noses; and inside each mouse I wrote to: Whoever from: Libbie.

They took us maybe an hour total with the cutting, and Libbie loved helping make her “Balentines.” She wanted to know if the other kids were going to give her mices, too.

So there you have our somewhat-lazy Valentines. Are you a homemade-kinda mom, a store-bought card mom, a personalized gift bag for every kid mom? (There is one of those last types in Libbie’s class. It always makes me feel lame … and yet more sane.)

I feel like I need to say that my motto for parenthood is DO WHATEVER KEEPS YOU SANE. This year, I felt like I had the energy to make Valentines. Some years, not a chance. You should have seen the ridiculously ugly cupcakes I sent for Libbie’s birthday this year. We’re talking leftovers from every tube of old frosting I had laying around. (And that over-the-top mom? Brought pizza for all the kids that same day. For no reason. Argh.) So if you needed to buy cards this year, NO SHAME. If you wanted to hand-make doilies, YOU GO GIRL. The world needs all kinds of parents.

Sweet Valentine’s Menu

I got such wonderful feedback when I did a complete Christmas dinner menu that I thought I would throw together a great Valentine’s Menu for you.  If you’ve been reading me for a long time, you might recall that I don’t really like Valentine’s Day. But I do like having an excuse to cook an exquisite meal for my honey. (And I really like making up menus, in case you couldn’t tell!)

Appetizer: Crawfish (or Crab) Fondue, Tasty Kitchen

Bread: Olive Oil Cakes with Lemon and Thyme, The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Entree: Roasted Garlic Chicken, Simply Recipes (although making a really good steak is always a man-pleaser in my house!)

Sides: Asiago Sweet Potatoes, Fresh 365; Roasted Vegetables, Home Ec 101

Dessert: Brownie Pudding, Ina Garten*

Here’s a printable grocery list for the menu to make it as easy for you as possible. You DO have to do the cooking, though. Enjoy!

*I saw Ina make this recipe on Barefoot Contessa yesterday. It’s what I want and I ain’t budging. But if you’re not all about eating something full of chocolate and butter (huh??), there are plenty of other dessert recipes here and here.

Photo used with permission of Flickr Creative Commons license. Click on picture to see it on Flickr.

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