3-Meal Crockpot Recipes for Nurses
The beauty of a crockpot meal is that it cooks while you work — or sleep, or catch up on housework, or spend time with your kids. You get the idea.
Time is the one thing that we nurses could use more of, right?
Less time meal prepping means more time doing the things that we want to do — like maybe taking care of ourselves. (That’d be nice, wouldn’t it?)
And we want you to take care of yourself. NursePower is all about work/life balance. So we want to share a game-changing crockpot tip with you so you can not only have more time but also keep the family happy at the dinner table.
Having a large crockpot is great for cooking large quantities of food, obviously. But who wants to eat the same meal multiple times a week? Even if you freeze portions, who wants to eat the same meal week after week? We know we don’t.
So over the next few months, we’re going to share “3-Meal” Crockpot Recipes with you.
What’s a “3-Meal” Crockpot Recipe? It’s a recipe that you can make into 3 entirely different meals.
Think of these as foundation recipes. These are recipes that you can eat as-is one night and then repurpose into completely different meals later in the week.
Not only do you save time cooking but you save time thinking about what to cook. I don’t know about you, but after working, the last thing I want to do is have to make one more decision. So if meals are already decided ahead of time, I can spend my time thinking about other things, like what book to read with my glass of wine.
Foundation Recipe #1: Pork Butt or Shoulder
Pork is super versatile and easily takes on the flavors of whatever you are cooking it with. I recommend buying either a boneless pork butt or boneless pork shoulder.
First, season the meat with salt, pepper, and onion powder. Nothing fancy. I prefer coarse Kosher salt or sea salt and fresh ground pepper, but you can use whatever you have handy.
I also recommend searing the meat in a hot pan before placing it in the crockpot but this step is optional. The searing helps create a crispy crust on the meat which adds nice texture to the meal. Searing is super easy — just heat up your favorite frying pan till it’s super hot and then add the meat, searing each side for 1 minute until it is brown.
Once the meat is seared, place it in the crockpot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Every crockpot setting is a little different so it doesn’t really matter — you just want a nice slow cook.
Again, this is a very basic recipe you can throw together in under 10 minutes. The meat will be juicy and flavorful, as is.
However, you can add any combination of your favorite spices and herbs to the crockpot. You can add 3 sprigs of rosemary, 2 cloves of garlic, and a ½ cup of chicken broth for a cozy Autumn meal. Or you can add ½ cup of orange juice, 2 TBSPs of lime juice, 2 cloves of garlic, and ½ TSP of crushed red pepper flakes for a Cuban-inspired meal. Keeping the foundation recipe simple, though, allows you to dress it up afterwards.
Meal #1: Sliced pork and roasted root vegetables
It doesn’t get easier than this meal. Remove the pork from the crockpot and let sit for 10 minutes to cool. Slice and serve ⅓ of the meat. The pork will fall apart as you slice — that’s okay, it’ll still taste incredible.
For the roasted vegetables, just wash and quarter a few potatoes (I like buying the bags of small multi-colored potatoes you can get in the store now), peel and quarter a few carrots, parsnips, beets, and onions. Throw them in a roasting pan with olive oil and coarse salt and cook in the oven for an hour at 400 degrees or until you can easily stick a fork into the beats. I like to cook a big batch of these as they reheat superbly.
Meal #2: Pulled Pork Sandwiches
My kids love sandwiches for dinner. Maybe it’s that they get to eat with their hands, maybe it’s because sandwiches go great with fries or chips — either way, they love it.
Cut off ⅓ of the pork and, using 2 forks, pull apart the meat until it is fully shredded. Add to a frying pan on med high heat. Add sliced onions and cook until onions are translucent. Toss frequently.
Once the meat and onions are ready, add your favorite BBQ sauce and mix. You can also sprinkle in shredded cheese. Divide and serve on toasted rolls (I highly recommend onion rolls but any bun will work). Serve with pickles and fries or chips.
Meal #3: Pork Tacos
Who doesn’t love taco night? Upgrade your Taco Tuesday with these pork tacos and you’ll never go back to ground beef or ground turkey tacos again. For this meal, you are going to use the flavor-packed juices from the crockpot to supercharge your tacos.
Cut off ⅓ of the pork and break it apart using 2 forks. It’s not necessary to fully shred the meat as you want some chunks of meat. Line a pan with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking oil. Spread the meat out on the pan in a single layer. Brush or ladle the juices from the crockpot over the meat. Place under the broiler until the meat begins to crisp. This should take 15 minutes start to finish.
Warm your tortillas. Traditionally, you want to use 2 corn tortillas per taco but you can also use a single flour tortilla, depending on your preference. (I like 2 of each, myself!) Serve with store bought fresh salsa and fresh guacamole found in the produce section, some sliced jalapenos and some shredded cheese, and you’re all set.
NursePower Empowers Nurses!
We’re all nurses over here. We’re all dedicated to taking care of people. And that usually means we’re not great at taking care of ourselves.
NursePower works very hard to give our nurses a better work/life balance. We created this blog series to help not only our nurses achieve better balance but to help all nurses achieve better balance.
Over the past 18 months, we’ve all heard a lot about health profession burnout. But nurses have known for a lot longer what it’s like to burn out on too much work, too much responsibility, and too little self care.
So every week, we’re going to offer you some helpful ideas, tips, suggestions, and ways to help you take better care of yourself. Because burning out is not an option, is it?