I am celebrating the final month of the year with a lot of cleaning and organizing of the house. I’ll admit, I am not naturally the neatest person in the world. Yet, as each year passes, my desire to be that person grows, as do my cleaning frenzies.

What begins one day as a simple “let me organize the pantry” turns into a full-on attack of the kitchen; pots and pans strewn about, scrubbing tiles on my hands and knees. It’s not pretty. Well, actually, I’m not pretty, but the room is when it’s all over.

When I find myself “in the zone” having to stop and cook, dirtying dishes and breaking my stride, is the last thing I want to do. But having a floor so clean you can eat off of it is pointless if there is nothing to eat.

Enter the crock pot.

Thanks to a super special deal at Costco, I got myself a 7 quart beast to make cooking simple. Aside from making life easy, slow cooking allows you to buy inexpensive cuts of meat and turn them into deliciousness.

Also thanks to Costco, I found myself with an enormous boneless pork shoulder ($1.89/lb).  After severing it into ten large chunks and tossing them in the freezer, I started mentally preparing for what I could do with all that food.

The first place my mind went was tacos.

Now, there are probably a million different ways I could have thrown this together, and I’ll probably share them as I discover them, but this turned out great with ingredients in the house and little effort.

Also, the key to making these tacos extra delicious is topping them with this simple “slaw” rather than the myriad of taco toppings you might usually opt for. Delicious, and again, cost effective.

Slow Cooker Pork Tacos with Lime-Cilantro Slaw

1-2 pounds pork shoulder
1 can crushed tomatoes (I used the 14 ounce can – you could use the smaller can, but you may need to add a little liquid)
1 onion (yellow, vidalia or red preferable)
4 cloves garlic
1 T cumin
1/2 T sugar
2 tsp salt
pinch chili powder
Spoon garlic chili sauce (see photo)

Chop onion and skin garlic gloves.  Throw tomatoes, onion, garlic, pork and spices in crock pot. Cook on low setting for 10 hours (you could shorten the cooking time if cooked on high, probably 5 hours).

Pull pork apart with fork about an hour or so before serving so all the sauciness really mixes in. This isn’t necessary, but if you are able, it helps all the flavors integrate with the meaty goodness.

Lime Cilantro Slaw

Cabbage
Lime
Cilantro
Sour Cream
Salt

You’ll notice there are not measurements above. I think the slaw should be made according to your individual taste. I love lime and cilantro, so I used the juice of a whole lime and chopped a good handful of cilantro for about 1/3 head of cabbage. I tossed that with a heaping spoon of sour cream and salted to taste. Give it all a good mix (toss it in a tupperware container and shake it around for good measure) then stick it in the fridge until dinner is ready.

I used corn tortillas for mine, but you can use whatever you prefer. I recommend having a fork ready, and lots of napkins, as it can get messy. But messy is good, right?

More slow cooker recipes to come in the near future…