Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Pork

Here's another recipe from my "favorites" notebook. I love this Sweet and Sour Pork recipe not only because it's yummy, but also because it is so easy to throw together. If you're heading off to work, you could easily put this together the evening before, refrigerate, and then turn on your slow cooker in the morning.

My first picture in this series was supposed to be a shot of all of the ingredients displayed together. It looked good. Just as I was getting ready to depress the button to snap the shot, there was a tiny "kid crisis". I walked away, solved the crisis, returned to my work station and began chopping ingredients and mixing the sauce. With dinner cooking away, I put the baby down for a nap, cleaned two rooms, and took my daughter to dance class. I returned home, served and cleaned up dinner and put the kids to bed. Finally, as my DVR'd American Idol played on television, I cozied up to our laptop and uploaded the pictures. Where was the great shot of the ingredients? I guess I never actually took that picture. Oh well. The recipe is below. Check out the ingredients there.

For now, I'll start with the pork loin. This pork loin came from the giant piece of meat that I portioned and froze from our St. Patrick's Day dinner. In creating this meal, I actually wasted 2 1/2 lbs. of pork. Last night I pulled 1 pork loin roast from the freezer and put it into the sink to thaw. I meant to put it into the fridge before I hit the sack. When I woke to the sound of "mom mom mom mom" in the baby monitor this morning, that pork loin was the first thing that I thought about. It was still in the sink, nice and warm. Oops. I laid out another, went to a tea party with the girls and came home to cut up the second roast for this meal. Geesh! Our trip must've just sucked the brain cells right out of my head. Let's hope the rest of the meal prep and blogging go more smoothly the rest of the week.

Cut the pork loin into 1 in. strips.



Put them into a resealable plastic bag with 2 tablespoons of paprika and shake until coated.



Now, brown them in 1 tablespoon of oil until no longer pink.



Now let's start chopping the veggies. Here is the easiest way that I've found to clean a green pepper. First, I slice it in half.


Then I place my thumb under the seeds and pull up towards me until...


the seeds and stem pop right off. Now you're ready to chop. I actually learned this technique in college. Good ol' Chef Carl at Purdue RHIT. Annoyingly large ego (Him not me. My ego is not subject to criticism here in this blog.) but I did learn a thing or two.


Combine the browned pork loin with the chopped onion and green pepper in your slow cooker.


Now drain a 20 oz. can of pineapple chunks. You need the juice for the cooking sauce.


Put the pineapple into your clean refrigerator and save it for the final step of this recipe.



Add cider vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and salt to the pineapple juice and stir to make the sweet and sour sauce.



Pour the sauce over the pork, green pepper, and onion and stir to coat. Now cover and slow cook for 6-8 hours in your crock pot.



When the cooking time is up and the pork is tender, mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of cold water and stir it into the crock pot. Also, add the drained pineapple.



There you go! It's really that easy! Serve it over some hot rice and give yourself a pat on the back.


Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Pork

2 1/2 lbs. pork loin roast cut into 1 in. strips
1 tablespoons cooking oil
2 tablespoons paprika
1 chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
1- 20 oz. can pineapple chunks
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
hot cooked rice

Place paprika into a large, resealable bag. Add pork loin strips and toss to coat. Brown pork in oil until no longer pink. Transfer to slow cooker. Add chopped onion and green pepper to slow cooker.

Drain pineapple over small bowl. Refrigerate pineapple chunks. Add cider vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and salt to pineapple juice. Stir and pour over pork and veggie mixture. Mix well. Cover and cook for 6-8 hours.

Combine cornstarch and water. Add to slow cooker and stir. Add pineapple chunks. Cook about 30 minutes longer until thickened and heated through.

Serve over hot rice.

Nutritional Info: 1 cup serving = 312 calories, 10 g fat, 2 g fiber

Weight Watchers Points: 7 per serving