Spring Meal Plan #1

Fresh flavors, easy wins, and a crock pot doing the hard work.

This week's plan uses one of our staple weeknight strategies: cook once, eat well all week. We're starting with a crock pot pulled pork that practically makes itself — and then letting elements of that meal carry us through two more dinners without feeling like you’re eating the same thing on repeat. Add a quick sushi bake, a tomato soup that’s actually good for you, and a pasta salad that makes you look forward to lunch, and you've got a full week of real food without staring into your fridge at 5pm.

You’ll find the grocery list and Walmart Cart at the bottom of the page. Just delete what you have and add your extras and you are good to go!

DINNER #1: Crock Pot Pulled Pork Bowls | Total time: 8.5 hrs | Mostly Hands Off | Serves: 8-12 (see notes)

You are making both pulled pork and rice for meals later in the week, it will seem like a lot of food but remember that we are using them both again! I think pulled pork is one of the easiest and best ways to do meat in a crock pot. You may have a pulled pork recipe that you prefer, feel free to use that, but this one works like a charm if you don’t have a recipe you typically follow. The bowl is a delicious and fresh way to eat pulled pork rather than just on a hamburger bun like you would get at your local barbecue joint.

Notes:
Taste it: The pork needs a little extra salt for my preference so once you mix the juice in, taste it. If it’s a little bland to you add salt.
Simplify: You could totally leave out the green onions in the slaw if you can’t bring yourself to chop them (and the cilantro if you must, but I think it’s worth the effort for cilantro). Feel free to estimate the amounts in the entire thing. It’s not a finicky recipe, so getting close enough on the amounts is just fine.
Work Ahead: You will have a ton of leftovers from the pork and the rice. Just throw them in containers in the fridge and we will use it again later.
Quantities: This recipe makes enough for 8-12, it should work perfectly if you are making both recipes for 4-5 people however if you are cooking for 2 you will have leftovers. Here’s how we are handling the quantity. The pork freezes beautifully for another day (or find a friend and drop off dinner!). The recipe calls for 6 cups of cooked rice. I don’t think you need that much for the bowls so you should have leftover rice for your sushi bake. If you tend to use a lot of rice you can make 3-3.5 cups of uncooked rice to make sure you have enough.