One Ingredient ||| Three Ways

If you were around a few weeks ago you remember I made way too much food for a certain football game watch party. Well part of that spread was a 5-lb. pork butt that we cooked in the slow cooker for some carnitas nachos. One baking sheet of nachos proved to be more than enough for us, so we had a lot of shredded pork left over. One week later, I was happy proud to say we used the rest of the pork in three different dishes, making my resourceful and creative heart very happy (not to mention our stomachs).

So first comes the cooking of the pork. We altered this beer braised pork recipe from Bon Appetit so we could cook it in a slow cooker instead of in a pot, which really just meant increasing the liquid & cooking time. We cooked it on low for about six hours until the pork fell off the bone (our pork butt wasn't boneless). At this point, remove the meat from the pot and shred with a fork. Store in a container until it's time to make one, two or all three of the following:

1. CARNITAS NACHOS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Reheat desired amount of carnitas in a pan. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Layer tortilla chips, carnitas, 1 can rinsed black beans, 1 chopped onion and shredded cheese (we grated sharp cheddar and Monterrey Jack). Bake 20-25 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Serve with guacamole, salsa, sour cream or pico de gallo.

2. BBQ PORK SANDWICHES + SWEET POTATO FRIES
Place desired amount of carnitas in a pan on medium heat. Pour in your favorite barbeque sauce (for us, that's KC Masterpiece Original) and a few tablespoons of water so the sauce doesn't burn and the meat doesn't dry out. Serve on toasted burger buns alongside some sweet potato fries.

3. ASIAN PORK with NOODLES and SUGAR SNAP PEAS
(I adapted a recipe from Real Simple to be able to sub in a lot of the specialty ingredients I bought a few weeks ago for these chicken lettuce wraps. My resourceful heart was the happiest about this one.)  Place desired amount of carnitas in a pan on medium heat. Pour in 1-2 tbs. soy sauce, 1 tsp. chili garlic sauce, 1 tsp. chopped fresh ginger, 1 tbs. mirin and 1 tbs. garlic rice vinegar. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil and add udon noodles. Cook 4-5 minutes, adding sugar snap peas during the last minute of cooking. Strain and combine in pan with pork. Toss to coat noodles and sugar snap peas. At this point you can add more soy sauce if needed.