My Final Weight Loss Journey

This is a recipe that I will have to explain!  LOL!  Back in 2005 the day I got out of the hospital having my gastric band removed, hurricane Rita was threatening our area.  My Aunt Kay and Uncle Bill told us to come and stay with them since I had just had surgery.  We left in the middle of the night to drive to their house.  This is a meal that my Aunt prepared while we were there.  It was the best thing ever!  I do this all the time since then and I wanted to share it because it is such a versatile meal.

You can use beef, pork or chicken when preparing this in the crock-pot.  The process will simply amaze you.  You can just eat it as it is, shred it for tacos, enchiladas, sandwiches or whatever floats your boat.  The key to this is to cook this for at least 12 hours!  The longer the better.  Sometimes I've let beef go for about 15 hours.  I've never let chicken go past 12!

The pictures below is based on a purchase of a Pork Loin bought packaged before the store's butcher has a chance to cut it up!  Usually I buy a Pork Loin at Costco and they give you 2 in their packaging and I cook both.  In other woods this is based on cooking alot of meat.

I use a 5-6 qt. Crock-Pot and all I do is place the meat in the crock and then I pour a Costco size bottle of Pace Medium Picante Sauce all over the meat.  You basically need to cover the meat so that you don't see any of it.  Turn the crock pot to the low setting and forget it for 12-15 hours.  Remember longer is better!  We can never have this in the same day unless I let it cook all night but I warn you if you cook it all night the smell might wake you up!  LOL!  It is that good!

Once the meat is cooked.  I remove it and let it cool so that I can handle it.  I also start letting the sauce cool down.  I put the sauce in a bowl and place it in the refrigerator to let the fat rise to the top so that I can scape it all off.  I then take the meat and slice it in 2-3 inch sections and I start pulling off all the fat even the fat that I can find in the middle.  Get all the fat you can out of the meat.  I then shred it and put it in the refrigerator till the sauce has done it's thing.  Here is what it looks like:

This is what the sauce looks like once all the fat is skimmed off:

When I cook this large amount of meat I do divide it in half and prepare it two different ways.  One is for tacos and the other is for BBQ.  The taco mixture I use for tacos (of course) but I also use it for any other mexican type meal.  The BBQ I use for sandwiches and for stuffing baked potatoes.  I have used either meats on salads!  So you see ideas are endless with this recipe.  That is why I cook so much and it does freeze well.

To prepare the meat for tacos I add just enough of the Picante mixture to moisten the meat to the desired moisture level.  Most of the time I end up using it all.  Start with half of the sauce and keep adding it till it reaches your desired moisture level.  Here is what mine looks like ready for tacos:

Here is what I do to the meat to turn it into BBQ.  I add 1 bottle of Heinz Chili Sauce.  If I happen to have any of the Picante sauce left I will add it as well.

Here is what the meat looks like prepared for BBQ:

Now how I count this in regards to HU's:

Since I remove all the fat that I can from the actual meat and the sauce I count this based on the cut on meat that I use.  Pork Loin (lean and fat) for 4.5 oz.  (the amount that use for 2 tacos) is 6 HU's.  If I cook chicken breast it is 1 HU per oz.  If I use beef it will depend on the cut of beef so refer to the Weight Watcher Program information to calculate points.  Since Picante sauce is a 0 HU item I don't add for that.  There isn't that much of the sauce based on 4.5 ounces.  If you feel that I am wrong you can always add a HU for the sauce. 

The same for the BBQ mixture.  When you look at the HU's for Chili Sauce, a 12 oz bottle is only 6 HU's.  2 Tablespoons is .5 HU's so just add a half of a HU or 1 HU to your HU count of the meat.  I just add a half of a HU to my calculations.

I can't tell you how good this is.  We eat it all the time I'm telling you I've lost my weight eating this and counting it this way.  I hope that you will try it!

Finally...here is what my taco meal looks like:

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