Wednesday Night

Tonight's dinner was very yummy. I spent the afternoon running The Boy to swimming class and then Youth Group at a local church, and the Nephew to a friend's house to learn what he'll be doing this weekend (house sitting a couple of dogs and a gaggle of cats) that I thought using the Slow Cooker was in order. So this morning (or early afternoon for those who keep an earlier schedule than we do around here), I cut up the cabbage I had left over from Monday's dinner and through them into the ceramic insert to the crock pot. Yes, threw. It helps separate the pieces. j/k :)

I then cut up an apple. One that is able to be cooked and keep most of its firmness works best, such as a fuji, gala or granny smith (my personal favorite since it's tart), but any kind will work. If there's room, put more than one apple. But I only had room for one.

On top of that, I put half of the huge pork loin. Add about 4 cups of water (apple juice or leftover spiced cider is very yummy too!) Because the insert was so full, I put a piece of foil over the whole thing, crimping the edges down to seal everything in. Then I put the lid on top (sort of). It didn't want to fit, which is why I used the foil (and I did use my 7-qt. slow cooker, so don't know how to make it any smaller, except to take out some of the cabbage which would have been a shame).

Cook it on low for about 8-10 hours. I started it on high for about 2 hours, then dropped it down to low for the rest of the time. One thing about this is that it won't overcook if you have to leave it for a while longer. A lot of recipes for the slow cooker are for a shorter time, which I find almost impossible to fix since I'm gone for most of the afternoon and we eat late.

I would have taken a picture of it, but we ate it all too quickly. So I guess it was very good. Or they were just very hungry, but I'm still leaning toward very good :)

Another option for those meatless eaters out there is to make the cabbage & apples in the crockpot with the apple juice (or water) by itself. I've done this for church potlucks and it was a huge success. Tonight I used green cabbage, but I've used red before and have mixed the two for a colorful meal. It all depends on which one is one sale, since all I'll about saving some money right now :)

If you give this a try, let me know what ya'll think, and whether you made any changes to it. I'm always interested in hearing how other people fix up their meals too.