Lightened Up Sweet Pork Barbacoa

Life lessons learned over the weekend.

1. Living with all boys means I will never have a clean bathroom.
2. My boys inability to keep their urine stream in what I might point out is a rather large hole in the bowl of the toilet will baffle me to the day I die.
3. Cleaning said bathrooms hurts my back. And, unfortunately only reminds me of point #1.
4. In effort of all my hard work, I may or may not have encouraged my boys to “go” off the back deck for the rest of the day.
5. Even if only for a few hours, I love a clean bathroom.

6. I dream of lazy weekend days that don’t include cleaning bathrooms.
7. I’m still dreaming.
8. The slow cooker is my best friend on days I don’t feel like cooking.
9. Or on days I’m too busy doing something else. (Refer to #3)
10. Having a clean house and it filled with the smell of slow roasted pork slightly eases the pain of #1.

11. I lie. The smell of slow roasted pork doesn’t ease the pain of dirty bathrooms one bit. They have nothing to do with one another.
12. But I do love the smell of this sweet pork cooking in the slow cooker and I’d much rather talk about pork than my dirty floorboards. (Yes, floorboards. Somehow they manage to hit those too. Again, refer to #2.)
13. Traditional Sweet Pork recipes call for entirely too much sugar. And too much fuss.
14. This is a drop and go kind of recipe.
15. And it’s the bomb.

Lightened Up Sweet Pork Barbacoa

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Ingredients

• 1– 3 lb organic pork roast such as the butt or shoulder
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• 3/4 cup naturally sweetened cola soda (such as Zevia)
• Corn tortillas
• Avocado, cilantro, pickled onions and cotija cheese for garnish

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Instructions

1. Trim the pork roast of any excess fat. Leaving a little on is fine but try to clean it up as much as possible.
2. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and black pepper. Mix it with your fingers to create a rub. Rub the mixture all over the pork roast and place in the bottom of slow cooker.
3. In another medium size bowl, combine tomato paste, chicken stock and natural cola. Pour over the roast.
4. Put lid on slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
5. Remove roast from slow cooker and shred with two forks. Put shredded pork back into slow cooker to absorb the juices. Keep warm until ready to serve.
6. Place desired amount of pork into tortilla and top with avocado, cilantro, pickled onions and cotija cheese.