Recipe #37: Pork Tacos with Corn and Avocado Salsa

I’ve decided that there are just too many recipes floating around the universe, and frankly, it’s overwhelming.  Countless websites and dozens of magazines equal one giant headache for deciding what to eat. At least for me. Too many choices make my head spin, and instead of helping to find something to cook for dinner, it actually hinders me. So what to do? Simplify. 

Step 1:  Pick a Recipe 

Last Christmas I received a subscription to Canadian Living. It has really great tips on things that touch everyday life, from parenting to exercising to fashion, and of course, food.  After flipping through the month’s offerings of recipes, I decided to try them out, starting with one a week. Perhaps you’ve heard this from me already…. It isn’t unlike the project I started on this here very blog, cooking a new recipe once a week. I’ve just simplified where I pick the recipe from, and since the magazine gets delivered to my door, that make it even easier! 

NOTE: I love sharing what I'm cooking up in my kitchen, so if you're looking for other recipe suggestions, check out From the Kitchen of BBB. You can also find them by clicking on the Recipe labels tab on the right side of this page.

Step 2: Menu Plan

Now that my time is divided between work and family, I’m finding that the time I have to cook has to now fit into a short period of space. So menu planning really helps me make the best use of my time and my ingredients. I spend some time at the beginning of each week planning out a week’s worth of meals (yup, on handy dandy excel sheet), and then create a shopping list of items to buy. Sometimes the ingredients will help decide the dish, but most often, I cook what I feel like. There are still a lot of quick and easy recipes that re-appear on my weekly menu, but I always make sure there is at least one new recipe. And most new recipes freeze well as leftovers for a meal later that month.

This week, I tried out the pork tacos, and why this one works so well as a quick weeknight dish is this: the pork is cooked ahead of time in the slow cooker (which I did on Sunday), then frozen in batches for future use. I only had to warm the pork and the tortillas, cook the frozen corn, chop the avocado, and mix them together with a few other ingredients. It really was that simple.

Why I loved it? Besides being quick to make, the taste was awesome! The salsa was fresh and had that great combination of sweetness (from the corn) and acidity (from the lime) that it really balanced the whole dish. We skipped the sour cream, radishes, and cilantro (sometimes my shopping lists are not that reliable...), but I don’t think they needed it.  My tip to you is to buy fresh tortillas, if you have access (Lone Star sells them fresh, and they freeze really well); they really do make a huge difference. 

Shredded Pork Tacos with Corn and Avocado Salsa

    Prep time:  10 minutes

    Total time:  10 minutes

    Portion size:  4 servings

Ingredients

    8 soft flour tortillas, (6 inches/15 cm) – fresh if you can get them!

    2 cups (500 mL) Slow Cooker Shredded Pork

    1/2 cup (125 mL) sliced radishes

    1/3 cup (75 mL) sour cream

    1/3 cup (75 mL) chopped fresh cilantro

    lime wedges

Smoky Avocado Corn Salsa:

    1 cup (250 mL) frozen corn kernels, blanched

    1 avocado, peeled, pitted and cubed

    1 clove garlic, grated

    1 tbsp (15 mL) lime juice

    2 tsp (10 mL) olive oil

    Pinch smoked paprika

    Pinch each salt and pepper

Preparation

Smoky Avocado Corn Salsa: Gently toss together corn, avocado, garlic, lime juice, oil, paprika, salt and pepper.

Heat tortillas according to package instructions. Divide pork among tortillas; top with corn salsa, radishes, sour cream and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges to squeeze over top.