Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

The Easiest Pulled Pork

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Need a meal to feed a crowd? Make the Easiest Pulled Pork!

You know I’m not a gourmet cook. I’m not even super eager to try new spices in my recipes, simply because I like to stick with basics that I always have on hand. It’s just easier for me this way and saves brain energy and effort.

The food is still delicious!

One of the first times I made this Easiest Pulled Pork and fed it to our YC soccer teams, one of the coaches told Matt, “I don’t know what your wife does to season that meat, but it is so good!”

Truth: Matt’s wife barely does anything to season the meat. But shh. Don’t tell!

I just find that food can really taste great without going to a lot of trouble and taking a lot of time. Since it was a hit last year, I made pulled pork again for the teams this year. I made 20 pounds of pork, and I’m pretty sure it only took 5 minutes of prep.

How I make pulled porkYum

  1. Put the pork butt in the slow cooker (when I make huge amounts, I use a large roaster instead of a crockpot).
  2. Sprinkle on salt and garlic powder.
  3. Peel a few onions if I have time. Cut them and throw them in with the meat.
  4. Cover and walk away.
  5. Well yeah, plug it in and turn it on low first. Then cover and walk away.

The meat slow cooks for hours then falls apart at the end of the day. It practically shreds itself. Then it can be served on buns with barbecue sauce and that’s that!

Now, those of you with smokers can surely turn out much better-tasting pulled pork than I! But this is a method that any of us can do if we have a slow cooker of some kind. And pulled pork is an inexpensive and easy way to feed a crowd!

The Easiest Pulled Pork

The Easiest Pulled Pork
 
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Serves: 24 servings
Ingredients
  • 6-8 pound pork butt
  • sea salt
  • garlic powder
  • 2-3 onions (optional)
Instructions
  1. Place the pork in a slow cooker.
  2. Sprinkle on seasonings liberally.
  3. Peel onions and chop them on top of the meat.
  4. Cook on low for 10 hours.
  5. Use a knife and fork to shred the meat, which pulls apart quite easily after the meat has cooked slow and low!

Don’t need to feed a crowd, just your family? You can still make this easy meal and then freeze the shredded meat in meal-sized portions to pull out and rewarm as needed. SO EASY!

Feeding a crowd and want to get ahead? Make this meat days or weeks ahead. Put the shredded, cooled meat into freezer bags to save in the freezer until you need it. Then thaw and reheat as needed.

Great Sides to Serve with Your Pulled Pork

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Decorate Your Own Cookies – a Fun Tradition We Enjoy With Guests!

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We’ve started setting up a “Decorate Your Own Cookies” table when we host college kids or teens for youth events during any holiday season. It’s been a huge hit so I thought it was time I shared it with you!

Now, mind you, I throw (almost) all of my “food coloring is bad” knowledge out the window to make this fun tradition happen. Sometimes occasions just call for sprinkles, you know?

TIP: To add color to frosting without as much compromise, we’ve found this Natural Food Coloring to be wonderful! You can even get naturally dyed sprinkles!

How to Set up a “Decorate Your Own Cookies” Table for a Group:

1. Make cookies ahead of time according to the holiday. Christmas cookie cut-outs, heart-shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day, Easter egg or bunny-shaped eggs at Easter, etc. Here’s our favorite Cream Cheese Cut-Outs recipe!

2. Set out baked cookies along with a variety of fun frosting, sprinkles, and other decorating options for people to “play with.”


3. Be sure to set out knives, plates, napkins – an even toothpicks for the extra creative  in the group!

This simple idea has been so much fun when we have groups of kids or young adults over for meals. Not only that, I’ve found that it saves me time when preparing to host a large group. Instead of decorating a bunch of cookies to serve for dessert as we celebrate a special holiday, I just prepare the decorations and cookies and let everyone else do the decorating. It’s a win-win!

Don’t forget cupcakes!

You can use this same idea with cupcakes, which is even easier than cookies. Bake cupcakes and let everyone frost and decorate their own!

I certainly hope you enjoyed this sugar-filled, sprinkle-topped, food-colored post. Eeeeek. But hey, it’s all about hospitality, loving your guests, and having fun together!

Rest assured, I will still never encourage you to buy margarine. Okeedokee then. :)

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Make-Ahead Mac-n-Cheese For a Crowd

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I’d never tried Make-Ahead Mac-n-Cheese before, but figured it was worth a shot! I wondered: Could I make my easy Mac-n-Cheese for a crowd, then put it in the crock pot to stay warm? After all, I didn’t want to be a slave to the stove just as my guests were arriving.

Obviously it worked marvelously, otherwise I wouldn’t be here telling you about it. I definitely feel that this dish is best fresh, right off the stove. But the day I was feeding 25 teens, I needed a side I could make ahead and keep warm. As it turns out, we can make Creamy Mac and Cheese en mass, then put it in a crock pot to stay warm until serving time.

A few small details about making Mac-n-Cheese for a Crowd: Plan to use lots of sea salt. It can be rather bland otherwise. I even go the extra mile and stir in some garlic powder for a little extra pazazz.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: When making this Creamy Mac and Cheese, always remove it from the heat BEFORE you add the cheese. It’s not difficult, but breaking this creamy mac-n-cheese rule will give you weirdly textured pasta. So cook your pasta in the milk, slide it off the heat, then add cheese. See how simple?

Make-Ahead Mac-n-Cheese for a Crowd

Make-Ahead Mac-n-Cheese For a Crowd
 
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Serves: 25-30
Ingredients
  • 32 ounces dry pasta (I use whole wheat noodles)
  • 6½ cups whole milk
  • Sea salt to taste (1-2 teaspoons)
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 3-4 cups shredded cheese (I use Colby jack; cheddar is also great)
Instructions
  1. Mix pasta, milk, sea salt, and garlic powder in a large sauce pan. (I've found it best to divide ingredients into two large pots for faster and more even cooking.)
  2. Cook over medium-high heat stirring almost constantly until the pasta is tender (10-15 minutes).
  3. Remove from heat. (IMPORTANT!)
  4. Add cheese and stir until melted.
  5. Transfer Mac-n-Cheese to a large (6-8 quart) crock pot.
  6. Keep warm at "lo" setting for up to three hours.
  7. Stir in a bit more milk at serving time as needed.

 

When making a large amount of Mac-n-Cheese like this, I usually use this variety of whole wheat elbow noodles.

Need more ideas for cooking for a crowd? Check out this link:

44 Meals to Feed a Large Crowd

Did you download a free Simple Ingredients list yet? Keep all the basic ingredients on hand that you need to put together delicious, Simple Meals!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Menu Plan for the Week – Let the “Feeding the Masses” Season Begin! *With a Bun Update*

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I mentioned several weeks ago that we’d be hosting our High School Youth each Sunday night beginning in the fall. (This has traditionally been called “Huddle”.)  This begins today! I’ve been both excited and intimidated about this committment. Each Sunday night we’ll have around 30+ teens in our home. They are great kids though, plus we have two or three other great adult couples who will be joining us and who have offered to help with the food prep at any time. I plan to say “yes” to this offer of help whenever I need to – I’d be crazy not to! I’ll also be referencing this list of “Food to Feed a Crowd” as well as all of your helpful comments for meal ideas each week.

In addition to hosting the high schoolers on Sunday evenings, Matt and I have started teaching a marriage class on Sunday mornings in our home for six young married couples. We meet before worship time begins at church, and I’m hoping to provide some sort of muffin or other breakfast item along with coffee and juice each morning during class. Having these treats seems to put everyone at ease and well, the smell of hot coffee and muffins is just welcoming, isn’t it? We really want these couples to feel welcome and loved in our home. (Yes, food is my love language.)  :)

In order to pull all of this off this year, I’m going to have to be very organized and try to get as much done on Fridays and Saturdays as possible. When I can, I’ll take pictures to share. Although it’s not terribly exciting, I was able to snap a shot of my beverage table this morning before class. I had to put the Applesauce Bread in a separate spot since this table filled up too quickly!

Today, we also had a church potluck. Food, food and more food! Here’s our menu for the week:

Sunday, September 18
Applesauce bread, fruit plate, coffee, juice
Potluck – Italian pasta bake, frosted brownies, green beans
“High School Huddle” – BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, cream cheese corn, homemade pickles (provided by my friend), carrot sticks with homemade ranch, grapes, butterscotch bars

Monday,  September 19
Simple soaked pancakes, blueberries
Taco potatoes, fresh peaches
Chicken noodle soup, carrot sticks

Tuesday, September 20
Crustless breakfast quiches, oranges
Tuna salad on tomato slices, strawberry-peach slushies, sweet peppers
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, tossed salad

Wednesday, September 21
Coconut flour muffins, apples
Black bean salsa, organic corn chips, grapes
Chicken veggie quesadillas, fruit salad

Thursday, September 22
Pancake sausage muffins, applesauce
Cheeseburger macaroni, peas, cantaloupe
Lamb chops, baked potatoes, zucchini

Friday, September 23
Peanut butter honey toast, pears
Chicken burritos, fruit
Hamburgers, potato wedges, peaches, green beans

Saturday, September 24
Scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, peaches
Leftovers
Beef stroganoff, green beans, tossed salad

Question for you – for tonight’s pulled pork sandwiches, I purchased a 9 pound pork roast. I feel like that will be plenty of meat for 30 people, but I don’t think I got enough buns. How many buns would you feel necessary for 30 teens and adults? I know this shouldn’t be so complicated but for some reason I can’t feel comfortable with the amount of buns I got. But I don’t want a bunch of extras because one of my sons LOVES white flour buns and I’d prefer not to have lots leftover for his happy little white bun indulgence. :)

—————————————————–

Hi. I have a bun update. :)

I had originally purchased 40 buns, but we went and got two more packages just to be safe. We ended up only using 38 (surprisingly), even though there were 35 people here (my kids included). Therefore, we would have been okay with only the 5 packages of buns. Still, it was great to have piece of mind about the buns. Also, the 9 pounds of meat was the perfect amount as we only had enough meat leftover for two sandwiches.

Several ate only meat and bbq sauce without the bun. Several others came back for seconds. I still think using what many of you suggested as a general rule, estimating 1.5 buns per person is a great idea. I’ll do it this way from now on.

Also, the Butterscotch Bars and Cream Cheese Corn (recipe in Holiday Hospitality ebook and Learn to Cook ebook) were HUGE hits!!!

Most exciting of all – we asked the kids to each rinse their plates and cups and put them into the dishwasher after they were finished eating. At the end of the night, all I had to do was wash a few serving dishes and turn on the full dishwasher. Awesome! We are definitely going to go with that system every week!

Thank you all for your helpful input about my buns. I mean about the burger buns. Oh, you know what I mean. ;)

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