I have a huge weakness for Mexican food.  We have so many Mexican places in town, and I just love stopping in for dinner when we don’t feel like cooking.  Ever since I started living primally, my visits to the Mexican place have been few and far between.  When I do go there, I order carnitas.  I made some at home last night, and I’m so happy with how everything came out that I’m writing about it here.

I put a pork roast in our Crock Pot on Sunday with some Wicker’s marinade.  This is my “almost barbecue” recipe from earlier in this blog.  Since the Wicker’s really isn’t strong, I decided to serve the pork like carnitas – I sauteed the pork so that there were some crunchy little tips and served it along side Mexican “Rice” from Fast Paleo.  It’s a really good dinner (or leftovers for lunch!).

In the past, I have grated my cauliflower with a box grater, but this time I processed the head of cauliflower in the food processor.  So much faster and safer for my fingers!  I also had less waste!

1 Head of Cauliflower

While I processed the cauliflower, I had onion and garlic on the stove getting soft and translucent.

cumin, chili powder, garlic salt

Add the cauliflower to the onions and garlic, then the spices.  I only used 1 T of cumin instead of 2 T.  It seemed like a lot of cumin to me, and my result was just fine.

cauliflower “rice”

spice for all!

mix it all up, let sautee for a while

Add the chicken stock and stewed tomatoes (I went ahead and used an entire 15 oz. can of Mexican-style stewed tomatoes).  Let this cook down and cook the liquid out for at least 30 minutes, stirring often.  It will eventually get to a rice-y consistency.  It could take longer, so don’t start this thinking it will all be ready in 30 minutes.

jalapenos

I chopped up some onions, jalapenos, cilantro, avocado, and grated some cheese.  I then shredded some of my pork roast and heated it up in a skillet over the stove to get some texture to the meat.  While it doesn’t have the spicy flavor of real carnitas, it is a simple, easy way to eat Mexican style without the temptation of corn chips!

dinner is served

These guys got rowdy while I was cooking.  The one in the harness hates the camera, the other wants him to play so bad!

arg