Asian Peanut Butter Pork in a Crock Pot!

So last week I wrote about my fear of crock pots (which you can read about here) and a comment that kept coming up was to use it on the weekend for the first few times while I was home to see that there is no problem leaving it on when you aren’t home. This weekend I decided to do just that and was looking for a recipe that wasn’t what I consider a ‘typical’ crock pot recipe of stew or chili so I set out and searched the world wide web for an interesting but yummy alternative. I came across Stephanie O’Dea’s website, A Year of Slow Cooking and knew that the recipe had to be somewhere here considering she vowed to use her crock pot everyday for a year!! We had pork tenderloin in the freezer and hadn’t had it for a dinner in a while so I had the meat in mind I wanted to use and then I found this recipe on her site…..Asian Peanut Butter Pork….hello!!! I am one big Peanut Butter fan so I knew this was exactly what I was looking for! This recipe did not disappoint; the meat was so tender and the sauce was amazing!!! I strongly recommend you all try this out (of course if you like peanut butter & aren’t allergic to it). I will definitely be making this again and it did help me get over my fear a little bit….although I think I will have to use it one more time while at home before I take that leap and leave my crock pot on, home alone!

Asian Peanut Butter Pork in a Crock Pot

Ingredients:
serves 4
1.5-2lbs pork tenderloin
1 onion, sliced in rings
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons water
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter
2 tablespoons chopped peanuts (garnish; optional)
1 lime, cut in wedges (garnish; optional)

The Directions:
Use a 4-6 quart crockpot. Put onion slices into the bottom of yourcrockpot. Put the pork on top. Add brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, water, garlic, and peanut butter. No need to stir–the peanut butter needs to melt before you can do so. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4-6. The pork will be more tender the longer you cook it. 1 hour before serving, flip the meat over in the crockpot to allow the other side to soak up the peanutbuttery goodness. Garnish with chopped peanuts, and serve with lime wedges. The lime juice mixed with the peanut butter is delicious!