Pork Chile Verde Tacos and Refreshing Salad

I was feeling like pork chile verde today.  I'm not sure why. I got a big shipment of tri-tip and pork (organic, free range), from my source at work.  The pork loin was HUGE (4.5 lbs - and $50), and frozen solid.  So I bought some non-frozen pork at Trader Joe's to try out a new recipe before committing the big loin.  Plus, something that big deserves a party, or at least more than just our family.  So, I'll see what I can do about arranging that.

I used this recipe, edited a bit.  I only had 2 lbs of pork, and I used a full can of enchilada sauce.  So I ended up omitting the beer, the salsa verde, and the green chiles and tomatoes.  I think it would have been spicier with all of that, but the family likes it mild.  Gotta figure out how to spice things up on the side for me.  Even though it was 75F today, I enjoyed using my crockpot.

I was on fire today, with grocery shopping, making chile verde, making bagels, doing a ton of quilting, and walking 2 miles to the park so my son could play.  Yay for me!

The cost of the chile verde was about $14.50 (filling only).  $12 for the pork loin, $2 for the enchilada sauce, about $0.50 for the spices.  I topped it with sliced green onions, sliced radishes from the CSA, cheese, and guacamole. I estimate it will be about 4 or 5 meals (lunches/dinners).  I saved the meat in one container and the juices in another to use to flavor cooked rice.  My boss and my coworker brought me avocados 2 weeks ago, and darn it if they all didn't ripen on exactly the same day.  So I have 5 ripe avos in the fridge, and hope they last for the next 5 days.

The refreshing salad had lettuce, arugula, macadamia nuts, tangerines from our tree, carrots, and a rice-wine vinaigrette dressing (vinegar, oil, pepper, garlic powder).