As long as I can remember, my family has eaten pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day.  It must be a German tradition because I’m something like 75% German.  We also eat a piece of a New Year’s Pretzel for good luck.  It’s nothing like a salty, soft pretzel (although I love those too).  A New Year’s Pretzel is more like a big, breakfast pastry with white icing (I’ll post a photo to my instagram account when we buy ours to explain better).

Since there are a lot of Germans living in Pennsylvania, pork is sure to be on sale this week at the grocery store.  It’s a great opportunity to stock the freezer with pork dishes to eat over the next few months.

If you’ve never made pork in your slow cooker before, you have to try it.  Seriously. It’s probably my favorite meat to cook in my slow cooker.  It falls apart and melts in your mouth.

Here are 3 awesome slow cooker recipes to get you started.  All of them would be great served with a side salad or some of my 3-year-old’s favorite roasted carrots.

Three Slow Cooker Pork Roast Recipes

Slow Cooker Pork and Sauerkraut

Ingredients

• 1, 2-3lb boneless pork roast
• 2, 16oz jars of sauerkraut (undrained)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds

Directions

• Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low for 10-12 hours, until pork shreds easily with a fork.

(Easy, right?  Aren’t slow cooker recipes amazing?!)

Slow Cooker BBQ Pork

Jacquie from The Sweeter Side of Mommyhood told me that she covers her pork with apple juice, cooks for 6-7 hours, drains and shreds the meat, and then puts it back in her slow cooker for an hour covered with a bottle of BBQ sauce.

Jacquie is one of those people who recipes I can always count on, so – without testing ahead of time – I followed her recipe to share with my friends for a Christmas party last Sunday.  It was a hit so I’m happy to share with all of you, too.

Slow Cooker Cranberry Pork Roast

I shared this cranberry pork roast recipe in a previous blog post, and several moms have already contacted me to say they made it and loved it.  If you ever make my recipes I would love to hear from you too.  Email me anytime.

Grocery List for All Three Recipes

If you want to take advantage of the pork sales this week and prep and freeze all three of the recipes shared above, here are the ingredients you’ll need:

• 3, 2-3lb boneless pork roasts
• 2, 16oz jars sauerkraut
• 6 cups apple juice
• 1 bottle of BBQ sauce
• 1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/4 cup dried, minced onion
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
• cooking spray
• 3, gallon-sized plastic freezer bags

To Freeze

Place ingredients for each recipe into a gallon-sized plastic freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. (You may want to reserve the jars of sauerkraut to add the day of cooking, but it’s up to you.  Freezing or adding day of cooking both work.) Check out my freezer meal tips for beginners blog post to see how I remove the air from my freezer bags to help the meals keep longer.  When ready to cook, thaw overnight in refrigerator and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

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What are your special New Year’s traditions?  I’d love to hear about them!