I’ve written before about the importance meal prep plays in my life: it makes eating healthy very easy, and packing lunches in the morning for work is a cinch when all I have to do is grab a pre-made Tupperware on my way out the door.

My fiance and I have been pretty diligent for the last few months about prepping our lunches for the week on Sunday nights. For a long time, we were doing grilled chicken and broccoli. Let me tell you, though. After about three months of essentially the same lunch, every work day, chicken is kind of the last thing you want to eat. Not to mention the fact that grilling what amounts to about eight chicken breasts in one night and prepping them for lunches is really time-consuming.

Mmmm. Chicken. And broccoli.

We are not about that life anymore. Or right now, at least.

And then, two weeks ago, we remembered that we have a crock pot and that it’s a life saver. We planned a recipe for the week that would not only not be chicken, but also be able to be thrown in the crock pot, and left alone for seven hours, so we could run errands and enjoy couch time without having to spend a chunk of our Sunday cooking.

Since we didn’t want chicken again, I suggested looking at alternative options at Costco – which, if you didn’t know, is one of the best stores on the planet. We ended up finding a huge pork loin (that could be halved, and frozen, and last us two weeks!) We got home, got to brainstorming, and put together this tasty recipe:

Ingredients:
3lb pork tenderloin (or whatever you have)

1 pineapple, chunked and thrown in the food processor until pureed

Teriyaki sauce, to taste

1 tsp-ish ginger

1 Tbsp-ish honey

Instructions:

Put tenderloin in crock pot – make sure it fits nicely, cut in half if needed. Peel pineapple, and cut into chunks. You can either leave your pineapple like this if you want big pieces in the final product, or you can use your food processor to puree it – I like this option better because it releases more of the juice. Cover pork in pineapple puree, add teriyaki, honey and ginger. You’ll notice that none of these measurements are accurate, because we don’t really measure – we eyeball. Oops. If you’d like, you can also add a little bit of BBQ sauce, too. I usually top my lunches with a little bit, too.

Cook for 6-8 hours, or until the meat falls apart.

That’s it! Super easy, super tasty, and a definite improvement over chicken and broccoli for months on end.

What are your favorite summer crock pot recipes?