Coke Pulled Pork and Parmesan Lime Corn

Yes, I counted the whole bun in my costs. Topless sandwich is for pix sake only!

Hobo Mondays

Thursdaynightsmackdown has a new once a month blogging event called Hobo Mondays: come up with a meal to feed 2 for under $5. Well, we are looking for ways to cut down our grocery bill over here at Pantry Raid, so I thought this was prime opportunity to get off my butt and actually DO something about it. 

As far as groceries go, I certainly have gotten better about using things up. We don’t have nearly the amount of food molding away in the back of our refrigerator that we used to. But I still don’t really do well on the low-cost meal front. I go to the store, I get excited, $16/lb imported Spanish chorizo gets purchased, you know the story. So anyway, here goes nothing!

I had a plan of what I wanted to make for my first Hobo Monday. But I got sucked into making something totally different cause pork country ribs were on sale this week. Count me IN. Menu be damned!

Coke Trafficking

So ok, now what? Pulled pork sandwiches sounds good. I’ve wanted to do rootbeer pulled pork forever. Then I  thought Coke pulled pork might be good too. AND since I live up the street from a Mexican market, I thought I could be super slick by using a can of Coke made with PURE sugar vs high fructose corn syrup. Somehow, Mexico gets the good stuff and in the States, we get HFCS. So I marched down to the store, grabbed the cool, retro, “Imported from Mexico” bottle, and headed to the checkout. Just to be sure, I checked the ingrediant list. HFCS! Dang it. Thwarted. Do tell why one would import Coke all the way from Mexico AND not have it be the kind with real sugar? Hmmm??? What’s the point? I plan on boycotting my little corner market in silent protest. Ok, I probably won’t, but right now I’m mad.

Mexican Street Corn (well, kinda sorta…)

Alright, pulled pork sandwiches. What goes with it? Corn sounds good. But plain corn is blah, so add some cheese, a little lime, maybe some cilantro and now we’re talkin’. We’ve got a great summertime meal. Never mind that it’s flipping April and it’s SNOWING outside. AGH!

How did I do?

Total meal cost? About $5 give or take. Here’s the breakdown:

$1.32 for pork (assuming 6 oz pp).
$0.94 2 rolls
$0.50 can of coke
$1.10 can of corn
$0.05 for half a lime (Mexican markets are CHEAP)
$0.05 sprinkle of cilantro (see above)
$1.00 worth of parmesan
a whole mess of pantry spices and a little bit of mayo

So $4.96. Just under the cutoff!

Coke Pulled Pork

Stolen verbatim from Chu This so just go there and, uh, follow the directions. The only changes I would make are to reduce the chicken stock to 1 cup (maybe less), add a little more sugar, and you really only need to reduce like a cup of the resulting liquid (otherwise you’ll be reducing the sauce for days).

Oh yeah – and those crispy things in the picture? Those are fried onions and they don’t count cause they were sitting, rotting away in my fridge from last week’s Pork Curry. Hey, just being frugal over here!

Parmesan Lime Corn

This is kind of a bastardized version of Elote – Mexican Street Corn. Usually served on the cob slathered with a mixture of cotija cheese, mayo, lime juice and cayenne pepper, I’ve chosen to make it off the cob and with parmesan instead of cotija cause, shoot, that’s what I had in my fridge. Oh, and I forgot the cayenne pepper. I sure am forgetful lately! 

Ingrediants:

11 oz can corn
2 T grated parmesan
1 T mayo
1 T cilantro
juice of half lime
salt to taste

Steps:

1. Heat corn in small saucepan. 

2. Remove from heat and add in mayo and parmesan. Stir till thoroughly combined.

3. Add lime juice, cilantro and salt to taste. Stir to combine and serve immediately.

 

Enjoy!

Ms. Pantry Raid