Mango Pork Carnitas Tacos

I have a confession to make. I’m pretty sure I dislike Tuesday more than Monday.

At least on Monday you can spend half your day reminiscing with your coworkers about how amazing your weekend was. Like you’re still on the weekend high. By Tuesday, though, that high has totally worn off and you are just stuck looking ahead to the weekend, which is super far away. And depressing.

See what I mean? Tuesdays are not my favorite.

But I’ll push though. Just have to dream about the weekend!

ANYWAY, I don’t know about you, but I actually had a pretty decent Monday. Work wasn’t too bad (I actually like how productive Mondays always seem to be for me), despite the cold weather! Brrr! I miss the sunny spring weather from last week!

After work I headed to the gym for my first real workout. I’ve kind of been playing around with some ideas for a new workout routine, but in the meantime I’ve decided to do some of my favorite Best Body Bootcamp workouts! I have a feeling I’ll probably keep up with some of them once I do set up a new schedule (it’s in the works right now… I want to try out a few classes first to see what I like), but not follow the plan exactly. That’s one of the best parts about Tina’s plan – you can be super flexible!

I did have an interesting experience at the gym today though. While I was going through one of my exercises, I had a trainer come up to me (basically out of the blue) and correct me on my form.

Now, I have not really been around enough trainers to know the etiquette on this stuff, but I couldn’t decide whether I should be embarrassed that I was doing a move wrong and needed to be corrected by a stranger, or grateful for a good trainer to come by and help me out. Any trainer friends out there have any thoughts? Is it common for trainers to just walk around and help people? The trainers at my old gym basically kept to themselves unless you were paying them, so this was a totally new experience to me.

After the gym I came home to a delicious smelling house thanks to some ingredients that I threw together in my crockpot this morning! Introducing…

Mango Pork Carnitas Tacos

Adapted from this Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pork tenderloin

1.5 tbsp minced garlic

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup orange juice

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 chipotle chiles canned in adobo sauce, drained and chopped

Flour or corn tortillas

1/2 chopped red onion

1 tomato, chopped

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1 jalapeño, seeded and diced

1 mango, cubed

Lime ledges (optional)

 

Directions:

1. Place pork tenderloin at the bottom of crock pot. Combine cumin and next 3 ingredients (through black pepper) in a small bowl. Sprinkle pork on all sides with spice mixture.
2. Combine juices, chipotle chiles, and garlic. Pour juice mixture over pork. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours or until pork is tender.
3. Remove pork from slow cooker; shred with 2 forks. Add in additional cooking liquid as necessary.
4. Mix diced tomato, red onion, jalapeño, and cilantro in a bowl. Mix in 1 tsp lime juice and a pinch of salt. Mix thoroughly.
5. Top warmed tortilla with pork, pico de gallo (tomato/onion/jalapeno mixture), and mango cubes.
6. Enjoy!

 

This is such a nice summery alternative to normal beef or turkey tacos. The orange juice and chipotle chilies give the pork a tangy and spicy flavor that goes so well with the salty pico and sweet mango. You cold also even mix your mando right into the pico and let the flavors meld together even more in the fridge.

Chris and I have already agreed that this is a dish that will make it on to our summer staples list.

So tell me: What is on your summer staple list?