Feeding the Active Writer

I don't have time to cook every day.  That's part of what "The Active Writer" bit is all about, things I can cook ahead with minimal fuss (mostly) and eat on all week.

What often happens when I have roasts, whether a pork loin cooked in the oven or a slow cooker potroast is that by the end of the week what's left is rather dry and bland and not appetizing at all.  So I'll take what's left, wrap it in foil, and toss it in the deep freezer.  There it waits as emergency food or until enough accumulates that I've got to do something with it.

And so that brings us to today's recipe:

Barbecue leftover pot.

Ingredients

4-5 lbs of leftover cooked meat.  Beef, Pork, Chicken, doesn't matter what really

1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tbsp finely minced garlic (I buy it in jars pre-minced so I don't know how many cloves that would come to--I like garlic).
12 oz tomato paste
2 12 oz cans tomato sauce.
1 12 oz can diet cola 
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar-free catsup
2 Tbsp mustard.
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 Tbsp hot sauce (or to taste.  I use Cholula original because their Chili Garlic is no longer available--did I mention I like garlic?
1/4-1/2 cup Splenda or equivalent (to taste)

Add the meat to a 4-5 quart slow cooker
In a medium mixing bowl combine the other ingredients except the Splenda.  Pour it over the meat.
Cook on low for 10-12 hours.
Stir, the Spenda into the pot.  The meat should shred nicely.  I recommend you add the sweetener bit by bit, tasting at intervals until you find how sweet you like your barbecue.

The sauce replaces the liquid in the dried out meat.  The acid in the vinegar helps break up the muscle fibers so the meat separates and the sauce can get into it.

Serve with vegetables or make a wrap with low-carb tortillas.

Yummy.