When it’s 97¢ a pound, yes you can!

Can you make pork kabobs with pork shoulder? When it is 97 cents a pound, then yes you can! Add a few extra minutes to your prep time because sawing through the fat isn’t that fun, but for the price I couldn’t say no.

The Inspiration

• Emeals Pork and Pineapple Kabobs
• With Grilled Spicy Sweet Potato Packet         
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes                                                

The Pivot

• Tenderloin ($4.99/lb) to Pork Shoulder (97¢/lb at Kroger this week!)
• Grill to Oven (It was raining today…)
• Spicy to Kid Friendly (Some like it hot…. But not my 5-year-old.)

The Scene

• Listening to: Amazon Music’s Viral Hits (Alexa’s choice today…)
• Clean up: Easy
• Can kids help? Yes.
• Did they like it? Everyone liked the kabobs, 5 out of 7 liked the potatoes.
• Adding to our favorites? No, but it was good and I would make it again!

I love the convenience of emeals + Walmart, but sometimes I get some crazy things added to my grocery pickup. Last week I (thought I) ordered 1 bunch of green onions but somehow ended with 10 bunches! That’s a lot of green onions. Yes, they would have refunded my money if I asked but it would be like $2.00 soooo…. I was pretty much handing onions out as door prizes when people came over and putting them in everything… eggs, stir-fry, ramen, garnish for pretty food pics… But I saw this green onion adorned kabob recipe on E-meals Top Trending Menu this week and I was sold. The Cheap Mom/Waste Not Want Not gods smiled upon me. Don’t usually bust out the grill mid-week, plus it is raining today, SO oven kabobs it is!

I started dinner a little earlier than usual because I wasn’t sure how the pork shoulder would work out. I trimmed the fat as best I could and cubed the meat. Since I had time, I went ahead and put the pork in a marinade using the spices in the emeals recipe (plus some garlic powder, onion powder, and love). I used the olive oil it called for and opened the can of pineapple and used the juice in the marinade.  

There was still a lot of meat around the bone so I ziplocked that bad boy and put it in the freezer so I can forget about and throw it away in a few months. Or… make some pork and beans? I don’t know. But it’s there.

I love a good packet meal! Throwing away a piece of foil rather than doing dishes? Yes please. Although I am quite thrifty, one of my kitchen must haves is the GOOD foil from Sam’s. I am pretty sure I save money (and I know I save time!) using the heavier duty stuff.

When do you ever have the perfect amount of meat + veggie + skewer? I pretty much never do, or more likely, I get tired of putting the stupid meat on the stick because there are too many of us around here and we are hungry! I just dump all the extra kabob stuff into a packet and throw that on the grill or in the oven too.

I am not a fan of maple syrup, BUT I made the sweet potatoes just as the recipe said. I just split the potatoes into two packets and replaced the cayenne pepper with black pepper in one of the packets so the kids would eat it. Charly helped with the side today and she had fun dumping everything into the packets.

I put everything into the oven for 25 minutes at 375 degrees. I rotated the skewers around every 10 minutes. And bam! Pork shoulder kabobs. They were not too tough and got a thumbs up from everyone!

Recipe

Ingredients

• 5-6 lb pork shoulder, fat trimmed, cut into 1½-inch pieces
• 1 (16-oz) container pineapple chunks
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 8 green onions, cut into 3-inch pieces

Instructions

Combine pork, pineapple juice, oil, and spices in a large bowl; toss. Marinate for 1+ hours.

Preheat oven to 375°. Alternately thread pork, pineapple, and onions onto skewers.

Bake kabobs, 25 to 35 minutes, turning occasionally, until pork is done.

Side Dish Ingredients

• 3 lb sweet potatoes, cut into bite-size chunks
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• ¼ black pepper

Side Dish Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°. Toss half of the potatoes, half oil, half maple syrup, half salt, and cayenne pepper on a large sheet of heavy-duty foil; seal foil. Toss half of the potatoes, half oil, half maple syrup, half salt, and black pepper on a second large sheet of heavy-duty foil; seal foil.

Bake 15 to 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender.