Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Happy Friday everyone! We made it through another week! If you checked out my "Day in the Life" post over at The Domestic Wannabe on Wednesday, you saw that I made Slow Cooker Pulled Pork for dinner. I had my first taste of this version at my friend Michelle's and asked her for the recipe before JJ's 1st birthday party (I will post on that before he's in college, I swear). I was surprised that it was actually a Spark People recipe! I pinned it a couple weeks ago to make sure I never lose it:

Source: SLCOLEMAN on  Spark People

It's a great option for weeknights - I just prepare the sauce the night before and throw everything in the pot in the morning before work. When I get home, all I need to do (most of the time, see below) is shred the pork and make some sides.

It looks gross, but I swear its delicious!

When I got home from work, I took a look in the cooker and saw that the sauce was really really watery, which is unusual. I double checked the recipe and realized I forgot to add the brown sugar. To try and save it, I added a couple teaspoons of brown sugar and some cornstarch to thicken it back up. I set it on high and stirred it every once in awhile while the rice was cooking. After I shredded the pork, I threw it back in the sauce to soak up a little more flavor. 

Overall, my save was pretty successful. It definitely tastes a little better when prepared right from the beginning, but it was still really good.

The Verdict: I've made this a bunch of times so its obvious I like it. It's sweet and juicy and makes great leftovers.

Things to Consider: Double check you included all the necessary ingredients! Also, the recipe makes a lot and is freezer friendly - so you can make it once and have it multiple times!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

by SLCOLEMAN posted on Spark People

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped celery 
1 cup chopped onions 
1 cup ketchup 

1 cup barbecue sauce 

1 cup water 
2 tbsp vinegar 
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 
2 tbsp brown sugar 
1 tsp chili powder 
1 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp pepper 

1/2 tsp garlic powder 
3 lbs boneless pork roast 

Directions:
Combine all ingredients except roast in the slow cooker. 
When well mixed, add roast. 
Cover, cook on high for 6-7 hours. 
Remove roast. 
Shred the meat and return it to the sauce. 
Note - You may want to thicken the sauce some.
Great for making sandwiches or using in other recipes. The sauce is good on rice too.

Creamy Ranch Chicken Pockets

I don't know why its taken me so long to post about these - they are a favorite in this house. I am always looking for an easy-to-put-together but tasty dinner recipe for during the week - and even more so now. Joe started a new job that has him commuting to the city. This means that I am now on pick up and drop off duty for JJ and we are getting home later. I am able to prep the filling for these ahead of time, and just stuff them and pop them in the oven when I get home. I am getting ahead of myself though - the inspiration for these Chicken Pockets came from this pin:


Source: Jenna Blogs

I must have repinned it during a random Pinterest browsing session because of the caption, "Chicken Rollups - chicken, cheese, cream cheese, and a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch powder - Amazing!" And who doesn't love those things? Unfortunately, when I went to make it the first time and clicked through, the recipe didn't match the caption. While Jenna's rollups did sound tasty, I really wanted the ranch version so I sort of just adapted her recipe and made some stuff up (and added bacon - yum!). I have made these multiple times now, so I am pretty comfortable with the recipe at this point.

Just like with the chicken and cheese lasagna rollups and biscuit topped chicken pot pie, I used rotisserie chicken to make life a little easier on myself. After my weekly grocery shopping one Sunday, I mixed up the filling and popped it into the fridge:

When I got home from work the next day, while the oven was preheating, I pulled out the crescent roll dough and started filling them. I make them big - so I use two crescent "triangles" to make a rectangle. Just sort of pinch the seam together. Once filled, I wrap up the corners together.

Then I melt a little butter, brush it on top, and sprinkle some breadcrumbs on top, because we are fancy over here when we eat crescents.

Pop them into the oven for a little longer than the crescent directions instruct (I think I had them in there 20 minutes, maybe 25). And here they are - all browned up.

 

 

The Verdict: These are a favorite in this house. An easy and tasty weeknight meal that I can prep ahead of time. Even easier when you use rotisserie chicken and pre-cooked bacon. They are sort of the dinner version of crack dip.

Things to Consider: There is a lot of bad for you stuff in this recipe (cream cheese, bacon, etc) so if you are looking for healthy, clean, paleo, vegan, etc - this isn't the recipe for you. That being said, the recipe makes 8 pockets, and they are pretty filling. Thursday nights are leftover nights so we usually finish most of them. If you are looking to stretch the recipe, however, I think the assembled but uncooked pockets would freeze well.


Creamy Ranch Chicken Pockets
adapted from this pin and this recipe

Ingredients:
1.5 cups cooked and chopped/shredded chicken
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup precooked and crumbled bacon
8oz brick of cream cheese, softened
1 envelope of ranch dressing mix
1/2 cup chopped onions or chives
2 cans Crescent rolls
1 tbsp melted butter
breadcrumbs

Directions:
Mix together chicken, cheese, bacon, cream cheese, dressing mix, and onions. Unroll crescent rolls and create rectangles out of two triangles each (see above). Gently press seams together to form the rectangles (each can will give you 4 rectangles). Scoop 1/8th of filling mixture into the center of each rectangle. Press corners together to close up pocket. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake following crescent roll directions adding more time as needed so crescents are brown on top and no longer "doughy" (totaling  about 20-25 minutes). Enjoy!

Spinach Berry Smoothie Packets

I have been a longtime reader of CensationalGirl. I love almost everything Kate does design wise. I have total house envy too - she had a beautiful home in California near wine country. But I digress, with my goal to be a bit healthier, I have been on the lookout for a smoothie recipe. I have been reading about green smoothies for awhile, but the thought of drinking something made entirely out of spinach or kale or celery just isn't appetizing to me. Then, just last week, Kate had a post about berry smoothies.

Source 

Even more appealing to me was the fact that she made little freezer packets so they are ready to make one at a time! So when Joe went food shopping last week, I had him get the necessary ingredients. Friday night I froze my yogurt in an ice cube tray and rationed out 6 spinach leaves, half a banana and the berries in little baggies.

Of course my packets look a hot mess and nothing like Kate's.

Saturday morning, after I finished my workout during JJ's nap, I decided to give the smoothie a try. I pulled out my packet, added a half cup of skim milk and half a cup of cranberry juice and blended...



Looks good, but is something missing??

My blender had a hard time getting through the frozen banana. Perhaps I need to invest in a new one.

 I gave it a taste, and, well, I wasn't a huge fan. It tasted a little too sweet and gritty and I felt like I could taste more of the spinach than I should have.

It took me until I was halfway done to realize I had completely forgotten to put in the frozen yogurt cubes. Fail. I dumped it back in the blender, and threw in a cube.

Yes, that's a Mickey Mouse cube. Its the only ice cube tray we have in the house. First world problems: having an ice maker in the freezer means we have only one ice cube tray.

Much, much better.

 Again, my blender had a hard time getting through the frozen yogurt. It felt like it was just mixing the frozen little ball around and not breaking it up. I finally got it somewhat blended and give it another try.

JJ in his little hoodie photo bombing.

The Verdict:
Much, much better with the yogurt. It was pretty tasty. I think Joe was a little skeptical of the spinach so he didn't try it, but he is a smoothie lover and I think he would love it. Clearly, I didn't use the SuperFood powder Kate used - I wanted to make sure I actually liked it before I ordered the powder. Once I give it a try a couple more times, I might give the powder a whirl.

Things to Consider:
My kitchen was a mess after I finally got it right. Berry juice was everywhere. Obviously it came from me going into and out of the blender 10 times, but I had to bleach my counters when I was done. Apparently I was supposed to mix the liquids first and then add the solids so perhaps that's why my blender had a hard time getting through the frozen stuff? Either way, does anyone have any recs for a new blender? 

I used frozen berries, and the 2 cups the recipe calls for used more than half the bag. It makes a big smoothie. I filled the glass in the pics to the top almost twice. Once I get through these initial packets, I think I am going to half the recipe for the next round.

I think I am going to try and pull out a packet before I start my workout so it thaws up a bit, then blend it up when I am done. I will report back after I get the hang of it.

SuperFood Berry Smoothie Recipe
by  Kate at Censational Girl
 
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh or frozen berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)
3 frozen cubes nonfat yogurt (vanilla, plain, or fruit flavored)
5-6 spinach leaves
1/2 banana
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1/2 cup nonfat milk, almond milk, or soy milk
1/2 scoop SuperFood Berry powder*

In a blender, mix liquids (1/2 cup cranberry juice and 1/2 cup milk). Add berries, yogurt, banana, spinach leaves, and SuperFood powder. Blend for a full minute on high until contents are thick and creamy. Add additional liquid or ice cubes or banana and berries to taste.

*Green Berry SuperFood is made by Amazing Grass, and is available at Whole Foods, at the Amazing Grass website, and Amazon.

Now and Later Cookies - A Housewarming Gift

Our cousin Claire just closed on her first house. It is such a cute place and I am so unbelievable excited for her. This past Saturday she moved all her stuff in. Joe went earlier in the day to do the heavy lifting, and JJ and I stopped by in the afternoon to bring some treats and I wanted to bring her a housewarming gift.

I saw a lot of pins in December showcasing frozen cookie dough as a gift. I love the idea because I feel like everyone gets a ton of cookies, but because they get so many a lot go to waste. And lets be honest, I am a cookie lover, but after a week straight of gorging myself on them, I have had enough. The idea is to provide the dough so the recipient can make a fresh batch when all the holiday craziness is over. See example here:

Source: Marci Coombs

I also saw this one:

Source: Write.Click.Scrapbook.

that combined the dough with a cookie scoop. That made me think of using this idea as a housewarming gift and provide the cookie baking supplies. I knew Claire didn't have any cookie sheets so the idea seemed perfect. I also decided to actually bake some of the cookies to provide a snack to the people there, and give a taste of what she can expect when she bakes them up herself.

I bought a couple cookie sheets, an oven mitt, spatula, and a couple freezerware containers while I was at the food store. Once I had the dough made, I froze a little more than half into individual cookies so she can bake just a couple at a time if she wants. Then I packaged it all up, and added a little tag with baking instructions.

The Results:
I think she really liked it. I know all the helpers enjoyed the fresh cookies. Also I didn't realize when I bought it but she also really needed that oven mitt - she didn't have one yet. Honestly though I am not sure if the dough will ever see the inside of the oven - its tempting to eat it right from the freezer!

Things to Consider:
I wish I had thought of this idea a little earlier so I could have sought out some cuter packaging. I love those little tubs I see from some of the pins. A cuter label would have been nice too but I was trying to cram it all in during JJ's nap. I think I will definitely make some of these for Christmas this year as a cute and inexpensive gift.

Looking for another housewarming gift idea? See Shannon's gift basket from last summer here.

Mini Quiches

You know I have a good backlog of posts when I still have a Mother's Day related topic and I have already posted about Father's Day! Since Joe and I have lived in this house, we have hosted a Mother's Day brunch for our families. At first I thought it would be nice to give the moms a break and let them enjoy themselves. But once I became a mom, I didn't want to give it up. This was our 4th year, so we have a pretty good system and menu down pat. This year though, instead of making one big quiche, I wanted to try making some mini quiches. Oven space here is at a premium and there is also a ham and a couple french toast casseroles that have to get in there. I figured with mini quiches they would take less time, I could make them in the morning, and then just heat them back up in the toaster oven when it was time to eat. I got the idea from this pin:

source

Of course that pin was really about freezer meals, but it gave me the idea to make my traditional Quiche Lorraine in mini form. The recipe I have been using for years is from cooks.com -  you can find it here and below (my adaptations are in red). Here are my pics and the modifications I made along the way:


First up, I prepared my muffin/cupcake pans. I sprayed them with some baking/cooking spray, then cut little circles of premade refrigerated pie crust with the biggest round cookie cutter I had.

cutting the crusts

Then I mixed up the filling. I had actually chopped and measured everything out the night before, so I could just throw it all together in the morning. It was super easy.

fillings all ready to go

I tried two different approaches - with one pan, I baked the crusts for a couple minutes to try and make sure they were crunchy, then I filled and baked the quiches. With the other pan, I just filled them and baked them with the raw dough (like the recipe calls for). Unfortunately, I think because the pans were sprayed well and the dough circles were already sort of hard, the precooked ones floated up to the middle of the quiche. It still tasted good, but they weren't as pretty.

onion, bacon, and cheese all sprinkled on the pie dough

Obviously, since they are smaller then a full sized quiche, I had to play with the cooking times. I had them in the 425 degree oven for maybe 7 minutes, then in the 300 degree oven for maybe 12 minutes. Just keep an eye on them - when they are all puffy and a tooth pic comes out clean they are done.

egg mixture poured on top and in the oven

I forgot to take pics of them in our Mother's Day spread - but I have since made them again one night when we had "breakfast for dinner". I made the same sized batch (makes maybe 22ish quiches) and froze the leftovers. Now its so easy to pop a couple out and throw them in the toaster for an easy (but delicious!) weekend breakfast!

fresh out of the oven

mmmm, bacon.

really need to read up on some photography lessons - I can't seem to get the lighting right!

The Verdict: Delicious. I can't speak for anyone else, but I loved them. I liked this recipe in its pie form, but I think I like it more in a mini form. I feel like the filling to crust ratio is a little better and the convenience of being able to freeze the extras is great (although we only had one left over from Mothers Day!). It was also great for our brunch because no one had to deal with cutting and scooping out a slice. Once we run out of our freezer stash I will definitely make another batch. I might mix it up and try another kind - but this is definitely a standby.

Things to consider: Just watch the baking time. I totally just guessed and it seemed to come out right. Also, I couldn't get enough full circles cut out of the dough - so I had to piece some scraps together for the last couple quiches. It came out fine, just not as pretty. I did notice that they "deflated" a little bit once they came out of the oven - anyone know how to keep them fluffy?


Quiche Lorraine (adapted from Cooks.com)

1 9 inch pie crust (I used both crusts that came in the refrigerated package)
12 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled (I used the pre-cooked bacon and just cut it up)
1 c. shredded Swiss cheese
1/3 c. finely chopped onion
4 eggs
2 c. half and half
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. cayenne red pepper

Prepare pastry (I cut circles out of the dough and placed them in a greased cupcake pan). Sprinkle bacon, cheese, and onion in pastry lined pie plate. Beat eggs slightly; beat in remaining ingredients. Pour egg mixture into pie plate. Cook uncovered at 425 degrees for 15 minutes (for mini quiches - 7ish minutes).

 

Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. Cook uncovered until knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean, about 30 minutes (for mini quiches - 10-15 minutes). Let stand 10 minutes before cutting (I waited a few minutes before popping them out of the pan).

We have a lot of events coming up that should generate some more posts: a baby shower, a bbq, JJ's Baptism (finally!) and hopefully some more home-related projects this summer as well - stay tuned!

Freezer Files: Martha Stewart Mini Meatballs

Another installment of Freezer Files. See #1 and #2 for some more freezer friendly meal reviews. Up this time is another from the Freezer Friendly Foods Slide Show from Martha - Mini Meatballs:

Recipe here.

This was one of the first things I made to freeze. I made two batches, one to eat that night and another to freeze for later. Now to be honest, this was back in October, before the baby, so my memory might be a bit hazy. The recipe is pretty simple - just measure, mix, form into balls and bake or freeze.

Here they are all rolled up ready to be chilled.

Once chilled, I put them in a freezer bag labeled with the cooking instructions.

And here they are once I finally made them.

The Verdict: They were not my best. I have made all different recipes of meatballs before, and this was not one of my favorites. I just tried it because the other recipe from that article came out well. There was waaaay too much garlic - and I don't think I even added as much as I was supposed to. I also didn't taste the bacon. They weren't awful, just not the best meatball - I know I can do better. They were also pretty simple to make, so there's a positive. Next time, I will use another recipe, double it, and freeze half.

Things to Consider: Do not use all the garlic it calls for. I also made them a bit bigger so I didn't get as many as expected.

Anyone out there have a better meatball recipe I can try? Are there any from Giada?

Freezer Files: Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun Dried Tomatoes

I am back with another review of meals that I froze while waiting for JJ to arrive. In case you missed it, here was my first review. Next thing to come out of the freezer I found on Martha Stewart. There was a whole article on freezer friendly meals. Here is the original pin:

(source and recipe)

This one made enough for two (plus) meals in one batch. One to eat that night, and one to freeze for later. I apparently didn't take any pictures of the actual cooking, but I do remember it was very messy. I don't have a dutch oven, so I used a big pot and it still made a mess when I added the pasta into the mixture. And there were lots of pots, bowls, etc to clean.

Here is the one we ate the first night - in the oven

Here it is all baked up

And this is the one I froze.

The Verdict: It was pretty good. I was worried Joe wouldn't like it - he tends to want tomato sauce on pasta, but he really liked it. I think I would add more chicken next time (one pound just doesn't seem like enough for two plus meals). I also cut back on the garlic (the last Martha recipe I made had waaaay too much). Each tray was enough to make two meals each (for two people). It froze well - the one from the freezer tasted just as good as the fresh one - just keep in mind it takes a long time to bake if its not defrosted in the fridge first. Like I said, it was really messy, so something to make on a lazy Sunday when I have time - not something to try during the week.

Stay tuned - I think I have 2 more freezer files to review!

Freezer Files: Biscuit Topped Chicken Pot Pie

Welcome to the first installment of my Freezer Friendly Meals review. During the last couple weeks of my pregnancy, I did some research to find some meals that I could make double, and freeze half. This way I would have a few easy meals to throw in the oven once the baby came. Thanks to our generous friends and family, I haven't had to made many of these yet. I finally got around to using this Chicken Pot Pie last week:

(source)

To be honest, I have made this Cooking Light recipe before, but have never frozen it. It is sort of time consuming and involved (I hate working with leeks!), but its very tasty, has lots of vegetables, and is a big hit in this house. So I made up two batches, we ate one that night and I split the other one up and froze them up.

Cooking up the leeks, shallots, potatoes, etc

Adding the vegetables into the creamy mixture

 Split up the batch into these two

Baked them just shy of being completely done, let them cool, then froze them.

The mess that is my kitchen while making this



So last week I pulled one out of the freezer and popped it in the oven. Obviously it took longer than normal, but it was so easy!

JJ was a hungry and being fed when I should have taken it out. The result was a little over done - but not burned. Still delicious! 

 Almost had leftovers, but I devoured the rest of this!



Things to consider: I buy a rotisserie chicken from my local Stop and Shop to use in this recipe. Cooking up chicken for this would make the whole process take even longer. I always add more vegetables then called for (it just doesn't seem like enough). Also, I put some butter on the topping before putting it back in oven after freezing it. Perhaps that takes away some of the "light", but it ensures it doesn't dry out. 

Like I said, it takes awhile and involves lots of chopping, mixing, measuring, etc, but it is worth the effort. Now that I know that it freezes well, I might make a habit of making two and freezing half for another time!