Crock Pot Pulled Pork

Today was the world’s easiest pulled pork recipe. 
No, seriously.
Like, there are only two ingredients!  Ready?  Go.

2 lb pork tenderloin (or other cut…whatever is a good price at your grocery store)
1 can root beer

Yep.  That’s it.  OK…now the hard part.

Put your pork in the crock pot.  Cover with the root beer.  Turn on low for 8 or so hours.

Good lord, people.  Could we get any easier?
I served mine with some BBQ sauce, whole wheat buns, and store bought roasted potatoes on the side. 

Lemme tell ya…there were a ton of dishes tonight.  ;o)

Spicy Taco Soup (w/Casserole Option)

One of my friends at work told me about this soup she made the other day.  When she gave me the recipe for Taco Soup I thought to myself…eh, this might be good.  I had no idea…

Honestly, if I hadn’t had most of the ingredients in my pantry I might not have made it.  It sounded a little like chili to me and I’m not a huge fan of chili.  I did have to make a couple substitutions (in bold next to the original ingredient) simply because I didn’t have exactly what the recipe called for, but I’m sure it would be great either way.

Turns out, this soup is like chili and it isn’t like chili at the same time.  Either way…it’s fantastic!

1 can whole kernel corn 1/2 family size bag Green Giant Frozen Sweet Corn (the kind with the butter chips)
1 can black eyed peas 1 can black beans
1-2 cans of other beans  1 can canneloni beans
1/2 jar salsa (I used off brand Tostitos mild chunky)
1 packet taco seasoning
1 large can tomato sauce
1/2 lb ground beef, cooked and drained 1 lb ground turkey
1/4 cup hot sauce

Mix everything together including the liquids from the cans of beans in a large stock pot, let come to a boil, and then reduce temperature to medium low.  Cook for at least 35-45 minutes.  The longer it cooks, the better it tastes.  Makes 8 cups.

This soup would be great topped with sour cream if you’re a fan accompanied by some corn bread, or even in a casserole of sorts.  Omit the bean juices and fill a casserole dish with the soup, then top with a l ayer of corn bread mix.  Bake at 400* until corn bread is fully cooked. 

Crock Pot Roast & Roasted Potatoes…A Sunday Classic

I haven’t had pot roast in years.  I always forget about how fantastic it is!  I don’t know why.  The other day I was trying to find a bunch of recipes for the crock pot that sounded good.  I ended up deciding on Pot Roast because I knew Jeff liked it and I knew it would be extra simple to make.  I went on my favorite website Allrecipes and did my traditional search through their wonderfulness of goodies.  I found the following recipe:

Awesome Slow Cooker Pot Roast
2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup (I used the 98% fat free)
1 package dry onion soup mix
1 1/4 cups water
5.5 lb pot roast*

Basically you just mix up the top three ingredients real well, throw in your pot roast, and set your cooker on low for 8-9 hours or high for 5-6 hours.  It was delightful.  I use those slow cooker liners so I dont’ have to fool with scrubbing my cooker after.  Works miracles.

*I always have a problem knowing which cut of meat to use.  I mean they don’t typically have “pot roast” stamped on the label at my grocery store.  Therefore, before I went I googled the best cuts of meat to use.  I suggest you do this with anything you are unsure of.  Just my opinion. 

To accompany this, I decided to try a recipe I found on another blog: Her name is Ree and she is fabulous.

 Roasted Garlic New Potatoes
2-3 pounds new potatoes, quartered
2 heads of garlic with the top sliced off
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white wine (or you could use chicken broth if you don’t like using alcohol)
salt & pepper

Lay all the potatoes on a baking sheet in a single layer.  Place the heads of garlic around the potatoes.  Drizzle everything with the olive oil and wine, making sure to include the garlic.  Sprinkle the mix with the salt and pepper.  Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes.  Uncover and bake an additional 20-30 minutes or until the potatoes get all nice and golden.  If you really love garlic, squeeze some of the roasted garlic onto toast or rolls.  Yum.

**One thing I like about Ree’s blog is that she includes photos for every step of the cooking process.  If you cook better with a visual, you should definitely check out her blog! 

Make Your Own Footwarmers

My feet are the first thing to get cold in the winter and sometimes, no matter how many blankets I pile on, they just will not get warm!  One year, many moons ago, my mom got me a product Jeff and I lovingly refer to as the “corn bags”.  Actually, Jeff refers to them as the “stinky, smelly, corn bags”.  They do kinda smell…a little like burnt popcorn.

Anyhow, they are cloth bags filled with dried corn kernels you can put in the microwave and heat up.  They hold the heat for a long time.  They are great for cramps, sore muscles, and of course heating up your cold feet in the winter.

The bags my mom got for me a long time ago have pretty much run their course.  I have used and reused them so much I think I actually am burning the corn now when I heat them up.  That being the case, I set out to make my own.

I had tried this in the past, but did not know where to get the corn part.  Plus, part of the reason I wanted to make new ones was to get rid of the icky corn smell Jeff hated so much.  After lots of research online I found out you can use rice.  Yay!  Easy to find and CHEAP!  Wanna make your own?  Here’s how:

You will need:
1 piece of cloth approximately 12″ x 8″ (or whatever size you’d like your bag to be)  *remember: you want to measure length by double the width since you will be folding the cloth over to make a bag.  In this case my finished product is 12″ by 4″ approximately.
Needle & thred the color of your cloth
1 bag of rice to fill the cloth bag
Tea leaves (optional)

First, decide how long you want your bag.  I wanted mine to fit across both of my feet with a little hangover on each side so it can comfortably lay on my feet and not slide off the side.  Then pick out a pretty cloth from the craft store or find a scrap piece of cloth laying around your house if you don’t care about aesthetics.  I chose an old hand towel I didn’t care about.  I cut it in half width wise and then (when folded) it was the perfect size bag.

Next, sew two of the sides together to create a seam.  If you are putting two separate pieces of cloth together instead of folding the cloth in half, you will have to sew three sides together.  Either way, you want all the sides except for one to be sewn closed.  Make sure you make the seam pretty tight.  Rice is small and there is a chance of it escaping if there are any holes in the seam.

Once your seam is created, fold your bag inside out so the sewn part is on the inside.  If you choose to mix some tea in with your rice, do so now and then place the rice mixture in the cloth bag.  Don’t overfill.  You still need to sew the final seam so the bag is complete.

Speaking of which, go ahead and finish your bag.  After all your seams are in place, you are left with a bag that can be heated over and over again to warm your tootsies.  Each microwave is different, so you may want to start with 2 minutes on high and increase your time little by little.  My perfect temp is between 3 & 3:30 minutes. 

*Updated!!* Fake Out Mexican Pizza

Thanks to one of my coworkers, I became obsessed with Mexican Pizzas from Taco Bell.  With my new attitude on food, the 570 calorie menu item is just not worth it in my book.  However, I still craved this yummy treat, so I decided to find a healthier alternative for nights when my craving just couldn’t be quieted with a healthy snack. 

Mexican Pizza

1 whole wheat low fat tortilla
1/2 cup fat free refried beans
1/4 cup 2% milk sharp cheddar cheese
2 packets mild border sauce (the packets of sauce from Taco Bell)

Toast the tortilla.  The best way I’ve found is to use a toaster oven set to “toast”, but you can use a pan with a little nonstick cooking spray or the regular oven as well.  The toaster oven (as well as the regular oven I assume) removes more of the moisture from the tortilla, therefore making it crispier.  Spread the toasted tortilla with the beans and top with the cheese and sauce. 

It’s not exactly the same as the fast food mexican pizza, but it helps satisfy a craving when I have one.

Oh…and it’s just 290 calories for the whole thing.

UPDATE!!!!!  10/17/09
OK, so I hated coming home from a long night at work to wait on a tortilla to crisp up in the toaster oven.  Plus, the flavor of the tortilla was not quite right when compared to the Taco Bell Mexican Pizza that I was trying to duplicate.  I remembered seeing some sort of round, crispy, tortilla like disc thing at the grocery store, so I wrote it on my handy, dandy list and made a point to look a little more closely at the ethnic aisle the next time I went to the grocery store.

TADA!  I found tostadas!  Mmm, mmm, good!  Tonight I tried out my mexican pizza and it was PERFECT!  The tostadas are 155 calories for 3, so one is just a little over 50 calories.  One tostada with 1/4 cup beans, 1/2 oz cheese, and 1 border sauce is the perfect size for a snack and it ends up being right around 150 calories.  I’m guessing Taco Bell uses tostadas in their pizza, because the taste was almost identical!  Try it!  You’ll like it!  I promise. 

Neato iTouch/iPhone Apps

If you know me and are around me at all, you know that I love love love Apple and Mac and the whole bit.  Buying an iTouch did not disuade me in the least.  In fact, I think I love Apple more now than ever because my life has gotten that much simpler.  You know the phrase from the commercial, “There’s an app for that” ?  It’s true.  Here are some of my favorite apps thusfar (click on the titles where applicable for more info):

1.  Grocery iQ This is a great app for people in charge of doing the grocery shopping each week.  You can load as many stores as you want and then create a shopping list of items to get at each store.  If you are like me and tend to visit two different grocery stores, you can move items between stores.  For example, I went to Kroger on Friday to get several things.  While there, I could not find a couple items so I transferred them to my list for Dorothy Lane (my gourmet grocery store). 

Another great thing about this app is that once you pick up the item at the store, you can click on the box to the left and it goes into your “cart” at the bottom of the screen so you only see items you still have to shop for.  Once you are completely done with your shopping, you click on “Check Out” and the list you just used is saved into your history.  I could go on and on about this app, but then I wouldn’t have time to list any other ones.

2.  CouponsManager  I have been trying to become a coupon clipper for a couple months now, but for some reason I always manage to forget my coupons at home or I don’t have time to organize them.  Now, I don’t have to spend as much time as before.  This app allows you to input all the coupons you clipped from Sunday’s paper.  It takes down the product name, expiration date, the amount off, the number of coupons you have for each item, etc.  Then you can sort them by name or date.  I haven’t used this one much, but if it works the way I think it is going to, I will be in love!

3.  FitnessBuilder  I believe I talked about this in a previous post.  This app is AWESOME for figuring out what exercises to do to work out your desired body part.  It is preloaded with over 100 different workouts, plus it lists tons of exercises separately so you can build your own.  I have used this app a couple different times and am impressed that it tracks the amount of time spent on each workout and lets you keep track of how much weight you used during your workout.  As many of you know, I use Calorie King to track my calories and my exercise.  This app helps tremendously with the timing of my workouts.

4.  My Starbucks  Love coffee?  Me too.  Get confused at the million and one different kinds of coffee offered at Starbucks?  ME TOO.  This app is fantastic cause it tells you every single drink they offer and lets you customize it any way you want.  You choose whether you want a hot or cold drink, then pick from their listing of beverages to get started.  You pick the size, the type of shot, the type of milk, any add ons, and any extra preparation type things (upside down, room for milk, extra hot, etc) you want.  Then, the thing I like best, you can complete your drink and it will tell you how many calories it is!  Neato!

Those are my most favorite apps as of right now.  Please feel free to let me know if you have any apps that are fantastic for you!  I am always on the lookout for the next great app.

Crock Pot Cookery Bonanza!

I got an email from my mom a while back listing a ton of different crock pot recipes.  I thought I would share the website with you guys too!  Let me know if you try any that you really like.  Enjoy!

Crock Pot Cookery

Dinnertime Dilemmas

I am pretty busy lately.  My job requires me to be there nearly 50 hours a week, plus I usually go to the gym for about an hour each day.  This leaves me pretty tired when I get home from work and not wanting to spend hours in the kitchen. 

So, my dear readers, I need some dinner inspiration.  What is your favorite, quick, weeknight meal?  What do you find yourself making over and over again?  Please leave me a comment and help me get out of this dinnertime slump.  Thanks in advance!

Quick Tip #4

Rachael Ray is onto something when she says to prep your produce when you come home from the store.  I love adding sauteed peppers, onions, and mushrooms to my egg dishes in the morning.  It keeps you fuller longer and it adds a great flavor!

I am a huge fan of those Ziploc Twist N Loc containers (I have a whole drawer full of them).  They keep the air out and keep your food really fresh for a long time!  I dice up my onion, pepper, and sometimes my mushrooms and throw them into their own container.  Then when I need something, it is all ready for me to use.  I even sometimes saute the vegetables and then put them in the container.  They keep pretty well for a couple days!

Quick Tip #3

Don’t you hate when you go to use brown sugar and it is hard and clumpy?  I know I do.  Even when I use my handy, dandy airtight container, every so often I find myself with the hard and clumpy crap.

My solution to this problem?  Pop it in the microwave for a couple seconds.  It will “melt” the sugar, resulting in soft, yummy goodness for all your delicious cakes and cookies.

Ahhhh.  Brown sugar makes me smile.