Peachy Pork Picante

So I have this pork recipe from a 5 Ingredient Cookbook that I love. Its simple, tasty and only includes 5 ingredients... and rice. My mom got the cookbook one day and I fell instantly in love with it. I wrote down some of my favorite recipes from it to take to college with me. She tried to buy me my own but couldn't find the same one. The current one she got me is just not the same. Anyway, I decided to just wing the pork recipe one night, add some stuff to it. So I browned cubed pork in a skillet with evoo and onions, added some red bell peppers about half way through. Seasoned the mix with taco seasoning, cooked a little, added some salsa and peach preserves. Covered and simmered for a bit, tasted and added some more taco seasoning. Served it over my all time favorite rice. I only got three dinners worth out of it but that's ok, totally worth it.

Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday for food. I love every bit of it! When I was at home we would have turkey, candied yams, corn, stuffing, cranberry jelly, dinner rolls, applesauce, maybe a salad, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, maybe pumpkin cheesecake too (we like pumpkin in my family!). My other family (being away at school) has introduced me to some new side dishes over the years such as green bean casserole, stuffing I will actually eat, garlic mashed potatoes, corn bread, apple cider, cranberry salad/ ambrosia. At first I was a little afraid , "what no corn? how can there be no corn? And what is green bean casserole, yuck!" But I quickly got over it when i realized how good it was.

For thanksgiving with my school family, we do a potluck dinner. For the second year in a row I hosted it. As per usual, I decided to make the candied yams. Boiled the yams till fork tender and skins are falling off. Pulled the skins off, cut in half, then half again making long skinny pieces. Placed them in a 13x9 inch pan, covered with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon (lots of them!). Baked at 350 until really tender and the butter and brown sugar have made a nice glaze over the top and the taste has set in. I usually make the pumpkin pies as well but I decided this year to make apple pomegranate cider instead. Brought apple juice, pomegranate seeds, cinnamon sticks and whole cloves to a boil. Added a few tsp of butter right before serving. I would recommend not leaving the pomegranate seeds in the mixture while serving. One, some start to float, two, the longer they sit in there the sweeter it gets and you don't want it to get too sweet.

Home Made Chili

Dad's recipe for chili. Not really sure if its his recipe or my grandma's but either way its delish, and simple too! I couldn't wait to make it now that its getting really cold outside, and its another great meal to make for the week. Brown ground beef, add onions and garlic, cook a bit, add tomato sauce and red kidney beans, cook a bit, add green pepper, salt, pepper and chili powder, cook covered on low heat for 1 hour, check and season as needed, cook for 1 more hour. I recommend not eating it the same day that its made, its much better the next day. This time when I made it though I didn't have tomato sauce, I accidently bought tomato paste. My other grandma said it should be fine, she uses paste in hers. However, she uses one small can, I had one regular can. So I'm thinkin, half a can. Then I realize it calls for two cans sauce, so maybe one can paste? I used about the whole can and a can and a half to two cans of water. Its really tomatoee which I like but I think its a little too much so maybe only 3/4th of a can of paste if that's the route you choose. I did taste it while cooking and it seemed fine but it must have changed when it sat in the fridge. Note made. Seven days of chili, here I come, body better get ready for it!

French Fries

MMMMM.... I love french fries! My favorite has to be steak fries, then straight fries like shoestring, plain, sweet potato, waffle, seasoned and curly. I don't know why I don't like curly fries that much, maybe its the type of seasoning? Anyway, I love fries and I love making them in the fall at home in the deep fryer. I haven't tried to make them on my own yet. I realized it was easy because we make them at work for the chimps, we just bake them. The other day I decided to try frying them in some oil like deep frying. They were good, a little greasy though, as to be expected. The next day I decided to try baking them. Much less greasy and still just as yummy. I baked them at 400 with just salt and pepper as seasoning for 30 min give or take, flipping them about half way through. I think I will try using lawrey's seasoning salt next time as seasoning. This could be a bad idea, not I know how to make one of my all time favorite foods, I will never stop making them now. Sooo good!

My Encounter With Tuna

I have never liked tuna fish. The smell alone makes me want to yack (excuse my language). However, my former roomie used to make tuna a lot and we would give the juice to our cats. It really helped their coats. So if anything, I got used to the smell of it. After she moved out, I realized it was going to be up to me to get my cat tuna juice. I had to do it. I decided to make tuna salad with extra mayo. I love mayo. So I added tuna, celery, mayo, salt and pepper onto toast. It was ok, not bad. The next day I had the leftovers again but this time I added cheese, a tuna melt. It was so much better. This week when I made it I added onion to the salad, still making it a melt. Even better! I can't say its something I would select at a cafe or anything but I think I'm getting used to this tuna thing, which is good cause my kitty certainly loves it!

Fried Rice

I love calrose rice. It is the best stuff ever. It is wonderful sticky rice that cooks in about 20 min. I am a big fan of plain white rice but I do occasionally like fried rice. I found that fresh cooked calrose rice is not that good to use when making fried rice, but leftover rice is much better. I try to do everything in one pan so I don't have to clean a lot of stuff later. In a pan I first cook the meat, my preference for fried rice is shrimp, and in a bowl on the side. Then in the pan I scramble up an egg (so far i have only used one but two would be nice too), set aside. Next I saute lots of onion and garlic in LOTS of butter, they are key ingredients. I add the rice to this, fry on medium high for a while stirring constantly. During this time I add some soy sauce to taste. This time I decided to add veggies I had around the house: broccoli, carrots, peppers. I lowered the heat and added all the veggies, shrimp, and egg to the rice, covered and simmered on medium for a while to soften some of the veggies stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn't burn. I then turned up the heat again to do the final frying to taste (I don't like fried rice quite that crispy). I will probably get 3-4 meals out of it, probably 5 if I didn't use part of the white rice with the previous meal.

Apple Peach Pork

Following the casserole dish line, I started to think about what else I could make that wasn't chicken. I eat a lot of chicken. I remembered that Lisa once made pork for lunch, pork loin with apples, raisins, and some kind of nut i believe. I decided to modify that recipe and get more bang for my buck. I added pork loin chops to the casserole dish with granny smith apples, nectarines (cause they didn't have peaches at the store anymore), yams, and raisins. Meanwhile, I simmered butter, evoo, cinnamon, and brown sugar. I added the butter mixture to the casserole dish, baked at 350, covered, for 30 min I think, I can't really remember the time. I just know it wasn't pink anymore. The yams really make the dish, and covering it really made it juicy. I was only able to get 4 main dishes out of it. There is a little of the mixture left but no pork. I think I will make some white rice to buff up the leftover fruit and yams to get a 5th meal. And I already have a plan for the leftover rice : )

Chicken and Potatoes Harvest Casserole

So I decided to start making casserole dishes for dinner in order to get a meal with leftovers for the whole week. I had some frozen chicken, a medley of potatoes my friend had given me from her family garden and a green squash that I also did not know what it was. I decided that I was going to bake the chicken, potatoes, and squash with some carrots, celery, onion, and garlic that I already had around the house and make a "harvest" casserole, perfect for the fall weather. In a casserole dish I added two chicken breasts, onions, garlic, potato medley, unknown squash, carrots, and celery. Meanwhile, I had a pot on the stove with butter, evoo, and honey mustard simmering. After about 10min. I took the pot off and poured the butter mixture into the casserole dish. It baked in the oven at 350, covered, for about 40 min. I checked it every 10 min to mix up the veggies and potatoes and make sure they were being coated with the butter mixture. A neat little thing I do with when I bake chicken is to cut into the breast in several places and place pieces of butter (and sometimes lemon juice) into the cuts. I learned this from my friend Lisa. It helps keep the chicken really moist. The end result was an amazing dish that I had for about 6 days. Highly Recommend.

Dinner for the week

No job = no income. No income = depleting money. Depleting money = less to spend. Less to spend = less to buy. I guess you get the picture. So lately I have decided to give myself a spending limit when I go to the grocery store so I don't spend more than I have. Its been working out pretty well so far. But in order to buy less at the store, I need to make sure that food goes farther. This means buying breakfast, lunch, and dinner items that will last an entire week, or close to that. Breakfast is really easy, cereal and fruit, english muffins and eggs, waffles, toast and oatmeal. Breakfast is my favorite meal. I would eat it all the time if I wasn't worried about getting in meat and veggies and eating "right." Lunch is more difficult because I HATE lunch. Its my least favorite meal. I have successfully tried bagels and fruit, bean burritos, pbj and chips, grilled cheese and tomato soup. Dinner is so much fun to make. I love getting creative with it. I have some meals that already work for the week, like a bbq chicken rice skillet dish, pasta fagioli, and chili. I love going outside the box though, adding to the list from recipes I find or coming up with something on the spot with what I have.