MommaCooks

posted by Nina on Feb 16

These are so good, so easy and so versatile. Hopefully everyone in your family will be able to find something in these that they like. Isn’t it awesome when that happens?

Ingredients:
2-3 lb pork loin roast
2 jars (8 oz each) Mexican salsa verde sauce
Pinto beans or black beans
Rice
Cilantro
Shredded cheese (Mexican blend or cheddar)
Salsa
Guacamole
Sour cream

Instructions:
Pour salsa verde in slow cooker. Add two salsa jars of water to slow cooker. Place pork roast on top. Cook on low for 6-8 hours (or high for 4-5). About one hour before you plan to serve roast, shred with two forks.

Prepare rice according to package directions.

To assemble burrito bowls: Scoop a spoonful of rice into bowl, top with cilantro, beans, pork, salsa, guacamole, sour cream or whatever else you would normally put on your Mexican food.

What did the family think? Everyone in our house who is into eating something that’s not pasta loved it. In other words, our youngest was not into it, but I am SO TIRED of telling you that. Also, he does eat. I promise. And not just candy.

Where did this recipe come from? Cozi.com

posted by Nina on Feb 1

This turned out SO yummy…I loved the cranberries in this! I also thought this might make the perfect Valentine’s dinner with the pinkish/reddish cranberries.

Ingredients:
6 pork chops
2 cups frozen cranberries
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
water as needed

Instructions:
In a skillet, brown chops slowly in oil; drain.

Add cranberries, sugar, salt and pepper to chops with 1/2 cup water to start.

Bring to boil; reduce heat*. Simmer, covered, for about 45 minutes or until tender but not dry. Add water if necessary to keep chops from drying out.

*Note: It says reduce heat. That means DON’T LET IT BOIL OVER. I made this mistake and let me just say that the sugary cranberry mess left all over my cooktop was a bear to clean up. Sugar caramelizes…yep, it was bad. It smelled like burnt marshmallows.

We had this with risotto and buttery French green beans.

What did the family think? Everybody liked it!!!!

Where did this recipe come from? Allrecipes

photo from Bon Appetit

posted by Nina on Dec 20

Anything that has apple butter in it has got to be good and this is no exception.

Ingredients:
2 pound boneless pork loin roast
2 cups apple juice
1/2 cup apple butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Ingredients:
Put pork loin in Crock Pot. Pour the rest of the ingredients on top of the pork loin and cook on high for 6 hours.

We had this served on potato buns with BBQ sauce with a green salad and fruit salad on the side. If I could do it over though, I would have added a little cornstarch and water to the broth that was left over from cooking and put it all in a saucepan to make some gravy to serve over mashed potatoes. Yum!

What did the family think? Everybody ate it! The kids just didn’t have it with the BBQ sauce.

Where did this recipe come from? Allrecipes.com

posted by Nina on Nov 18

Go ahead and read this recipe, write down the ingredients and then go to the store. This is your dinner for tonight. This is seriously SO good! I can’t wait to eat the leftovers for lunch today. Yum!

Ingredients:
1 Pork Tender Roast (appx 4-5 lbs)
1 can crushed pineapple (in 100% juice)
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/2 onion sauteed then added to the crock pot
Jarred jalepeno slices (I only used five, I wish I would have used more.)
Hamburger buns (I used Hawaiian bread sandwich buns…potato buns would be good too)
Mozzarella cheese slices

Cook everything but the buns and the cheese in crock pot on high 4-6 hours.

Serve on buns with mozzarella slices.

We had this with fresh pineapple and kettle chips.

Did I change anything? I reduced the amount of sugar and onions from the original recipe. The recipe above is how I made it.

What did the family think? 3/4 of us thought it was deeelish.

Where did this recipe come from? Nicole Arnold at CrockPot Girls

posted by Nina on Oct 18

As I said in my last post, I am trying out one of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks, Jamie Oliver’s Revolution. In the front of the book it asks readers to learn at least one recipe from each of the chapters and then teach two or more others that recipe. So this is the recipe I am sharing and teaching others from the pasta chapter.

Ingredients:
2 slices of bacon
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
olive oil
2 heaped teaspoons of dried oregano
1 lb of ground beef or pork (or a mixture of the two)
2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
small bunch of fresh basil

Instructions:
Finely slice the bacon, peel and finely chop the onions, garlic, carrots and celery.

Place a Dutch oven on medium to high heat. Add 2 lugs of olive oil, bacon and oregano and cook and stir until the bacon is lightly golden. Add onions, garlic, carrots and celery to the pan and stir every 30 seconds for around 7 minutes or until softened and lightly colored.

Stir in the ground meat and the canned tomatoes. Fill one empty can with water and add to the pan.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pick the basil leaves and place in the fridge for later. Finely chop the basil stalks and stir into the pan. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer with a lid on for about 45 minutes stirring every now and again.

Remove from the heat. Tear and stir in basil leaves.

Did I change anything? I left out all of the herbs and just bought Italian-style diced tomatoes.

What did the family think? This has a lot more ingredients in it than the typical pasta sauce we eat, so I knew it would not go over well as just pasta sauce so I used it in a lasagna.

Where did this recipe come from? Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, p. 165

photo from Angela Hartwig

posted by Nina on Jul 19

This makes A LOT of pasta. It’s a great dish if you want to have leftovers for lunch and would also be a great dish to make if you are taking dinner to someone.

Ingredients:
1 lb. penne pasta
2 jars pasta sauce
1 cup pepperoni, chopped
1 cup jarred roasted red peppers, chopped
1 cup spinach, chopped and sauteed
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup basil
2-3 cups fresh mozzarella, cubed, divided
1 cup Parmesan, divided
Cooking spray

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Cook pasta until al dente. Heat sauce in a medium saucepan.

Saute spinach in olive oil over medium heat.

In a large mixing bowl combine cooked pasta, pasta sauce, pepperoni, red peppers, spinach, basil, 1/2 of the mozzarella and 1/2 of the Parmesan. Stir well.

Spray a 3-4 quart baking dish with cooking spray. Spread pasta mixture in the baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over pasta.

Bake, uncovered for about 15 minutes. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

We had this with salad and grapes.

What did the family think? Everyone loved it and it’s a good thing because they’ll be eating it for lunch today, too.

Where did this recipe come from? Food Network Magazine, March 2011

Photo by Me

posted by Nina on Jun 14

When I saw the name of these pork chops I had to make them. Who doesn’t want to eat something with the name “bada bing” in it?

Ingredients:
1 cup Italian-style salad dressing
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup hot pepper sauce
1 lime, juiced
6 bone-in pork chops

Instructions:
Mix together the Italian dressing, Worcestershire sauce, applesauce, hot pepper sauce, and lime juice in a bowl. Pour the marinade over the pork chops, and refrigerate in marinade for 6 hours or overnight.

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat, and lightly oil the grate.

Remove the chops from the marinade, and pour marinade into a saucepan. Bring the marinade to a boil over medium heat, and allow to boil for about 1 minute.

Place the pork chops onto the preheated grill, and grill until well browned and no longer pink in the middle, about 6 minutes per side, basting the chops occasionally with the marinade. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read 160 degrees. Allow the marinade baste to cook completely onto the chops.

Did I change anything? No, but I wish I had let them marinade longer. I forgot that I was supposed to be marinating them until late in the afternoon…I probably got three or four hours in.

What did the family think? These were super duper tasty. We don’t eat porkchops that often, so I was impressed that our youngest ate them, especially since we were out of catsup.

Where did this recipe come from? Allrecipes.com

photo from allrecipes.com

posted by Nina on Apr 19

When LeeAnn over at Living the Dream posted this I thought it might be a good recipe for our family, especially during our busy baseball season…the slow cooker is my friend these days. My kids love egg noodles and they usually like just about anything that has sour cream in it, so I thought I would give it a try.

Ingredients:
6 pork chops
salt and pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 to 1/2 onion, sliced
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 to 1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup sour cream
8 oz. egg noodles

Instructions:
Season pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and then dredge in 1/2 cup flour. In a skillet over medium heat, lightly brown chops in a small amount of oil.

Place chops in slow cooker, and top with onion. Carefully pour broth into browing pan to deglaze. Pour broth over chops and add the wine. Cover, and cook on Low 7 to 8 hours.

After the chops have cooked, transfer chops to a plate. Be careful, the chops are so tender they will fall apart. In a small bowl, blend 2 tablespoons flour with the sour cream; whisk into meat juices.

Put chops back into slow cooker and turn to High for 15 to 30 minutes, or until sauce is slightly thickened.

While the pork chops are back in the slow cooker for the last 15-30 minutes, cook egg noodles according to package directions.

Serve pork chops and sauce over the egg noodles.

We had this with a banana and strawberry fruit salad and a green salad.

Did I change anything? The only thing I changed is that I only used four pork chops since I knew there was no way we were going to eat all six. I also thought some mushrooms might be good in this, but no one eats mushrooms in this house but me.

What did the family think? There was zero complaining at the table. Everyone liked it!

posted by Nina on Mar 31

If you like meat, you will love this dish. It’s seriously meaty.

Ingredients:
1 pkg (1 lb) macaroni noodles
6 slices bacon (chopped)
1 Lb ground beef, turkey or chicken
1 medium onion (chopped)
3 garlic cloves (minced)
salt & pepper (to taste)
2 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 Lb deli pastrami, roughly chopped
1/3 c. pepperoni, chopped
2 Tbsp canned, chopped jalapeno
1/2 c. sliced mushrooms
1 small can diced olives
½ c. beef broth
1 (14 oz) can fired roasted diced tomatoes
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
green onions (chopped)

Instructions:

Heat a large deep skillet to medium-high heat. Add bacon and fry until crisp, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

In the same skillet add ground beef. When beef is browned stir in onions and garlic. Season with salt, pepper, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. Stir in bacon, pastrami, pepperoni, jalapeno, mushrooms and olives. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.

Add beef broth and cook for an additional 5 minutes or so. Stir in tomatoes and tomato sauce. Cover and reduce heat to low.

Prepare noodles according to package directions. Drain noodles well, add to meat sauce, and toss it all together (or you can serve with the sauce over the top). Top with sharp cheddar cheese and green onions.

Did I change anything? The original recipe suggested serving this with spaghetti noodles, but I changed it to macaroni noodles because I knew it would go over better with the family…when they see spaghetti noodles they expect pasta and meatballs with red sauce which this is not. I also left out the salt, pepper, olives, mushrooms and green onions. I put jalepenos in mine and in my hubby’s and left them out of the kids’ dishes.

What did the family think? Everyone loved it! I think there is so much in this dish that there has got to be SOMETHING in there that everyone likes.

from Favorite Family Recipes

posted by Nina on Mar 3

In honor of my husband’s German grandma who passed away last week…

Ingredients:
3 large potatoes, skinned and quartered lengthwise
3 Tbsp bacon fat or olive oil
2 cups roughly chopped green and white onions (include the greens from the green onions)
2 cups roughly chopped bell peppers
Salt to taste
1-2 cups chopped ham
1/4 cup chopped parsley (optional)
4 eggs, whisked

Instructions:
Boil the potatoes in a saucepan of lightly salted water for 10-15 minutes until just cooked (test for doneness). Drain, rinse with cold water to cool. Cut into 1-inch squares. Set aside.

Heat 2 Tbsp bacon fat (or olive oil) in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the onions and chopped bell peppers. Increase the heat to high. Brown the onions and bell peppers, stirring frequently, about 2-3 minutes.

Push the vegetables to the side of the pan, add the potatoes and another Tbsp of bacon fat (or olive oil) to the pan. Brown the potatoes for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Sprinkle on salt to taste as you cook. Add the ham to the potatoes and cook, stirring frequently until the ham is heated through, 1-2 minutes.

Mix all of the vegetables, potato and ham together and mix in the parsley. Add the eggs, stirring to distribute the eggs among the vegetables and ham. As soon as eggs begin to firm up, remove from heat.

Serve immediately. Great with ketchup on top.

We had this with toast and jam.

Did I change anything? I added about 3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese because we like cheese in this house. I used about 1/2 the onions and green peppers that the recipes calls for.

What did the family think? Hubby and I both really liked it. Our oldest liked it, but mostly just ate the ham and potatoes and our youngest just ate the ham.

from simplyrecipes.com