Easy Pulled Pork

Making pulled pork seemed somewhat scary at first.

My dad always made pulled pork on his smoker but uh, we don’t have a smoker.

And you don’t have to have a smoker either! All you need is a crock pot.

Yes, a crock pot can cook almost anything!

I actually feel a little silly posting this recipe because it’s only 2 ingredients. Yes, TWO.

I seriously don’t understand how only two ingredients can make such a succulent meal. I swear, the crock pot is magical.

Crock Pot Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

• 32 oz beef broth
• 3 lbs pork shoulder

Add pork shoulder & beef broth to crock pot. Set on low setting for 9-10 hours.  Top with your favorite barbeque sauce.

Could dinner get an easier? I don’t think so.

Question: What’s your favorite recipe to make in the crock pot? I love getting new ideas!

Sweet Potato Chili

Ryan is pretty much obsessed with this recipe. You see, when we first started dating, he told me how he makes a really good chili. He was committed to being the maker of all chili in our house and I never complained. I enjoy his version of chili. But when I saw this Sweet Potato Chili on Andi’s blog, I knew we had to make it.

Our love of sweet potatoes is somewhat disturbing. We could eat sweet potato fries (or anything sweet potato for that matter) several times a week and not get bored so that’s how I knew this recipe would be a winner.

Our intention was to have a chili cook off and taste them side by side, but that never happened. After making this the first time, this is the only chili we’ve made since….I’d say I won

The best part of this recipe? It’s a set it & forget it kind! Aka, using your crockpot. I know you all love your crockpots. And if you don’t, then you are truly missing out. And kind of weird.

The second best part? Easily adaptable to be vegetarian/vegan! A winner for all indeed.

Sweet Potato Chili

Recipe via Can You Stay For Dinner

Ingredients:

• 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1” pieces
• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 15 ounce can kidney beans
• 15 ounce can black beans
• 1 lb italian sausage (optional)

Directions: Combine all ingredients into your slow cooker for 8-10 hours on low setting. Top with shredded cheese, greek yogurt or avocado. Or any other toppings you desire!

Question: What’s your favorite kind of chili?

How To Roast A Whole Chicken

Yep. An entire chicken. Roasted. In your own oven! And it barely takes any effort, I promise!

First, you start out with, well…a whole chicken.

Aside from being easy to make,  buying a whole chicken, compared to buying individual breasts, is much cheaper as well! This chicken was originally $8.48 but was on sale for $4.65! We’re still eating thru it, so I’ll let you know how many meals this lasts us.

Back to preparing the chicken. Be careful while taking the chicken out of the package…juices will be flowing. I opened mine over the sink just to be safe.

Also, check to make sure there isn’t a package of the giblets inside the chicken. It should be in a plastic bag and will not look appetizing, however some people cook those up separately. I didn’t because mine mysteriously didn’t have any…and I swear I didn’t cook it in the chicken!

Now that you got it out of the package, pat down with a paper towel. This step is necessary, so don’t skimp!

Next up, you season the chicken with salt & pepper. Make sure to season the inside too! And don’t hold back. I used probably a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half of each.

After it’s alllll seasoned up, rub it down with olive oil.

We’re running low, as you can see.

Next, cut up half a lemon and throw that sucker in the chicken.

Pop that baby in the oven for 90-100 minutes at 450. You’ll hear it sizzling almost the entire time, but be patient! It’s worth the wait.

Um, look at this.

Yes, I didn’t use a roaster because…I don’t own one. Not yet at least! After September 2 though, I will

Perfectly, crispy skin. Juicy, succulent meat. Definitely great for a Sunday night dinner, or any dinner for that matter! Plus, you’ll have plenty of leftovers. And you’re even able to make homemade chicken stock with the leftover bone! Not bad for $4.65, eh?

Question: Have you ever roasted a chicken (or turkey) before?

Chicken Sausage Pasta w/ Balsamic Vinegar Glaze

The title makes this recipe sound fancy…but don’t be scared! It’s easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve seen this “balsamic reduction” on several different blogs before, but always assumed it was too time consuming or too difficult.

Boy, was I wrong! And if you were curious, this was, in fact, the first time I’ve ever been wrong. Yep, it’s true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The balsamic glaze is seriously, the bomb diggity. It’s sweet, syrupy and tastes like it should be a lot worse for you than it actually is. And it gives such a flavor pop! Paired with goat cheese…these two were made for each other!

Chicken Sausage Pasta w/ Balsamic Vinegar Glaze

Ingredients:

• 6 servings of pasta (I used a mix of egg noodle & penne)
• 3 chicken sausages, sliced and cooked
• Baby portabella mushrooms, sliced
• Red onion, sliced
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 cups raw spinach
• 3 oz goat cheese

Cook pasta according to box. Saute mushrooms & onions in a medium sized skillet. I didn’t give an amount for the mushrooms & red onion because it can really be however much you want of either. Feel free to add in other veggies too!

Reduce balsamic vinegar in small sauce pan for about 6 minutes.

Place raw spinach in bottom of a colander. Pour cooked pasta over spinach to drain (neatest trick ever!).

Combine pasta, spinach, chicken sausage & vegetables together in pasta pot. Top with goat or feta cheese & balsamic reduction.

Caramelized Onion, Broccoli & Green Pepper Quiche

Quiche.

Doesn’t it just sound intimidating? I always thought you has to be some sort of master chef to be able to conquer the beast that is quiche (rhyme fully intended).

As a matter of a fact, you can be an amateur cook like myself and your quiche will turn out fine!

Wonderful, even!

This delectable meal take a bit of time to bake, but it is well worth the wait! Ryan & I kept saying “Oh my gosh, this meal is so good! I can’t believe how good this tastes!” over and over again.

And one thing that I love about quiche is that it is so versatile! Don’t have green pepper? Who cares! Have tons of cauliflower in your drawer that’s on it’s last leg? Use it up in the quiche!

So what are you waiting for?! Make this NOW!

Caramelized Onion, Broccoli & Green Pepper Quiche

Recipe adapted from Picky Palate

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 onion, thinly sliced
• Half a head of broccoli, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• Handful of spinach
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 8 eggs
• 3/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 9-inch pie crust
• Pepper, salt & dried parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat large skillet to medium heat with olive oil. Saute green pepper, broccoli & onion until tender (around 15 minutes).

Poke pie crust with fork and partially bake pie crust for 10 minutes.

Add milk, eggs, salt, pepper & dried parsley in large bowl, whisking until combined. Layer cooked onions, broccoli,green pepper & spinach on bottom of pie crust. Scatter cream cheese pieces over vegetable mixture. Pour egg mixture over pie crust. Top with shredded cheese & desired amount of parsley.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until eggs are set & golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing.

Spinach Turkey Burgers

My oh my, have I got the recipe for your dinner tonight! It’s time to break out the grill (if you haven’t already!) because this recipe screams “GRILL ME!”

I had turkey burgers on the menu this for this week and planned on getting a pound of it at the grocery store. Well, lo & behold I found ground turkey at Costco! Organic ground turkey. Cheaper than the grocery store, organic, ground turkey. Obviously, I had to purchase it! Except for one thing.

It came in 4, one pound packages. Yes, I bought 4 pounds of turkey…because I wanted to make TWO turkey burgers.

Whatevs, it will freeze well! And now we won’t have to buy ground turkey for a very, very long time.

Getting back to that recipe…

Spinach Turkey Burgers 

recipe adapted from Eat Live Run

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 cup chopped spinach (you can also use frozen, de-thawed spinach too)
• 1 tsp italian seasoning
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup goat cheese
• 1/4 cup feta cheese
• salt & pepper

Directions:

Mix all ingredients, except for cheeses, with your hands. Split mixture in half and add goat cheese to one mixture and feta to the other mixture & form into 6 patties (3 of each cheese). Grill burgers for 20-25 minutes. Serve on whole wheat bun with sliced red onion, lettuce, hot sauce, ketchup & mustard.

Question: What is your favorite type of burger?

Tofu Stir Fry

I know. I know.

I leave for a week with barely a peep and then I come back with Tofu Stir Fry?! Who eats…tofu besides weirdo hippie people that wear tie dye shirts and sport the peace sign any chance they get?

Okay, so more than just hippies eat tofu. But you get the idea, tofu sometimes gets a bad rep and I am here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that bad!

The first time I ever had tofu was not a good experience. Not good at all. Actually, up until a few days ago, tofu was probably the worst tasting food I had ever had.

It was during college that I first tried it. A bunch of us girls in the house (I lived in a sorority type house) wanted chinese food so we all ordered from our beloved Rice Cafe. Many o’ dimes have I spent at that place.

Okay, that’s besides the point. So we ordered our food and one of the girls ordered their meal with tofu. I told her I had never had it before and she insisted that I try it. One small little bite and I thought I was going to hurl. It was mushy, flavorless and the weirdest texture ever! So gross.

Well, lo & behold tofu was on sale a couple weeks ago at the grocery store and I either had a lapse of memory or I was feeling wild because it somehow ended up in our cart. (Ryan was skeptical but didn’t say anything).

Well friends, Friday was the night to finally put that tofu to use. And let me say, I am so glad I tried it again!

Tofu Stir Fry

Tofu adapted from The Perfect Baked Tofu via Healthy Tipping Point

Ingredients

• 1 block of tofu, extra firm
• 2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tsp paprika

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• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• Half a head of broccoli
• Half a head of cauliflower
• 3 carrots
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 1 green pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp minced garlic

Directions for tofu:

• Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
• Press excess liquid from tofu.  Wrap several paper towels around tofu, and place tofu in between two plates.  Let stand for 15 minutes.
• Cut tofu in 1 inch by 1 inch pieces.
• In a small, microwave-safe bowl, mix EVOO, honey, chili powder, black pepper, and paprika.
• Microwave marinade for 35 seconds and stir thoroughly.
• Spray cooking sheet.
• Coat each piece of tofu in marinade and place on cooking sheet.
• Cook at 375 for 30 minutes, turning once.

Directions for veggies:

Chop all vegetables. Heat olive oil & garlic in large skillet. Toss all chopped vegetables into skillet, cook until tender. Mix in the same marinade you made for the tofu.

Top brown rice with vegetables & tofu. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sorry it took me so long to come back to you, tofu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had the leftovers today and the tofu was even better! I would suggest letting the tofu marinate before baking it!

Question: Have you ever had tofu? Yay or nay?

Chocolate & Protein Peanut Butter Vanilla Granola

Well, I made it to my second Pilates class…and didn’t keel over! Don’t get me wrong, it was still extremely hard and had me huffing & puffing but I made it. I definitely think this class will be in the rotation!

Anyways…

It has been a hot minute since I’ve made homemade granola and since we bought a huge canister of old fashioned oats I figured it was high time to make some crunchy goodness!

For my first batch, I created just a plain chocolate granola going off of this recipe.

Some substitutions I made:

• Almond extract for coconut extract
• More cocoa powder (1/2 tbsp) for protein powder (no chocolate protein powder, wah)
• Add ground flax seed for some omega 3′s

Crunchy, sweet (but not too sweet!), chocolatey and homemade! What more could you ask for?

After making that, I moved on my next creation, Protein Peanut Butter Vanilla Granola! Say that five times fast!

I based my creation off of this recipe of Julie’s. I double her recipe (because…I mean, come on, I need even more granola, right?!) Added flax seed & half a scoop of vanilla protein powder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By far my favorite. Maybe because I have an obsession with peanut butter. But it’s SO GOOD. Great topped on greek yogurt!

Question: What’s your favorite kind of granola?

Lentil Vegetable Soup

I had a ton of vegetables in my fridge yesterday. Like, so much that I even if I would have 12 servings of vegetables a day for the next week I wouldn’t have been able to eat all of it. What does a girl do when she has so many vegetables but not enough time? Make soup of course!

This soup took only 30 minutes to make and is packed with protein and yummy vegetables AND is completely customizable to what you have in your fridge! Easy? Yes. Time consuming? No!

Part of the line-up:

No salt added diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, Wacky Mac (or any type of noodles), baby spinach, vegetable broth & lentils.

Along with vegetables…

Broccoli, carrots, zucchini and a little red pepper.

Everyone all together! (Bright green spinach makes me happy, weird.)

From pot to table, in less than 30 minutes. Can’t get much better than that!

Lentil Vegetable Soup

Lightly adapted from Fannetastic Food

Ingredients

• 32 oz Vegetable broth
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 can diced tomatoes (preferably no salt added)
• 1/2 cup of water (i just filled the tomato sauce can halfway)
• 2 big handfuls spinach
• 2 cups cooked lentils
• Chopped vegetables (I used carrots, zucchini, broccoli, red pepper)
• 2 cups cooked noodles
• Basil, pepper & salt to taste

Pour vegetable broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes & water into a large pot and bring to a simmer. While this is simmering, chop up your vegetables.

Once the liquid mixture is simmering, add in your chopped vegetables (NOT the spinach). Cook for 5-7 minutes.

Stir in cooked lentils & noodles. Add in spinach, basil, pepper, & salt.

Look how much soup this makes! No need for the canned variety.

I see tomorrow’s lunch…

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While I was cooking up this soup, Murph was assisting from the new couch.

What a chump.

Breakfast Pizza

I’ve always heard  of breakfast pizza, but I was never quite ready to dive in and make it. I mean, an egg….on a pizza?! I love eggs, but it felt wrong to put an egg on a pizza. Like it should be outlawed.

Well tonight was the night folks. I’ve had this on the menu for a couple weeks and I was finally ready to take the plunge into breakfast pizza land!

First, I sauteed up some veggies (because it just ain’t pizza without some veggies). We used mushrooms, broccoli, red onion & red pepper.

I seasoned the vegetables with a garlic pepper seasoning we received as a wedding favor from a wedding this past summer. Loved that idea!

In a separate skillet, cook up some italian sausage. We just had regular on hand, but sweet italian sausage would have been great.

(Ignore my mess…)

Now’s the time to roll out your dough. I used Jenna’s go to recipe, as it is now my go to recipe.

Next up, pesto!

You could easily make your own, but I had this handy in the fridge. Pestoooo.

Time to put everyone on the dough!

Slather that pesto down and then spread out all of the toppings evenly. Unless, your picky about your veggies and only one of you like mushrooms (ahem).

In the oven it went! Now next time, I would probably go ahead and put the eggs on now. I thought that they would cook too quickly so I waited and then had to use the broiler to finish.

Look at those little eggies! I may have a new favorite pizza…

Breakfast Pizza

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat pizza dough (can be store bought)
• Pesto
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 pound Italian sausage
• 1/2 cup chopped broccoli
• 1/4 red pepper
• 1/4 red onion
• 1/2 cup mushrooms
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (and/or feta)

Preheat oven to 375. Brown the italian sausage while sauteing the vegetables in another pan. Spread pesto across pizza dough and layer with desired toppings. Top with shredded cheese or feta. Crack 2 eggs over pizza and cook for 15 minutes.

Question: Have you ever had breakfast pizza?