tomato paste

Pork Carnita Bowl

September 5, 2014 by Dana

Let’s just get real here…. these Pork Carnita Bowls are ridiculous. Ridiculously good that is! So ridiculously good that my husband took one bite and said “This is way better than Chipotle.” EXACTLY what I was thinking all day when I was eating it. Yes, I was chowing down on the meat all day because I decided it would be a good idea to make it ahead of time. That turned out to be a horrible idea!

Why is it a horrible idea you ask? Because you will want to eat half of it before the rest of your family even knows it is in existence. You might even think up some evil plot to hide it from everyone and pretend it never happened just so you can have it all to yourself. I’m not saying any evil plots went on inside my kitchen today, but I definitely ate a good third of the meat before anyone else even had the chance to taste it. When my toddler caught wind of what was going on he was trying to smuggle handfuls of meat into the living room without being noticed. Not gonna happen on my watch, bebe, because I know all about them smuggling tricks. I’m the master smuggler with my expensive organic chocolate bars that I’m so NOT sharing with any kiddos. I know all about hiding in a corner or closet and quickly enjoying every delicious bite before someone notices. At which point I pretend like I have no idea what chocolate they are speaking of. Chocolate? Where? 😉

Just incase anyone was wondering what exactly a carnita bowl is, here is my super awesome step-by-step picture thingy for your viewing pleasure. It is basically just like a bowl that you would get a chipotle, minus the random ingredients they use. Speaking of random ingredients I now present you with my Chipotle public service announcement. If you don’t care please pretend like I’m saying this really quickly just like the person at the end of the pill commercial who tells you your probably going to just drop dead as soon as you take it. Here goes:

Chipotle is not healthy fast food. Their wraps contain partially hydrogenated oils (aka trans fats) and a bunch of other crap. They use genetically engineered soybean oil in all of their products. Just because they have cool bags and make claims like “grass fed” and “better” doesn’t mean they aren’t sneaking crap into your food. The End. Now please, look at my cool picture thingy! And while your at it Pin the picture thingy so other people can see how awesome it is.

Wow, that was awesome sauce, wasn’t it? 🙂 Now, let’s talk more about making the meat because I have a serious confession. You may have noticed, I don’t really do slow cooker meals. I know, I know, the new moms need slow cooker meals! But I’m over that phase right now (phew!) and slow cookers are just too boring for me. I need to be able to see the food and play with it while it is cooking because I’m just ADHD like that. I can’t bear the thought of putting my beautiful pork roast in a lonely, not to mention ugly (my mom got it for a wedding gift like 100 years ago and it is that baby poop green color. Anyone from that time want to explain that color to me?) slow cooker and leaving it all by it’s lonesome for a few hours. I mean, come on people, pork roasts need some lovin’ too and my ugly slow cooker isn’t doing the job. I just can’t. This is my officially official apology to all the slow cooker lovers. I’m sorry!

*This recipe would work wonderfully in a slow cooker though, so if your not as ADHD about food as me, give it a try!

So what did I do if I didn’t use a slow cooker? I simply used my stovetop on low heat for about 90 minutes. Yes, 90 minutes to all of this awesomeness. That potentially means you could throw this on the stove when you get home from work along with the rice, go do a bunch of crap that you didn’t really want to do, and come back to some wonderful carnitas. If you are more of a nacho, taco, or burrito person this meat would be amazing served in any of those ways as well.

Carnita Bowl Seasoned Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups rice
1/4 tsp kosher salt
generous sprinkle adobo seasoning
1 sweet bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow preferred)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro

Directions: Put rice, seasoning, pepper, and water needed to cook rice into a pot and cook according to package directions. When rice is cooked, fluff with a fork and add chopped cilantro.

Overstuffed Sweet Corn and Jalapeno Peppers

August 19, 2014 by Dana

Embarrassing food geek confession: I was super excited when I saw purple and black bell peppers at a local farmer’s market and endless recipe ideas flooded my head as soon as I saw these beauties. The best part… I filled two grocery bags full of beautiful produce, handed it to the gentleman running the stand, and he said $6 please. $6!!!!! For two heaping bags of produce. Helllllooo Gratz Auction, Thank You for being so awesome (and no I did not get a fish sandwich or pretzel to anyone who knows what I’m talking about). 😉 Another amazing find at the market… Non-GMO sweet corn! I got a dozen ears for $4, and left a happy, happy girl because my hopes of finding sweet corn that I trusted to be Non-GMO this summer were slim. Somehow I missed the yellow watermelons but hey, this girl can’t have everything. Maybe next time!

My husband kept asking why I wasn’t standing the peppers up because according to him “they look better that way.” Ummm… last time I checked you aren’t a food stylist hubby, so maybe you should keep your food styling tips to yourself! 😉 However, I explained the method to my madness and he totally got it. Stuffed peppers are delicious until you hit the bottom and you realize… you are out of stuffing. Now what? Do you eat the soggy bottom? Do you push past the guilt of wasting food and toss it? Problem solved right here folks, lay your peppers down and stuff the heck out of them. Stuff them babies till they are stuffed-out, heaping brown rice and goodies, and there is no way possible you or any army of men will ever run out of stuffing. Ever!

Sweet corn and jalapenos were truly meant to be friends. They go together so well, especially when mixed with rice and beans. I really wanted to keep these peppers simple so I mixed in other ingredients I felt most people would already have stocked in their pantry. I used black eyed peas, but black beans would also work great in this recipe. I also used homemade chicken stock I had already prepared and froze (speaking of stock I need to go strain my pot on the stove now!) however you could look for a low sodium, boxed stock that doesn’t contain any artificial ingredients or MSG (also look for other forms of MSG such as yeast extract and autolyzed yeast). If you use a boxed stock, you might have to adjust the adobo according to the salt content of the stock.

Mediterranean Orzo and White Bean Salad

August 12, 2014 by Dana

Truth be told, I learned something about myself today. I don’t know how to spell the word Mediterranean. I tried many times. Is it two d’s? Two t’s? Heck I have no clue, I still don’t think I could spell it right if I wanted to! I’m not even convinced Google knows how to spell it. Thank you auto-correct! Regardless, that doesn’t take away from how much I love this pasta salad! *Insert blogger sales pitch about how amazing this pasta salad is* The orzo, the feta, the veggies, the beans, the salty sweetness, I mean really it is just a party in a bowl all around. I searched high and low for whole wheat orzo because I wrongly assumed it was a thing. Why wouldn’t every grocery store carry it? We are living in 2014, you know… the future, where people have woken up to the fact that the bleaching and enriching process is poo-poo! Thankfully, my search ended at Wegman’s where I ran into a box of whole wheat orzo and the rest is history.

I have been making pasta salads all summer because they are quick, easy, and able to pack protein and veggies. I love putting pasta salads over spinach or greens and eating it for lunch (no dressing required). My lunch is usually just shoving some food in my face because I’m too busy feeding hungry boys to even think about what I am eating. Even though I’m home with them I can relate to the people at day jobs who feel too busy to eat and a lunch like this is a great solution. You don’t have to fiddle around with those stupid plastic dressing containers, or a bunch of baggies. Throw some spinach and pasta salad in a container and you have a meal in a bowl. One bowl, one spoon/fork and there you have it!

The dressing for this salad is a mix of a few bold flavors, which is what makes is so good! Whole grain mustard, tomato paste, and red wine vinegar come together to create the perfect companion for olives and feta. My husband’s grandparents hooked us up with some yellow tomatoes and they were super sweet and complimented the saltiness of this salad perfectly. If you can’t find a sweeter tomato, I would suggest adding a few extra sun dried tomatoes, or even a handful of dried cranberries to give the salad a nice balance.

I struggled with what to call this flavor bomb, but I think Mediterranean White Bean and Orzo Salad about sums it up, right? Sheesh I really need to start getting more creative but it seemed better then “The Best EVER Pasta Salad Recipe!” agreed? 😉

Old World Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

July 22, 2014 by Dana

This Old World Spaghetti and Meat Sauce recipe is truly a classic! It combines the best of both worlds, an oil based pasta sauce and a tomato based pasta sauce. This is also a really quick and easy way to make a homemade sauce, without spending hours letting it simmer and cooking down a bunch of vegetables. This is a great “beginner” homemade sauce, so if you haven’t made your own sauce in the past, don’t worry… you’ve got this!

The really unique thing about this sauce is it is actually made in a food processor instead of on the stove. Of course the meat portion of this sauce is cooked on the stove but the sauce itself is just a whole lot of flavor blended together and combined with the cooked beef and onions. After you combine the meat and sauce, just toss in pasta and top with fresh asiago cheese (or parmesan) and that is it! It doesn’t stop there people… this pasta is also amazing cold! I was actually inspired to create this after I created a cold pasta salad using the same flavor combination a few weeks ago. Not only is this a great dinner, you can throw it in your lunch the next day and you have an amazing pasta that would be great over a bed of spinach or by itself.

Thick and Creamy Cheeseburger Macaroni Soup

July 2, 2014 by Dana

Ok, I admit my husband was right on this one. Don’t expect that I’ll be singing his right-praises any time again soon, but this one was a homerun! No, it was a grand slam. But don’t ask me anything else about baseball because those are the only two terms I know so let’s just move on.

While I was slaving over a hot pot of soup my husband walked by and suggested I add some mustard. Like, for real. Sometimes he is the voice of reason, but I was skeptical about this one for a minute. Then I remembered this genius little pizza we used to make at a café I worked at and I thought maybe he was on to something. I reluctantly added a little and it was pure manly goodness. It was reminiscent of those two love birds ketchup and mustard coming together on one bun, and oozing out in some sort of orange goodness that only ketchup and mustard can produce. If you are totally salivating right now this one is for you! Now where’s the bacon!?!

This is one of those dishes that just won’t go away. You think you are done but you just keep coming back for more until your day is officially a fat day now. You know, one of those days where you’ve eaten like a cow for the past 10 hours but your still considering a huge bowl of ice cream after the kids go to bed? Yeah, this may or may not induce a day of shameless eating because it is just so good and you can’t get away from it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Some tips for this recipe… you may need to adjust the seasoning to taste. Also, if you prefer a thicker soup add 2 Tablespoons of flour at the end to thicken it up more. This will reduce the amount of broth you will have. This isn’t a super brothy recipe to begin with, so if you’d like it thinner I would suggest adding an additional cup of milk.

Unprocessed Lasagna Helper

June 12, 2014 by Dana

Once upon a time I went to the grocery store and came home with a LIVING basil plant by accident. I don’t do plants because I live in an apartment with 3 kids and a husband and well… boys love dirt! I’ve tried and tried to love on a plant in my very own home but it never really seems to pan out the way I was hoping.

Like the time my mother in law sent me a plant when my middle son was born. I had such high hopes, I brought him home from the hospital with the new baby and he was like a new member of the family. We took him outside, we gave him a great home, and he even moved all by itself! Planty was his name and I have many fond memories of him brightening my day with his wonderful natural presence.

Then one fateful day my baby grew into a toddler and started tearing up my house. Little ol’ Planty never even saw the big bad toddler coming. All of a sudden Planty was flipped upside down all over the carpet, his dirt everywhere.

“What should we do with him?” I asked my husband, who kindly suggested Planty be banished to the porch forever. As the days grew shorter and the nights colder, Planty began to shrivel like a poor ol’ fellow and one day…. I knew it was his time. The plant I tried so hard to love on, was gone forever, his leaves shriveled and yellow. RIP Planty!

Now, what is a mom of 3 boys to do with a basil plant that will inevitably be ruined by one of them? For now Basil Man is sitting in a mason jar on a window sill, unharmed by any children. Here is sweet Basil Man now sitting pretty as a food prop! Isn’t he beautiful! 🙂

Speaking of basil, nothing puts a smile on my face like the smell of fresh basil. Why buy something in a box and miss out on such a wonderful smell and taste? With this recipe you will never have to miss that perfect fresh basil smell again. Just like my Unprocessed Hamburger Helper recipe, this is the all REAL ingredient version of a processed classic that contains nothing but awful ingredients.

Speaking of ingredients it is time for me to go all ingredient freak on you because this is important stuff, right? OF COURSE! The boxed version of this includes partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats), MSG, monoglycerides (potential hidden trans fats), GMO cornstarch, hydrolyzed soy protein, artificial colors, and a few other questionable ingredient. For reals General Mills? Like are you trying to kill people or are you trying to kill people?

Thankfully, we never have to turn to General Mills again for this delicious dinner. It is SO SIMPLE and easy to make yourself and the ingredients are quite obvious. Cheese, buttermilk, basil, tomato, salt, spices, VIOLA! This is made just like the old classic…. brown the beef, add the other stuff (except the basil), bring to a boil, let simmer, enjoy the goodness.