Slow Cooker Carnitas

These were very good! The meat was fall apart tender. We stuffed it into tortillas and topped with diced tomatoes, a little cheese and sour cream.

Slow Cooker Carnitas

2T tomato paste
2T adobo sauce(from canned chipotles)
3T chopped garlic
1T chili powder
1t salt
1t pepper
3lb boneless Boston butt, cut into 2" pieces *I actually used boneless country style ribs cut into 2" pieces because I already had them. I'm sure they actually ended up making it even more flavorful**
1c beer of chicken broth **I used the beer which I think is a must!**

Combine first six ingredients in slow cooker. Stir in meat pieces. Microwave beef on high for 2 minutes. Pour over meat. Do not stir. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours. Shred meat using two forks.
**Be sure to spoon some of the sauce over the meat.**

Ringin' in 2009

We always stay home on New Years Eve and just cook, eat, watch movies, eat, play games, eat, drink and eat. Well, you get the picture. The menu always varies, but always includes at least one item of seafood. Here are a few things from this year...

Buffalo Wings


Buffalo Shrimp


And Crabby Artichoke Fondue


And my personal favorite...a little champagne to get the party started.


Happy New Year Everyone!! Hope its been great so far!

A few Christmas goodies...

Here are a few things that we had for Christmas this year.

Ranch Chex party mix...although I took the original party mix and the ranch party mix and picked my favorite ingredients out of each recipe and vamped it to create my own party mix. lol




Lots of Christmas cookies. My favorites are the toffee bars that are the ones on the end and they are super easy to boot! I love to cook, but am not really into baking all that much(I hate to have to measure ingredients!), so these cookies are right up my alley.


Toffee Bars
1 sleeve of graham crackers, crushed fine
1/2c of butter
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 pkg of mini chocolate chips
1/2 pkg of Heath toffee chips

Melt butter and pour in a 9x13 pan. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on top and press down. Pour milk on top and spread evenly. Sprinkle with chocolate and toffee chips, press down. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.


Polish Roses
**my mom always made these and my DH loves them**


Polish Roses
8oz cream cheese, softened
2T prepared horseradish
5oz jar of sliced dried beef
green onions

Mix together cream cheese and horseradish. Spread onto each piece of beef. Place onion in center and roll up.

And last but most certainly not least I cooked my first prime rib this year for Christmas dinner. It was a hit!

Wow, I haven't blogged in awhile. I have taken some pictures though(when I remember) and I've been cooking, so I'm going to just get to posting where I left off...

Happy Thanksgiving...and leftovers!

I hope everyone had a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving! We did! Now we are eating the mountain of leftovers. Here are my attempts at being creative with them so far.


The beautiful bird:


The BEST turkey sandwich ever:


No kidding. This was sooo good. Toasted wheat bread, turkey breast, smokey onion mustard(from Target, Archer Farms brand), a slice of jellied cranberry sauce and sharp cheddar cheese. On the second go round we added bacon.

Turkey Soup:


Turkey, rice, carrots, celery, onions, spices and herbs. Very comforting on a cold day in.

An Old Standby...

at our house anyway is Salsa Swiss Steak. Its comforting and not too bad on the calories and it can be thrown in the crockpot. As much as I love to cook sometimes my days escape, so when I know I'm going to have an exceptionally crazy day I'm not at all ashamed to use the ol' crockpot to save dinner!

Salsa Swiss Steak
( I can't for the life of me remember where I originally found this recipe or I would give credit where credit is due.)

4 pieces of lean round steak
1 can of reduced fat cream of mushroom soup
1 cup chunky salsa
1 bell pepper
1 onion

Place round steak in crockpot and season with salt and pepper. Cut bell pepper and onion into rings and layer on top of steak. In a bowl, mix together soup and salsa. Spread on top of peppers and onions. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

**Excellent served over mashed taters or rice.

Meal Plan Monday(except on Tuesday)

Monday- chicken casserole
Tuesday- Salsa Swiss Steak, mashed taters and carrots
Wednesday- grilled chicken salads
Thursday- Chicken Empanadas
Friday- homemade pizza
Saturday- Dinner at my Family's Ocktoberfest

My Take on Leftovers

I try to get creative when I have leftovers, so it doesn't seem so boring. I love taking things like a roast and stretching into three different meals. Roast one night, stroganoff another, vegetable beef soup the next. You get the idea. Anyway, this time I threw together some stuff and it came out exceptionally well.

Beef Curry Bake
Leftover meatloaf, crumbled up
leftover rice pilaf with mushrooms and almonds
leftover steamed string beans
1 tomato diced
1/2 cup of sour cream
2 T curry paste
Mix all up well and bake in a greased casserole dish at 350 for 30 minutes.

Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

This turned out very well. I even had someone tell me to enter it into a recipe contest they thought it tasted so good. Talk about making you feel good about your cooking. I basically used my normal lasagna recipe, except for the sauce I mixed together 2 cups of spaghetti sauce and 2 cups of alfredo sauce and 1/4 cup of Frank's Red Hot to make my own buffalo sauce. When alternating the layers I also sprinkled in crumbled blue cheese in the layers. Hubby doesn't like blue cheese and still thought it was tasty.

Salad Chinois

I got this recipe from a Semi-Homemade Sandra Lee cookbook. As much as I like making stuff from scratch, let's face it, I'm a busy mom and sometimes I need something quick. Her ideas are great for just that and for the most part they are usually pretty healthy to boot.



Salad Chinois
2/3 cup mayo ( I used lite)
2 T soy sauce
2 T rice wine vinegar(my addition)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 10oz can of chunk chicken breast
2 cups of coleslaw mix(cabbage and carrots)
1 can of chow mein vegetables, drained
1 bag of prepared green salad( I left out and really didn't miss it)
1 can of mandarin orange segments
1 can of crunchy chow mein noodles( I just sprinkled on top)

Mix all together except chow mein noodles. Sprinkle them on top before serving.

Pork & Sauerkraut

This is so good. One of my favorite fall dishes.
I just kinda made it up so don't really have a set recipe for it.

Basically, I brown some pork chops on both sides in a little olive oil in a Dutch Oven. Remove chops and add cut up apples, garlic and onion and brown. Throw in some sauerkraut, a pinch of cinnamon, black pepper and some caraway seeds. Put chops bake in and slow cook in the oven at 200 degrees for about an hour. Delish!

Weekly Meal Plan

I'm trying to get back into planning my meals for the week so I thought I would start posting it here. I also got the idea from Organizing Junkie.

Monday- Twisted Taco Packets
Tuesday- Chef Salads
Wednesday- Beef Stroganoff(using leftover roast from Sunday)
Thursday- Salmon Patties
Friday- dinner out with playgroup mommas

Corn Salad

I forgot to take a picture of this one, but it is easy and good. I got the recipe from a friend of mine after she brought it to a potluck.

Corn Salad
1 package of frozen corn, thawed and drained
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cup of mayo
1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup of crushed chili cheese fritos

Mix together the first four ingredients and chill in fridge for an hour or more. Top with fritos before serving.

Stuffed Rainbow Trout

I made this with my daddy years ago. Jason, my hubby, doesn't really like fish so much, unless its fried and I love it. So, when he went out of town last weekend I treated myself to this. It was as good as I remembered from years ago.

4 rainbow trout, butterflied and deboned
2 medium green peppers, chopped
1 cup of fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup of butter
20 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 cups herb seasoned croutons
1/4 cup of lemon juice
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp thyme

salt for trout


Heat oven to 350. Cook and stir(in butter) green pepper and mushrooms about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in cherry tomatoes, croutons, lemon juice, salt, pepper and thyme. Lightly salt the cavity of each trout, fill with 1/2 cup of stuffing. Place remaining stuffing in a greased baking dish. Arrange stuffed trout on top. Wrap tails in buttered aluminum foil. Bake until trout flakes easily with a fork, about 30-35 minutes. Remove foil from tails. Garnish with lemon slices.

Farmers Market

I am just loving the farmers market this summer. I can go every Saturday and get my fruits and veggies for the week for about $15.00. Plus, I know where its all coming from, it tastes way better and I'm supporting the local farmers.


Here is a recipe I made using some yellow squash from the market. It was so good. We've already fixed it twice in two weeks.

Skillet Squash

4 slices of bacon
2 medium yellow squash, thinly sliced
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp minced garlic
2 serrano chiles, chopped (optional)
1 dash of soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, and set aside. Add the squash, onion, garlic and jalapeno to the skillet. Fry in the bacon drippings until tender, but still firm, stirring frequently. Crumble bacon into the skillet, and season with soy sauce, salt and pepper. Stir, to blend in seasonings, and serve.