Pot Roast

When my mom came to visit me she bought me my first crockpot and I have to say I love it! When we bought it we also bought a book filled with slow cooker recipes from individuals all over the country. That book alone has probably 15-20 recipes for pot roast in it so it can be different for everyone, mine is pretty simple

I knew this was going to be a long week/weekend because my husband is training farther from home than usual and we got our to german shepards neutered on Monday so I made a pretty big roast to ensure we'd have plenty of leftovers in case I didn't find time to cook.

For ours I took a 3 lb chuck roast and gave it a decent covering on both sides of garlic powder and pepper. I also dusted it with salt, but I'm not a huge salt person so I didn't use a lot. I sliced 1 large onion and made, what I refer to as, a stand for the roast to make sure it doesn't burn or anything on the bottom. I laid down the onion slices, added 1/4 cup of water and laid the roast on top. I then covered it and let it cook on low for 3 hours.

While the roast was cooking I cut up 6 small gold potatoes and 6 carrots. These don't take as long to cook as the roast so I always add these to the pot at the three hour mark and then cook on low for another 2.5 hours.

If you haven't used your crockpot before make sure to check on your roast at about 5 hours. This same roast in my moms crock pot could take up to 8 hours on low so, it all depends on your pot.

I love this because it's easy, you just put it together and go and then you have a meal for the night as well as left overs. My husband loves to slice up the roast and make sandwiches the next couple days. He always makes me laugh, this week it was white bread, roast, pickles and ranch dressing I think. He switches between ranch and peanut butter sometimes, but it always makes me laugh.

Honey-Glazed Chicken Breasts

Feta Chicken was on the menu for tonight, but as I was getting ready to start cooking I realized I didn't have balsamic vinaigrette and decided I was too lazy to go to the store, so.... I ended up switching Sunday's dinner for today's and made Honey-Glazed Chicken.

We pared this meal with mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. The asparagus was seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a tablespoon of butter, wrapped in foil and on the grill for about 7 minutes.

This was probably one of my favorite meals of the week. If you read my previous post, Chicken and Avocado with Sweet Pepper Sauce, then you know I bought the wrong chicken at the grocery store :). I bought a package of chicken tenderloins and chicken breasts "thin cut" at BJ's Wholesale instead of good old chicken breasts so the chicken recipes this week and next will be a little... iffy. :) This meal turned out pretty good. My chicken was a little dry because I cooked it too long. I didn't think about the fact I was using tenderloins until it was too late. I baked the 20 minutes and when I took them out to flip them I realized they were probably already cooked, however, I still need to get some baking time with the other side of the chicken in the glaze so I turned them over and baked them for 13 more minutes. When I do this again I will either buy real chicken breasts :) or cook them 10-12 minutes on each side if I use tenderloins again.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Start To Finish: 1 hour
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

• 6 boneless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Grated orange peel (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375* F. Spray 13X9 in pan with cooking spray. Place chicken in pan, in small bowl, mix remaining ingredients except orange peel; pour over chicken.
2. Cover with foil. Bake 20 minutes. Remove foil; turn chicken. Bake 10 to 30 minutes longer or until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut (170*F). Sprinkle with orange peel.

 

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that I used the leftover tenderloins to make chicken salad. When I make chicken salad I use about 1/4 mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, two celery stalks and a handful of grapes or cherries.. depending on the mood my husband is in lol. This was great because the glaze on the chicken was a little something extra with the honey and saved me a step in the chicken salad. All I had to do was shred the chicken and cut the celery (we didn't use any fruit in this one). Two meals in one :) I love when that happens.

 

Cajun Smothered Pork Chops

Last night I tried another new recipe called Cajun Smothered Pork Chops from the cookbook my grandma sent me. Before I was diagnosed with so many food allergies I was a PICKY eater. When I went to restaurants I ordered the same probably 5 things, and at home I ate what my mom made but usually not all of it. I can't say I'm not picky any more but I am definitely better because 80% of the recipes I've been looking at/cooking... I would've turned my nose up before.

Saying that, last nights dinner was one of my "branching out" projects and I have to say, it wasn't bad. Much like the Chicken and Avocado with Sweet Pepper Sauce, my husband really liked it. We have so many leftovers in the fridge I asked if he wanted to take the 4 leftover pork chops (I made more than the recipe called for) to work and he said "No I'm eating this for lunch for the next couple days" ... and this is coming from a man who is not a huge fan of pork lol, "unless it's in bacon form", he says. I definitely have to say the feedback from my husband and friends is making me love cooking.

Enough about me...

Ingredients

• 4 bone-in pork loin chops, 1/2 in thick (about 1 3/4 lb)
• 2 teaspoons salt-free extra-spicy seasoning blend (I couldn't find this so I used Cajun seasoning blend)
• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 1/2 medium onion, sliced
• 1 jalapeño, seeded, chopped,
• 1 can (14.5 oz) organic diced tomatoes, undrained

Directions

1. Sprinkle sides of pork chops with seasoning blend. In 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and jalapeño; cook about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly tender. Push mixture to one side of skillet.
2. Add Pork to other side of skillet. Cook about 2 minutes, turning once, until brown. Add tomatoes. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover; cook 4-8 minutes or until pork is no longer pink in center.

1 serving: Calories 270 (Calories from Fat 120); Total Fat 13 g (Saturated Fat 4g; Trans Fat Og); Cholesterol 90 mg; Sodium 190 mg; Total Carbohydrate 6g (Dietary Fiver 1g; Sugars 3g); Protein 32g % Daily Value: Vitamin A 4%; Vitamin C 10%; Calcium 4%; Iron 10%

I started cooking this in a skillet pan on the stove, however, regardless of the pan or the skillet, there was no way I was going to be able to fit the vegetables and the pork chops in one pan side by side. What I ended up doing was heating oil in both the skillet and the pan on the stove. I cooked the onion and jalapeño on the stove and browned the pork in the skillet. Once all of my 5 pork chops were browned I place 4 side by side and the 5th was placed on top in the middle. I then added the onion, jalapeño and tomatoes to the skillet and closed the lid. It took mine the full 8 minutes to cook thoroughly but in the end everything worked out great :) I haven't quite mastered meal planning yet, so I reheated the leftover macaroni to have with this meal. whoops!

Chicken & Avocado with Sweet Pepper Sauce

So today was "Chicken and Avocado with Sweet Pepper Sauce" day. This is one of the recipes I picked, however it was geared more towards my husbands taste than mine. I like this recipe, but I wouldn't put it in my top ten, or "Recipes to commit to memory" category, however, my husband on the other hand, could not stop talking about it! We had mashed potatoes with this and he not only had seconds, but tried to scrape up every last bit with the mash potatoes.

Ingredients

2 skinless boneless chicken breasts

1/3 cup reduced sodium chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 bell pepper (any color), cut into 1-inch pieces

1/4 apricot spreadable fruit, melted

1/4 ripe avocado, sliced

 

Directions

1. In 10-inch nonstick skillet, heat chicken breasts, broth, garlic powder, pepper and bell pepper over medium-high heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes or until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut. Remove chicken; keep warm.
2. Pour broth mixture into blender; add spreadable fruit. Cover and blend until bell pepper pieces are pureed. Slice chicken breasts crosswise. Arrange chicken and avocado slices on plates; top with sweet pepper sauce.

Now for those of you who know me, I'm no Julia Child and I seem to have a reading level of maybe 2nd grade, when it comes to cook books (I'm working on that). I forgot to melt the apricot spreadable fruit, and I accidentally bought thinly sliced chicken breasts at our grocery store and had to use 4 instead of 2 regular chicken breasts. Regardless of my mistakes, it came out rather well with the only real issue being the chicken breasts were a little dryer than I'd hoped. As I said previously my husband absolutely loved this and finished the meal with "I demand this meal to be on repeat".

Next time I think I will make sure to get full chicken breasts instead to help with the dryness and distribution of the spices.

*Disclaimer: I forgot to take a photo before my husband got to it and...I'm better known for taste than presentation! The picture below is my husband's seconds. I hadn't planned for seconds so he just took one of the thin fillets put a chunk of avocado on it and poured the sauce on top!

Father's day Homemade Hamburgers

Yesterday all my dad wanted for Father's Day was chilliburgers and fries for dinner. So we all made homemade hamburgers with ground beef mixed with chopped onions and a few spices, and twice fried homemade french fries. For the french fries you cute up 2 potatoes and fry them in oil in small groups for a few minutes, when you take a group out put another in till all are cooked, then start over with the first batch you fried and fry them again. This makes them crunchier. When we were first making fries we fried the potatoes one time for a longer period of time and they were always just a little soggy. To solve that problem, you cook them twice!

We also had watermelon and dill pickles. For those who weren't allergic to everything there was also corn and cantaloup. They do make gluten free buns, however, I find it better to just eat the patty with the lettuce, tomatoes and cheese on it's own. Why add the carbs if it tastes just as good right?

Salmon-potato Cakes with Mustard Tartar Sauce

Salmon-potato Cakes with Mustard Tartar Sauce.... Haha more like Salmon-potato mash with Mustard Tartar Sauce. Hahaha.My family said they were very good and my  mom is stoked there's leftovers, however, due to an accidental excess of salmon, parsley and lemon juice than the recipe called for the cakes kind of fell apart. I do have to admit that this is a pretty good recipe though. One of the blessings of being gluten free is that I am beginning to eat and like more foods than I ever have.

I paired the cakes with my mother's homemade twice cooked french fries and a green salad with carrots and ranch.

Salmon-potato Cakes with Mustard Tartar Sauce

• 3 small unpeeled red potatoes (8 ounces), cut into halves
• 1 cup cooked flaked salmon
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 egg white
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon Cajon seasoning
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon plain yogurt or sour cream
• 2 teaspoons coarse grain mustard
• 1 tablespoon chopped fill pickle
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Place potatoes in small saucepan and cover with water. bring to a boul; reduce heat and simmer about 15 minutes or until tender. Drain; mash with fork.

2. Combine potatoes, salmon, green onions, egg white, 1 tablespoon parsley and seasoning in medium bowl.

3. Heat oil in medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Gently shape salmon mixture into 2 patties (These make large hamburger style patties, you can also split it up into smaller flatter patties. The patty shown is one of these smaller ones. It was a little crispier and held together better than the others). Place in skillet; flatten slightly. Cook 7 minutes or until browned, turning once.

4. Meanwhile, combine mayonnaise, yogurt mustard, pickle, lemon juice (I put off frying the patties for the salad and preparation of the fries and made this sauce haha I missed and accidentally put the lemon juice in the bowl with the salmon while waiting to cook these) and remaining 1 tablespoon parsley (missed the 1 when reading previously and put 2 tablespoons in the salmon mixture and had to chop more for this sauce) in small bowl. Serve with cakes.