Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients

* 2 pounds pork tenderloin
* 1 envelope dry onion soup mix
* 1 cup water
* 3/4 cup red wine
* 3 tablespoons soy sauce
* 3 tablespoons minced garlic
* freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions
1. Spray the crock pot with cooking spray to make clean up easier.
2. Place pork tenderloin in a slow cooker.
3. Mix soup packet, water, wine, and soy sauce. Pour this over the pork, turning the pork to coat.
4. Carefully spread garlic over the pork, leaving as much on top of the roast during cooking as possible.
5. Sprinkle with pepper, cover, and cook on low setting for 5 hours.
6. Remove pork from crock pot and cut or shred. Serve with cooking liquid on the side, or make into gravy on the stove with flour or Wondra.

October 7, 2011

Another week come and gone...we tried a few new recipes this week, including a few that didn't make it here. One was a quick brownie, which was good but not great. The other was crock pot applesauce, which I liked but my kids thought was a bit too overpowering. So I am going to make that again this week and I hope to have that for the blog next week. It was so easy to make, and I got to use my immersion blender! I will definitely be making it again this week with different apple varieties and a bit of a change to the additional spices. Keep your fingers crossed that it gets a few more keeper votes this next time around!

But, what did qualify as keepers? A brilliantly easy "lasagna" and some very crunchy chicken. My family loves lasagna, and when I make it I typically make a few and freeze them. Lasagna freezes fantastically well and if you are going to go to all the trouble to make it and really mess up your kitchen and about 10 pots and pans, you might as well make 6! So when a friend passed this recipe on to me from one of our favorite sites (flylady.net), I had to try it. We all loved it. It is basically baked ravioli, but you do get the flavors of lasagna, and it truly couldn't be easier to throw together.

As for the chicken - you could use this breading on whole chicken breasts in the oven, or cut the chicken up to nugget or tender size pieces. There are quite a few spices in the mixture, and the panko really helps make it so crunchy! At the table the chicken was dipped in ketchup, wing sauce, hot sauce and eaten as presented. Everyone enjoyed it, and I hope you will too!

I already have my eye on two crock put dinners for this coming week, and another pumpkin recipe! We'll see how many keepers I have next week!

New Recipes
Savory & Crunchy Chicken
"Thrown together in 5 minutes" Lasagna

Savory & Crunchy Chicken

Ingredients

* 1 cup panko
* 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
* 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
* 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* Pinch ground red pepper
* chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch strips
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Combine the panko, Parmesan, thyme, basil, oregano, salt, garlic powder, and red pepper.
3. Dip the chicken strips in the melted butter, then dredge them in the bread crumb mixture.
4. Place the chicken strips in a single layer on a lightly greased baking sheet.
5. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes depending on how thick you've cut your chicken (before removing it from them oven make sure it is cooked through and any juices run clear).

Notes
My kids love chicken nuggets, but using this mixture really elevates them from Shake n' Bake to something tasty! Use as much red pepper as you'd like (or leave it out if your family isn't into spicy food). These do get really crunchy in the oven, so keep and eye on them and take them out before they get over-done.

"Thrown together in 5 Minutes" Lasagna

Ingredients

* 26 ounce jar Spaghetti sauce (your favorite)
* 1 (25 - 30 ounce) bag Frozen large cheese ravioli, unthawed
* 1 (10 ounce) package Frozen spinach, thawed and drained (optional)
* 8 ounces Mozzarella, shredded
* 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly grease a 13-x-9-inch baking dish and spoon in about 1/3 of the sauce.
3. Arrange 12 of the raviolis on top; then evenly lay all the spinach over the top of the raviolis. Top that with half of each cheese. Now cover with another layer of raviolis, the remaining sauce and the remaining cheese.
4. Tent with foil (don't let cheese touch the foil or it will stick) and bake 45 minutes; then uncover it and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more until bubbly.

Notes
This is an ingenious idea! Ravioli has the cheese filling that you put together for lasagna, so this works great and can be thrown together in a snap on a weeknight. And adding spinach makes this even more nutritious, and adds flavor! I think I will try this with fresh baby spinach next time, just for a bit fresher texture and taste. I used my own meat sauce that I keep in the freezer for pasta rather than jarred sauce, but just use whatever you have on hand. And the picture isn't that great - but that is because we were devouring it before I took a photo! Next time I make it I will snap a new one.

September 30, 2011

We love pumpkin around here!!! But you already know that, since I mentioned it last week. This week we found a new pumpkin recipe - Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. Moist, delicious...the kids can't get enough of it. It was so good that we actually made it twice in one week! We made it on Saturday, and then we made it again on Tuesday night. Clearly, this was a keeper recipe!

Also, except for during the summer, we like to have soup once a week. We are a soup family. For years my husband kept asking for beef stew, and I tried quite a few out. I can honestly say I did not like a single recipe I tried...until I found the one I am going to share with you this week. Of course, I don't really like red meat, so you are probably wondering how it is that I would ever really love a beef stew. I'll admit it, I was on the hunt for a recipe he would love and that I could tolerate. But once I finally stumbled across the one that is listed here, I found I could love a beef stew! The secret to this one is that you don't cook it all for the same length of time. The carrots and potatoes go in only for the last hour, and the peas only go in once you take the stew out of the oven and let them cook for five minutes while you get everyone to the table! There's the genius in the recipe...cook the meat for a while, and the veggies only as long as they need! If I can find it in my heart to love this beef stew, you just might, too!

And if you do have a soup recipe you want to share with me...send it along! We are always looking for a new recipe to try for soup night!

New Recipe
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Tried and True
Beef Stew

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 cup pumpkin puree
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1/3 cup water
* 2 eggs
* 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1 tsp ground nutmeg
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoons salt
* 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, water, vanilla and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in chocolate chips.

3. Bake for about 70 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before removing from pan.

Notes

I also like to trace my pan on parchment paper and put it in the bottom of the loaf pan just to guarantee the loaf will pop out without any trouble!

Beef Stew

Ingredients

* 2- 3 lbs boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
* salt and pepper
* 3 tbsp of vegetable oil
* 2 onions, minced
* 1 tbsp tomato paste
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
*3 tbsp AP flour
* 1 cup dry red wine
* 2 cups chicken broth
* 1 tbsp minced fresh thyme (1 tsp of dried)
* 2 bay leaves
* 1 1/2 lbs of potatoes, peeled, and cut into uniform chunks
* 4 carrots peeled and cut into uniform chunks
* 1 cup frozen peas

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle, and set oven temp to 300.
2. Dry the beef with a paper towel, then season with salt and pepper. Brown the beef in one tbsp of the oil in two batches over medium high heat, adding another tbsp of oil for the second batch. Use a dutch oven, as you can put this in the oven when it is time to do so. Reserve the browned beef on a plate or in a bowl.
3. Heat the final tbsp of oil and add the onions. Cook about 5 minutes or until softened.
4. Stir in the tomato paste and garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
5. Add the flour and cook for one minute.
6. Slowly stir in the wine and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
7. Stir in the stock, thyme, bay leaves. Add the beef back to the pot. Bring the stew to a simmer, then cover and transfer to the oven.
8. Cook for 1 hour.
9. Open the open the pot and stir in the potatoes and carrots. Cover again, and cook for an additional hour.
10. Remove the pot from the oven, stir in the peas and cover again. Let the pot stand off the heat for 5 minutes.
11. Remove the bay leaves, and serve!

Notes

I buy a chuck roast and cut my own stew beef - it definitely makes a difference as it ensures the beef pieces are all cut about the same size. Also, remember my tip about tomato paste? If you open a new can for this recipe and only need the one tbsp, mound out tbsp portions on wax paper and freeze. Once frozen, put them in a freezer bag and you'll have recipe ready tomato paste when you need it! And finally, for cooking wine...you should be able to drink the wine you cook with - so here is what I do: I like to keep those little 4 packs of wine in my pantry - the ones that are about 6 oz to the bottle. They are good enough the drink, so they are perfect for cooking! No need to open a whole bottle if you only need a cup or so...though opening a bottle is also a great idea. If you do open a bottle, serve the rest with dinner!

One more tip...don't try to double this recipe for a bigger crowd. I tried to double it for a dinner party, and the stew definitely wasn't as good as it always is when I just follow the recipe listed here!