Slow-Cooker Pork

There's not much to it! I use Pork Shoulder (sounds gross, as I type it, but it is tasty), and just throw it in the Crockpot on low for about 8-10 hours, or less. You know it is done when it just pulls apart. I knew some people were coming over last night, so I pulled out one from the freezer, and threw it in there just as it was. I cooked it for about 5 hours, and then poured a jar of BBQ Sauce over it for the last three. Served with rolls, it makes great sandwiches! You could also make it into Carnitas by using some sort of salsa, or into a more Asian-tasting dish using a different sauce. Super easy!

thai chicken pizza

made this thursday night. d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.

i'm using the extra peanut sauce over whole wheat pasta with most of the same ingredients (+some red cabbage) for a thai chicken pasta tonight.

ingredients:
1 trader joes pizza crust (i used whole wheat)

fixins
1/2 lb (or so) mozzarella cheese
green onions (or red if that's what you have)
grated carrots
chopped peanuts
chopped cilantro
bean sprouts
chopped or pulled chicken (if you have it, but this would be just as good vegetarian. i happened to have roasted a few extra chicken breasts on monday for meals through the week)

for the peanut sauce
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce (i didn't have any so i used teriyaki sauce!)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced or chopped
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon brown sugar
juice from half a lemon (can be less, depending on your tastes)

while the pizza crust is coming to room temp, i chopped/grated all the toppings, and let the chopped chicken sit in a bit of the sauce for a few min. roll out the dough (as thin as possible works best, to make sure it cooks through), brush on some peanut sauce, pile on cheese + everything else and bake at 450 for 10 min or so.

a pizza stone is great, but a sheet pan works too-- helps to put it in the oven while it's pre heating so that it also gets hot. obviously this would be great with a simple green salad, but since q was asleep and scott wasn't home for dinner i paired it with a glass of white wine and some tv :)

Snack Attack

In my "spare" time, I occasionally read this blog. Here is a good post on healthy snack options for the little tykes (and us). Most interesting, however, are the other ideas that readers posted. Banana Dogs? I might have piqued your curiosity!

http://mycharmingkids.net/2011/01/snack-attack/#comments

Baby Poop Pasta

I thought this would be appropriate for my inaugural post. Tonight I made what I affectionately called baby poop pasta (well, at least in my head). I told the kids it was veggie pasta. My husband wasn't home for dinner tonight, which was probably just as well. This recipe is adapted from a fun toddler cook book that helps parents figure out ways to sneak veggies into their kids diets. It was actually quite tasty. It would have been tasty looking if I had left out the kale, but since the entire point was to empty out my veggie drawer to prep for our farmers' market trip, in it went. I really love the idea: cook up a bunch of good veggies with tomatoes, blend it up, and serve it as a tomato-ish sauce over pasta. The recipe below is tonight's version based on what I wanted to use up. One of these nights I post the actual recipe. This was just so much more fun to post!

Ingredients:
olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic
2 leeks (sliced about an inch into the green)
2 shallots (sliced)
2 carrots (sliced)
1/2 bunch black kale (stemmed)
4 tomatoes (skinned and chopped - I would have used more, but this was all I had)
basil
oregano
salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese
1 package rice pasta from Trader Joe's

Begin heating pasta water. Saute first 6 ingredients over medium heat while skinning and chopping tomatoes (plunge in boiling water for 30 seconds and then in ice cold water for 30 seconds and then slip off skin). Once other veggies are tender, start cooking pasta and add tomatoes and seasoning. Simmer for three minutes or so. Transfer to food processor or blender. Try not to puree the crap out of it (or into it?) like I did. My eldest has texture issues, so I had to get it pretty smooth. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Believe it or not, my kids loved it (I know, I know, I need to come up with a better way to feed pasta to my youngest).

Easy Peasy

Can't get much easier than this! I saw this idea on another blog, and am going to walk to Trader Joe's with the kiddos as soon as Ben gets up from his nap. Obviously, I'll have a better recommendation tomorrow, but really, how can you mess it up? Cook pasta, drain, and while it is still hot, mix in this Sun Dried Tomato & Pesto Torta (found near hummus in refrigerator section) for some creamy yumminess. Throw in some chicken, shrimp, or extra veggies and you've got an awesome meal. I plan to steam some broccoli on the side.

egg bapp

i have two kinds of meals in my cooking repertoire: husband-is-home-meals and husband-is-out-of-town-meals. really, the only perk to mark traveling so much is that i don't have to prepare such big dinners for us every day. i cook something easy for the boys and i snack on whatever they don't finish for my own dinner. as mark is currently out of town, this is what we're eating for dinner tonight:

my brother and i used to call it "egg bapp" growing up. bapp means rice in korean. it's like the korean casserole, where you can throw anything in the bowl and mix it up. a lot of my friends throw chunks of stir-fried spam in the rice (koreans are big on spam, but i convinced my mother to stop buying it when i was a teenager because hello, have you seen the gelatin in the can?).

i usually keep it simple and classic with just egg, rice, soysauce, and a little butter. and then i roll the egg rice mixture into small squares of seaweed for like a mini sushi roll for the boys. this way, it's an easy finger food dish for the boys and i eat the rice leftovers straight from the bowl.

i always have some rice in the rice cooker (half brown/half white) and so when i want to make this meal, all i have to do is fry up an egg, cut up some seaweed, and i'm done. dinner in under 3 minutes. sometimes i'll steam some broccoli florets and chop them into the rice mixture.

ingredients:

a bowl of rice

a small pad of butter

one fried egg (sunny side)

teaspoon of soy sauce

seaweed

my 15 month old will eat 12 of these and my almost 3 year old will eat about 20. what's not to love about this dinner?

Fancy Rice 'n' Beans

every now and then i like to try to use up what's in our pantry and freezer. this is one of those weeks. and, since gar has seen the light and realized that we don't need meat in every. single. meal (how was i vegetarian for the first 2 1/2 years of our marriage?!) it has made this cleaning out task even easier. noel LOVES rice and beans so i always have a can of some type of beans on hand; i know, one of these days i'll buy the big bag of beans and make them from scratch. we also had an avocado and a little guacamole that needed to be used up.

so, ingredients:
-mexican rice: saute 2 cups rice in 1/4 cup oil, add 8 oz. tomato sauce (i only had tomato soup which worked fine, and 4 cups broth (i had to use bullion cubes). bring to a boil then reduce heat and over for 15-20 min.
-black or pinto beans (i actually only had chili beans so i used a potato masher to mash them to make them like refried beans)

fixin' ideas: (we only had spinach and avocado)
-chopped up lettuce or spinach
-avocado
-olives
-cheese
-tomatoes
-salsa
-sour cream

i also made some quesidillas for the side. all in all i'd say it was 30-45 min. to prepare and cost $5 or $6 total.