Easy Pork Chops

The presentation in the above photo isn't very remarkable, but the taste makes up for it!! These are super easy and super delicious.

Line casserole pan with enough foil that you can fold over the top and have the pork chops covered. Sprinkle the bottom of foil with half a package of dry onion soup mix (I use Mrs. Grass's usually). Lay bone-in pork chops on top of the dry onion soup mix and sprinkle other half of package on top. Do not add liquid. Fold the foil over to cover top, and cook at 350 for about 90 minutes, longer if chops were partially frozen or you're cooking two pans of them.

These smell soooo good as they are cooking, and they taste great! They make their own juice as they cook, and are very tender (if they're not, you need to cook them longer!)

A favorite of my family for years!

Meatballs in Sweet-and-Sour Sauce

For our family Super Bowl party I made meatballs in the crockpot and tried this new cranberry sweet-and-sour sauce. It was really easy and tasted great! I found the recipe on the Country Living website.


This time I did it the easy way and bought a bag of frozen pre-made meatballs, but I have made them from scratch too.

Meatballs

2 slices bread, shredded
1 pound ground beef, raw
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 T oil - for saucepan

Mix all ingredients and form into 1 and a 1/2 inch meatballs. Heat oil in skillet and brown meatballs, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain any oil and add sauce (recipe below). Cover and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.

Sweet-and-Sour Sauce

2 cans whole berry cranberry sauce
2 T cider vinegar (I didn't have this so left it out)
3 T brown sugar
2 T soy sauce

Mix sauce ingredients and pour over meatballs, either in skillet (as above), or in crockpot. If using crockpot and cooking meatballs from frozen, cook on high 4-5 hours or on low 8-9 hours.

Verdict: easy and yummy! The whole family enjoyed them and I will definitely make again!

Pulled Pork

Here is a pork dinner we had recently. Super easy and super delicious! I wanted leftovers, so I put 2 pork roasts (I think they were shoulder roasts, and each about 3 pounds) in my 6 qt crockpot, poured our favorite barbeque sauce on top (I didn't measure ~ it was probably about 2 - 3 cups) and cooked on low all day, about 8 hours.


They were just falling apart at this point, so with two forks I (actually the children did it for me!) pulled the pork apart until it was in long shreds. Serve on wholewheat hamburger buns with some fruit and chips. Delicious!

Greek-Style Lamb and Rice

We are currently learning about ancient Greece in school, so I decided to make a Greek meal for dinner. I searched the internet and found scores of yummy sounding recipes, but I wanted something that wouldn't be too time consuming (of course I was searching on Friday afternoon, just a couple hours before dinner time!). I found this recipe at kitchendaily.com and thought it would work perfectly. It was DELICIOUS!!!!


The original recipe was for "Greek-Style Chicken and Rice", but I substituted lamb for the chicken to make it more authentic, and because we have chicken all the time but rarely have lamb. I bought lamb shoulder chops. They were significantly cheaper than regular lamb chops, and had more meat on them. The above plate was for my husband, and he got a whole shoulder chop to himself. For the children I cut up 4 shoulder chops and split them between the 5 kids.

Tomato/Feta Garnish

(this was EXCELLENT and I am excitedly planning what other recipes I can add this garnish to!)

In small bowl combine:

1/2 cup chopped plum or cherry tomatoes
1/3 cup chopped seedless cucumber (I didn't have so left this out)
2 T thinly sliced green onion (scallions)
2-3 T crumbled feta cheese
1/2 tsp oregano

Mix well and refrigerate while you cook the lamb and rice.


Lamb and Rice

The recipe was submitted to the kitchendaily website by Rice-a-Roni, so of course one of their products was included in the ingredients! It called for this specific type, Whole Grain Blends ~ Chicken and Herb Classico, and I bought 3 boxes to feed our family of 7. This amount turned out to be just perfect. Now that I've made it once, I will probably substitute with white or brown rice and spices at home, to save money next time.


I used one whole spice package from one of the Rice-a-Roni boxes and sprinkled it over the lamb. Set aside.


In large skillet, combine the other two spice packets, rice, water and oil (as directed on back of box). Bring to a boil and let boil for about 5 minutes. Then add the lamb, cover, and reduce heat to medium. Let simmer for about 30 minutes until lamb is cooked and most of the liquid is absorbed by the rice.


According to the recipe, at this point you're done. I actually scooped out all the rice and kept it warm on the back of the stove while I fried the lamb chops for a few minutes on each side. When I make this again, I will do this step first, before beginning to cook the rice. I still want to cook the lamb and rice together, because the lamb taste seeped into the rice while cooking and gave it a scrumptious flavor! But I like the seared taste of meat better than strictly boiled.

Arrange rice on a plate, place lamb on rice, and spoon some of the tomato/feta garnish on top. Ta-da!


Serve with hummus and greek flat bread and enjoy!!


Verdict: Everyone loved this and begged me to make it again!

Meals in 30 Minutes - Italian Chicken on Noodles

I'm starting a new category of food posts: meals that you can have on the table in 30 minutes or less. And the first post in this category is a recipe I made up! How does that old saying go..."necessity is the mother of invention"? In my case, desperation was the inspiration behind this super easy chicken recipe!


Pour about 2 T olive oil in a skillet and add chicken breasts. As they are browning, sprinkle some Italian seasoning on each piece. Add 2 or 3 cloves of fresh garlic to the pan. After 8-10 minutes, turn over and lightly sprinkle Italian seasoning on the other side of each piece. When breasts are browned on both sides, cover pan and simmer on low until cooked through. Meanwhile, cook noodles of your choice (I used spaghetti). Serve chicken on noodles and enjoy!

Verdict: I have cooked chicken breasts so many times, I really thought this wouldn't be much different. But the blend of Italian seasoning and garlic made it really tasty and the whole family commented on it favorably! Will definitely whip it up again!

Canning Tomatoes

With the abundance of tomatoes from our garden, I canned tomatoes for the first time this summer! I have always wanted to, but thought that I needed a pressure cooker for tomatoes, and I only have a hot water bath canner. After reading through the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving, however, I realized that I was mistaken. I gave it a try, and it's really easy! I was able to process one batch (10 pints) in just a couple hours, doing other things during the 40 minutes they were boiling.


I even felt the freedom to forego some of the instructions and just do what was easiest. I did not blanche the tomatoes first (as recommended in the book, for ease in peeling the skins off) because I did not take the skins off. I didn't even cook them. I just cut them up and plopped the pieces into a pan with a tiny bit of water to warm them up a little. Then I spooned them into warm jars. As with all canning, it is very important that the jars, lids, and food and/or liquid going into the jars is all warm, or the lids may not seal properly. Here are some of the jars keeping hot in a kettle of simmering water.


Before spooning the tomatoes into the jars, I added 1 T of vinegar to each jar. This increases the acidity of the tomatoes. If the acid content is too low, they will not preserve well by this hot water bath method. Foods that are naturally low in acid must have their acidity increased for the hot water bath method, or canned using a pressure cooker. For increasing acidity you can use either 1 T of vinegar or 1 T of bottled lemon juice (not fresh) per pint jar. If you are using quart jars, increase this amount to 2 T.

Then I added the tomatoes and poured some of the juicy water that the tomatoes were keeping warm in, over the tomatoes to within 1/2 inch of the top of the jar. Next I added 1/2 tsp of salt to each jar (this is optional).


I put the jars into my large canning kettle, brought it to a boil, covered the kettle and let them boil for 40 minutes.

Voila!


I was not happy with all the liquid at the bottom of the jars. Obviously I could have packed them a little tighter with tomatoes. But all in all I was pleased with how easy this was and I can't wait to add jars of our own garden-fresh tomatoes to some soup recipes this winter!

Potato Slices on the Grill

At votemom's request, here is a new recipe. ;-) (finally!)

We frequently grill during the summer, as I'm sure you do too. These potato slices on the grill are a bit tedious to prepare, but they are sooooo worth it after they are cooked!

Slice up several potatoes. Stand them one slice at a time on a large piece of foil, and sprinkle each side with a bit of garlic powder and parsley flakes (or any kind of specialty spice or rub ~ I have two spices from Two Sisters Gourmet called over the edge herbed spinach and outrageously garlic blend that are perfect for this!).


Add a few small dollops of butter to the package. You don't want to add too much, but just enough to add a hint of the yummy butter taste, and to prevent sticking. Seal foil tightly. I usually double wrap so the butter doesn't all leak out. Grill as desired.


Unwrap and enjoy!