Carnitas: Our Official Christmas Dinner

Carnitas are our official Christmas dinner now. Neither Justin nor I are crazy about turkey and we get plenty of that with Thanksgiving. So we decided to devote Christmas dinner to one of our favorites! An added plus of this meal is that it's simple to get a low-protein version for Micah. Turkey...not so much.

Mexican is the way we go. We have refried beans and Mexican rice with these carnitas. I make Pioneer Woman's pico de gallo to go with it because how can you go wrong? And I roast some corn. (Put frozen corn on a pan, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then roast under the broiler until the corn around the edges gets brown. Most delicious corn in the world!) 

Sometimes this meal seems complicated in my head because you need several hours to cook it. But you need less than ten minutes at the start if you have someone else cut up your meat (20 if you don't) and then 30-40 of supervision at the end. That's not more time than I would usually spend cooking dinner and you get this deliciousness. 

(Why yes, I did turn the camera on two different angles for your viewing pleasure. Or maybe I didn't realize I had done that. Either way.)

Ingredients: 

Boston butt pork roast- you pick the size: we typically get a 4-5 pounder

1 cup orange juice

juice and zest of 3-4 limes, plus more limes for serving

3-4 tsp. cumin

3-4 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. salt (Or use garlic salt)

2 tsp. pork seasoning, optional

water

tortillas- you can always make your own! 

toppings: lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream, onions, etc

Cut your meat into 2 in. cubes. Seriously, this is so much easier if you ask them to do this in the meat department. But if not, you can handle it. Just use a sharp knife.  Cut as much off that bone as possible and toss the bone in too. Do NOT remove the fat. You need it later. (I did not say that you needed to put the meat into a pot. I just assumed you knew. Sorry if that caused you problems.)

Side note: the pot you use is important. I use a nonstick pot and it works beautifully. I used one of my regular aluminum pots with a copper bottom the first time and my meat stuck horribly. Don't waste the deliciousness. 

Add orange juice. Zest and juice your limes. Or have your husband do it because he's stronger and can get more juice out.

Add remaining seasonings. Just sprinkle all over the top. Use more or less for your preference. 

Cover meat with water and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for two hours. Do not touch it. Don't stir it. Don't cover it. The water is supposed to cook off. You will soon smell it though. 

After two hours turn up the heat to medium high and let the rest of the water cook off. Pull the meat off that bone and remove the bone. The meat is very tender and will flake right off. The fat will be left in the bottom and your meat will start to brown in it. Turn down to medium and flip the meat occasionally. The meat will start to brown on the bottom and get crispy. Sample it here, of course, and add more garlic salt and cumin if you want.

When you turn the temperature up to let the last of the water cook off, start prepping everything else. Cook your rice. Warm your tortillas. Heat your refried beans. Chop your veggies. 

Continue turning the meat until the rest of the prep work is done and everyone is starving. Place meat on a plate draining off as much grease as you want. Or leave it there and let it drip down your arm while you eat. 

Assemble your tacos in whatever order you prefer. Eat. But please, squeeze some more lime juice over that meat before you eat it. It's the crowning touch. 

Repeat the last two steps until all the meat is gone and there's just some grease stains in the pot and on the plates. Then put carnitas on your menu for next month, even though it's not Christmas. They don't really taste any better at Christmas. They're good anytime. 

Banana Bread

Banana bread is something I never ate a lot growing up. I have to admit that I'm not crazy about banana flavored things so it just seemed irrelevant. But I hate to throw away food, even overripe bananas. I found this recipe online a few years ago and was intrigued by the lack of milk and eggs in the recipe. I tweaked it some and it's a favorite at our house- even mine!

This only makes one loaf and it's gone in a day here. Once I made it with Micah's Cambrooke "flour" and it only had the protein from the bananas and the minimal amount in the flour. There was 4-5 grams of protein in the whole loaf of bread and it was delicious. Froze well, too.

2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup bananas (I usually use three, you can typically make it with two)

Place butter and sugar in bowl of stand mixer (or use a bowl).

Peel your bananas. These were definitely past eating. 

Mash bananas thoroughly with fork. 

Mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. 

Cream butter and sugar. 

Oh, and it helps to have totally adorable kitchen help!

Alternately add the dry ingredients and the bananas until all ingredients are incorporated. 

Spoon into a greased loaf pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. 

And if you are really cool, you'll eat it in a tent like we did. (Excuse the grainy photo.)

2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup bananas (I usually use three, you can typically do it with two)

Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Mash bananas with fork. Cream butter and sugar. Alternately add dry ingredients and bananas to creamed mixture until all ingredients are incorporated. Spoon into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Yum! Yum! And you don't have to throw out any old bananas!

Adapting One Pot Meals: Creating Your Own Hamburger Helper

One pot meals are the best! I love how quick they are to fix and how fast they are to clean up (especially in a non-stick skillet!).  I can't remember the last time I actually bought hamburger helper because this is so simple. 

1 lb. ground beef

1 can tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

2 cups water

chili spices (your choice) 

1 beef bouillon cube

1 cup small shells

3/4 cup frozen peas

2 cups cheddar

Brown meat in pan with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and steak seasoning. Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Stir in water, bouillon cube, and chili spices. Bring to a boil and add in pasta. Turn down to a simmer and cook for approximately six minutes and add peas. When pasta is cooked, stir in cheddar until cheese is melted. Serve. 

See? Quick and simple. 

Doesn't it look amazing? 

And the even better thing is how easy it is to change this up. 

You need meat (or not, whatever you want), liquid (chicken broth, tomatoes, tomato sauce, milk, beef broth, enchilada sauce, etc), veggies, and a starch.  And cheese! I love cheese. You can really use about any combination you want. 

I make spaghetti this way. Hamburger, tomato paste, 3 cups chicken broth, 8 oz. spaghetti, and parmesan cheese. 

Stroganoff? Hamburger, make a roux with flour and the grease, add milk or beef broth, then add in noodles and some sour cream at the end. Yum! 

Alfredo?  Chicken, mushrooms, roux, chicken broth (or milk), whipping cream, noodles, and broccoli and parmesan at the end. 

(Change the pasta shapes just for fun. I love interesting pasta shapes!)

Serve with bread and a salad. Or absolutely nothing else if you're really hungry! 

What flavor combinations can you imagine? 

BBQ Chicken

A couple of weeks ago we had BBQ chicken and I tried a new way of making it. This stove-top to oven technique is one of my favorites for chicken now. It's quick and leaves the chicken juicy. I was skimpy on pictures when I remade it again but it's so easy you don't even really need pictures! 

3 chicken breasts, flattened (size up or down to what you need)

salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika

BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays)

sliced cheese (if you so desire)

Hawaiian sweet rolls

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Sprinkle seasonings liberally over both sides of chicken. Place in hot pan with a little oil and sear that side.  Flip and let cook for three minutes. Then place pan in oven. That bottom side will get a nice crust on it in the hot pan. 

See that nice crust? 

Cook in oven for twenty minutes, then pour BBQ sauce on top and cook for five more minutes. 
Remove chicken from pan and then shred into large chunks. Return to pan and cover with sauce. Place in oven until sauce is hot. 

Place cheese (if desired) and chicken on a Hawaiian roll. 
Eat. 
Repeat until all the chicken is gone.
Cry. 
Make more chicken. 

Just kidding on the last two. 

Maybe. 

Asian Bowls

I sat and stared at this picture for a good ten minutes and didn't come up with anything to say. (Ok, really we're watching the end of Star Trek: Voyager and I was distracted. I hate for any show to end but they did a decent job on this one.) My hubby typed a few sentences and that was enough to let me know I couldn't let him write the post! 

This is a very simple dish that can be modified easily to create many varieties. Easy "asian" food.

It's yummy. 

I would eat it now if I had any. 

I'm going to keep it simple. You need some rice. I've been using brown rice that I've cooked in chicken broth. So yummy and the brown is much better for us. 

Then you need veggies. I've been boiling carrots and then adding broccoli for the last few minutes until both are barely tender. Salt and pepper, people. They'll get extra flavor from the sauce at the end. 

Then you need meat. I've used chicken but this would be delicious with steak too, or even pork. 

You can try this or this or this. (Although I cook the teriyaki chicken in a pan instead of the crock-pot.) I usually make extra sauce to pour over the whole thing. And sometimes, I put mushrooms in with the meat. Yum! 

Use a bowl, unless you're really hungry- then use a plate. Rice first. Then spread veggies over the rice. Then meat over the veggies. And then pour, ok, maybe drizzle, the sauce over the meal. 

This would be especially fast if you already had the rice cooked! But even with cooking the rice-especially instant- this is fast, delicious, and healthy! Oh, and it's cheap too! 

Pancakes!

I've had a pancake obsession for some time. I ate them constantly when I was pregnant with Kevin and it's one craving that did not go away. I found a recipe that was simple and delicious but since I was eating them so often I wanted to make them a little healthier. So I tweaked it some. I'll give you the basic way to make it too. 

3/4 cup milk

2 tbsp. vinegar

1 egg

1 1/2 tbsp. honey

2 tbsp. butter, melted

1/2 cup quick oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

chocolate chips, blueberries, etc. 

Combine milk and vinegar, let sit for five minutes. Heat a pan over medium low heat. 

Combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

Combine milk mixture, egg, honey, and melted butter. 

Add liquid to dry ingredients while whisking. Really, use a whisk; it incorporates more air into the batter.  Let the batter sit for about five minutes. Believe me. Check out the difference. It gets...almost fluffy. 

Spray pan with cooking spray and measure out pancakes. The recipe will make 6 normal sized pancakes so use discretion with measuring :) 

When bubbles appear in the pancakes add your chocolate chips or blueberries or whatever you are putting in them. Let cook another minute. 

Flip and cook for two to three more minutes. 

Dish out and "cover" with butter. 

Then syrup. Although I should point out that this is a my sized portion of syrup. My husband uses about three times as much. And drinks the extra. *shudders*

If you aren't feeling as healthy, replace the honey with 2 tbsp. sugar; add the sugar to the dry ingredients. And you can use a cup of all-purpose flour in place of the oats and whole wheat flour. The pancakes will be firmer this way. I personally prefer the slightly nutty taste from the whole wheat and oatmeal.  And I feel better about eating them multiple times a week too! 

These freeze and rewarm famously! All this pancake talk has me wanting pancakes so I warmed some up in the oven. I will not tell you what time of night it is in Kentucky as I'm eating pancakes. That would be embarrassing. 

Shepherd's Pie

I grew up less than three hours away from where we live now. 

At least if you make the trip minus small children it's less than three hours. 

Anyway, for the most part, the food is about the same. And why wouldn't it be? But there is one dish I had never heard of until we moved up here. Shepherd's pie. Ever heard of it? I had it at church and fell in love; we've been eating it ever since. I made it for my parents and mom requested the recipe. 

Now my mom is good. She doesn't need this recipe because I explained the whole thing to her. (Maybe that means I'm good?)  But I just realized I had never posted it. So here's this delicious Kentucky meal! 

1 lb. hamburger meat

salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, steak seasoning

1/2 package mushrooms

1 cup corn, frozen or canned (oh, you can use mixed veggies here; it's just not my preference)

2 cans cream of mushroom soup (or the equivalent: I use this recipe)

2 cups mashed potatoes

1-2 cups cheddar cheese

Brown meat with my normal meat seasonings (you know: salt, pepper, etc)

Then I whipped up a double batch of the cream of soup. 

Slice your mushrooms.

Add mushrooms to pan and cook for three minutes. 

Pour corn into pan. 

Then pour in your cream of soup.

Yup! Used Dexter to mash my potatoes! :) 

Pour meat mixture into baking dish. 

Top with seasoned mashed potatoes. 

Pour desired amount of cheese on top. Now I believe the best part of any meal is the cheese so my desired amount is a little larger. And cheese is expensive. Gotta work on that!

I cleaned my oven so I put the baking dish on a cookie sheet. Keep that oven pretty! Bake at 400 until cheese is browned and filling is bubbly. 

And if you don't leave yours in the oven and forget it's there your cheese won't pull away from the sides of the pan like this. But it's yummy either way. 

Comfort food at its finest! 

Mexican Braid

Are you getting tired of my Pinspiration yet? I was originally going to make a enchilada casserole but sometimes Justin's not crazy about the texture of tortillas baked in a sauce. So we made it into a braid! So yummy! We did manage to save some for lunch the next day but only because we really, really tried! 

Make some pizza dough! You're actually going to see a VERY similar recipe is you go to that link. 

1 lb. ground meat

1 1/2 cups black beans

1 tbsp. taco seasoning

1/2 cup salsa

1/2 cup enchilada sauce

2 cups cheddar cheese

1 egg, beaten, with 1 tbsp. water

garlic powder and parsley

Spread half of the pizza dough into a sheet pan. 

Brown your meat and drain off grease. Add taco seasoning and 1/2 cup water. Cook until water has evaporated. Add beans, salsa, and enchilada sauce. Cook for another five minutes.

Spread filling down the center of dough.

Cut the dough on either side of filling into strips. Top filling with cheese!

 Criss-cross dough strips over filling, alternately sides to make a pretty "braid."

Combine beaten egg and water. Brush in a thin layer over the dough. Sprinkle with garlic powder and parsley. Bake at 400 for 15-18  minutes or until top of dough is browned and crispy.

Doesn't that look delicious? It was amazing!! Go enjoy!