Green Chile Stew (Easy)

A great Fall time of the year dinner.  Hatch chile comes from Hatch, New Mexico, the Chile Capital of the World.  When I used to live in New Mexico, I shopped at this one Albuquerque Wal-Mart on Coors.  There was this one man who worked in the produce department; his name was Ed.  He is the one who told me about this green chile and he gave me the recipe to make this stew.  I no longer live in New Mexico and I used to be able to purchase the hot frozen Hatch chile from that Wal-Mart, now I live in Houston; it is not carried here, at least not that I have seen anywhere.  I have to settle for another brand, at least it is Hatch.  I prefer the hot and the frozen kind for this recipe, this one is mild but it will do. This recipe is a slow cooker recipe,  takes approximately 6 hours in the crock pot on low, serve with warmed flour tortillas on the side for dipping in your stew.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs pork tenderloin cut up in bite-size pieces
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1-2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 tsp. salt or to taste and wait until the end because potatoes absorb salt
• 1-13 oz. frozen green chile, thawed or 1-27 oz can Hatch chile, drained and cut up bite-size
• 2 to 2 ½ cups chicken broth, use your own judgment, just enough to not cover the contents of the crock pot

Directions:

1. Heat oil in frying pan and fry pork until browned. 
2. Add onion and diced potatoes next and brown slightly, about 5 minutes. 
3. Transfer browned ingredients to crock pot including garlic, green chile and chicken broth and cook on low for approximately 6 hours. 
4. Add salt at end according to taste. 
5. Serve with warmed flour tortillas on the side for dipping into stew. 

This stew also freezes well for leftovers at a later date.

I used the entire pork tenderloin.

I purchased these on the aisle at Wal-Mart where all the Spanish foods are sold.

The start of the browning process of the pork tenderloin, diced potatoes, and chopped onions.

The entire contents of the Hatch green chile emptied out before being cut up in small pieces.

The pork, potatoes, onions, garlic, and diced green chiles added to the slow cooker before adding chicken broth and stirring.

This pot took 2 1/2 cups of water and you see how it does not come over the top of the contents? Just enough to almost cover the contents. Too much chicken broth will weaken the flavor in the end.

After the 6 hours of cooking on low.

Served with warmed flour tortilla on the side to dip in your bowl.

Parmesan Pork Roast (Easy)

Whoa!  When this roast starts cooking in the crock pot and you have to leave the house and come back later on in the day, let me tell you now, the smell is awesomely fragrant!  Very tender too!  The ingredients you use to flavor it with are ingredients you usually already have in the house.  So easy!  I followed this recipe exactly how it was written, did not cut anything, tastes great exactly the way it is meant to be made.  I served it with homemade mashed potatoes and fresh steamed broccoli on the side to complete the meal.  There are leftovers, you can either freeze them or eat them again the next day.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Parmesan-Pork-Roast

Ingredients

• 1 boneless whole pork loin roast (4 pounds)
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup honey
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons dried basil
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (this is added with the cold water once the cooking process is done)
• 1/4 cup cold water

Directions

• Cut roast in half. Transfer to a 3-qt. slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine the cheese, honey, soy sauce, basil, garlic, oil and salt; pour over pork. Cover and cook on low for 5-1/2 to 6 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 160°.
• Remove meat to a serving platter; keep warm. Skim fat from cooking juices; transfer to a small saucepan. Bring liquid to a boil. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Gradually stir into pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Slice roast; serve with gravy. Yield: 10 servings.

My roast

I find it is much easier to cut the roast in half while still in the package and then just let it slide out into the crock pot, less mess and easier to cut through while holding the outside packaging. When you take it outside of the packaging, the meat slides a bit more in your hands.

Look how nicely it fits in the crock pot after I cut it in half.

Seasonings to flavor the pork roast. Yum!

Seasonings poured all over the roast. Now all you do is cover, cook on low for 5-6 hours. So easy!

6 hours later and smelling oh so wonderful!

Slow Cooker Carnitas with Avocado Salad (Easy)

This really is a delicious pork dinner!  Pork meals can be hit or miss for me sometimes.  I like pork but I can't say I love pork.  This meal changes the game!  It is a simple meal to prepare because you basically are mixing up your spices and rubbing them all over the pork and placing it in the crock pot for 8-10 hours that morning.  I would say 8 hours works just fine for this recipe, 10 seems to just be too long.  The house smells wonderful from the cooking process!  Once you have slow cooked this all day, you will place your meat in a 9x13 baking dish, shred it, and bake it in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes to crisp it up.  Do not throw away the broth it cooked in all day,  you will need that for moistening the meat as needed.  I drizzle a little bit of the broth over the meat once it comes out of the oven.  I also pour some of the broth over the leftovers and freeze it for a future meal or for the next day as leftovers.  It really comes out great that way;  that is why I say do not discard your broth. 

Now getting to the avocado salad;  I have to talk about the Avocado Salad that I served with this meal, it is out of this world delicious!  It is a must!  Do not leave it out!  You will love it!  I served the shredded pork over a warmed flour tortilla and spread some of the avocado salad on top and added a few lettuce leaves, folded it up like a wrap and chowed down!  I can eat two and call it a complete meal.  I was very satisfied.  I used plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream for my avocado salad because it just is healthier and adds more protein.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Carnitas/Detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/avocado-salad-with-bacon-and-sour-cream/detail.aspx

I doubled all the spices to put on the pork and omitted the cinnamon altogether. 

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (4 pound) boneless pork shoulder roast
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups chicken broth

 Directions

1. Mix together salt, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, coriander, and cinnamon in a bowl. Coat pork with the spice mixture. Place the bay leaves in the bottom of a slow cooker and place the pork on top. Pour the chicken broth around the sides of the pork, being careful not to rinse off the spice mixture.
2. Cover and cook on Low until the pork shreds easily with a fork, about 10 hours. Turn the meat after it has cooked for 5 hours. When the pork is tender, remove from slow cooker, and shred with two forks. Use cooking liquid as needed to moisten the meat.

Avocado Salad with Bacon and Sour Cream

Ingredients

• 4 slices bacon, chopped (I used Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits instead)
• 2 avocados - peeled, pitted, and cubed
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup sour cream (I used plain Greek Yogurt, no fat and high in protein, better for you)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• salt to taste
• red leaf lettuce (even though the recipe calls for just laying the lettuce on a plate and placing the avocado salad mixture on top, I tore the leaves and put them on the shredded pork and ate them)

Directions

1. Cook the chopped bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crisp. With a slotted spoon, remove bacon to a paper towel. Drain fat.(If you use the Real Bacon Bits, you don't have to do this step)
2. In a large bowl, gently combine avocados, bacon, green onions, sour cream, lemon juice, and salt.(a food processor works wonderfully instead here)
3. Arrange salad leaves on plates, and spoon avocado salad on top. 

Boneless pork shoulder roast rubbed in spices sitting in 2 cups of chicken broth.

Shredded cooked pork baked for 20 minutes to crisp up.

Instead of buying an entire pack of bacon just to fry up 4 slices I used this instead for the avocado salad.

My mini food processor I used for making my avocado salad, comes out so smooth this way.

Avocado salad served over red leaf lettuce leaves

Sweet n Sour Smoked Sausage over rice (Easy)

A very colorful meal and great flavors! I love the somewhat burnt sausages, they taste so good! It is a quick meal to prepare. My husband loves this dinner. You always hear about recipes for sweet and sour chicken or pork but I have never heard of sausage until this one. It is a keeper in my recipe binder and has been made many times and many more to come!

Ingredients:
(2) 16oz (1 lb each) Hillshire Farm or similar brand smoked sausage
1 green bell pepper, sliced into long strips
1 red bell pepper, sliced into long strips
1 large onion, sliced in half, then thinly sliced
(1) 20 oz can pineapple chunks, drained
Sweet and sour sauce (recipe below, prepared separately and before cooking the meal)
pinch of cayenne pepper (you can leave this out if you think it will be too hot, won't miss it either way)
Dash of Tabasco or hot pepper sauce (also you can skip this if you think it is too spicy for you)
3 cups cooked white rice

Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe:
Combine:
2/3 cup rice vinegar
8 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. ketchup
2 tsp soy sauce
Bring to a boil in a small saucepan. Mix 4 tsp cornstarch with 8 tsp water and stir into boiling mixture to thicken, makes 1 cup of sauce. Remove from heat and set aside.


Directions:
Slice the smoked sausage and place in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Fry until well browned, stirring often. Once the sausage is fried, spoon out of frying pan and reserve the grease for the sliced green and red bell peppers and onion. Saute until soft. Add the pineapple chunks, then add the cooked smoked sausages back, pour the sweet and sour sauce in and stir to coat the meat and veggies, this is also where you add the pinch of cayenne and dash of Tabasco. Simmer 5 minutes. Serve over white rice and enjoy.

The 2 packs of smoked sausage I use.

Frying them up.

Reserving them on the side while I get ready to use their grease for frying the veggies.

Frying the veggies in the reserved grease from the sausages.

Some of the sweet n sour sauce ingredients.

The finished sweet and sour sauce.

Sausage Subs (Moderate)

I got this recipe from Rachael Ray's site and took a chance with it and I do not regret it one bit! I know I say this a lot but gosh do I love this meal! My husband loves it too. I doubled this one this time around because I just had to have the leftovers again the next day for dinner. I used sweet and hot (spicy) brats for this meal, if you can't handle the heat then use all sweet. Also if you are trying to watch your fat content then use turkey sausage and I am sure it will taste just as awesome. I served this meal on wheat submarine rolls (trying to be healthy, does that count?) tee-hee-hee! :) It may look like a lot of work but it really isn't and the second time you make it you will prepare it even quicker. 


http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=3478


INGREDIENTS:

• 2 large cubanelle peppers, seeded and thinly sliced (yellow banana peppers, picture down below)
• 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
• 1 large green bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 8 cloves garlic, crushed
• Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), for liberal drizzling
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1-1/2 pounds hot Italian sausage links (I used one pack of brats, you know the Johnsonville pack of 5)
• 1-1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausage links (same as the hot pack)
• 2 cups drained jarred giardiniera (pickled vegetables, including carrots, cauliflower, celery and hot peppers), found in the Italian food aisle at the market, picture down below)
• 1 cup pitted large green olives
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley (a couple of generous handfuls) (I leave this out, I feel this is a very overpowering taste and I don't care for it)
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 8 8-inch sub rolls, split (I used wheat)

 Preparation
Pre-heat the grill or a grill pan to high. Place a double layer of foil, 18-20 inches long, on a work surface. In a bowl, combine the peppers, onion and garlic. Liberally drizzle the vegetables with EVOO and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Pile the vegetables on half of the foil, then fold the foil over to cover. Fold up all of the edges to seal, forming a pouch. Place the pouch off to one side of the grill and cook, turning occasionally, for 15-20 minutes.

Drizzle the sausages with EVOO (I feel there is no need to cover fattening sausage with oil to grill, skip that step) and grill, turning frequently, until firm and crisp and the juices run clear, 12-20 minutes, depending on the thickness. Let rest for a few minutes, then slice on an angle.
While the sausages grill, in a food processor, pulse the giardiniera vegetables with the olives, parsley and lemon zest until the mixture is the consistency of relish.

Fill the rolls with the peppers, onion and sliced hot and sweet sausages; top with the giardiniera-olive relish. (This relish is awesome!)

My peppers for the grill.

The yellow one is the cubanelle (banana pepper).

Sliced banana peppers, green peppers, red peppers, onion, and garlic, seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil. I place in this large bowl because it has a lid and I can shake all the ingredients together to coat them evenly.

My pepper mixture in foil on an upside-down cookie sheet so I can slide it off onto the grill without accidentally tearing it.

See how I have it all bundled nicely on an upside-down cookie sheet getting ready to be cooked on the grill?

It slides off so nicely without tearing this heavy mixture of veggies.

Now close the lid and let cook for 15-20 minutes on low flames.

Grilled veggies.

The relish ingredients.

Relish ingredients before getting pulsed in my food processor. Don't forget the lemon zest at this point as well.

Pulsed relish. Yum!

I removed my relish from the food processor and placed it in an easier to get to bowl with a spoon for spreading on the rolls.

Grilled brats/sausages. Allow them to cool just a bit so they are easy to hold while you slice.

Sliced brats/sausages, bite-size pieces.

My sausage sub open-faced before I close it up and take a bite. This is a meal in itself. I do not make anything else to go with this dinner.

Smothered Pork Chops (Moderately challenging and time consuming)

Smothered pork chops over diced potatoes and served with green beans and slivered almonds on the side. So good

!

I LOVE this meal! I mean I love, love, love it! Oh my goodness is it good! I would find it hard to believe anyone would say otherwise if you prepared this for them unless they were a vegetarian or did not eat pork. It is worth the time it takes to prepare and the aroma created in the home once you've added the thyme and garlic is so warm and inviting and says "home cooked with love!" My good friend shared this recipe with me and this one is a keeper and a 'many a times' repeater for the rest of my life! I served it over diced potatoes and sliced green beans with slivered almonds on the side, a complete meal.

Ingredients:

3 ounces bacon (about 3-4 slices), cut into 1/4 inch pieces, I fry the bacon slices whole first, then cut with scissors into pieces, much easier.

2 tbsp. unbleached flour

1 ¾ cups low sodium chicken broth

Olive oil

4 bone-in, rib-end, ½ to ¾ inch thick pork chops

Ground black pepper

2 medium yellow onions, halved pole to pole and sliced thin (about 3 ½ cups worth)

Table salt

2 tbsp. water

2 medium cloves garlic, minced, equals about 2 tsp.

1 tsp. thyme

2 bay leaves

1 tbsp. parsley leaves

Instructions:

1.       Fry bacon in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 8-10 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate, leaving fat in saucepan (you should have 2 tbsp bacon fat; if not, supplement with olive oil). Reduce heat to medium-low and gradually whisk flour into fat until smooth. Cook, whisking frequently, until mixture is light brown, about the color of peanut butter, about 5 minutes. Whisk in chicken broth in slow, steady stream; increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil, stirring occasionally; cover and set aside off heat.

2.       Heat 1 tbsp oil in 12-inch skillet over high heat until smoking, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, dry pork chops with paper towels and sprinkle with ½ tsp pepper. Brown chops in single layer until deep golden on first side, about 3 minutes. Flip chops and cook until browned on second side, about 3 minutes longer. Transfer chops to large plate and set aside.

3.       Reduce heat to medium and add 1 tbsp oil, onions, ¼ tsp salt, and water to now empty skillet. Using wooden spoon, scrape browned bits on pan bottom and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are softened and browned around the edges, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds longer.  Return chops to skillet in single layer, covering chops with onions. Pour in warm sauce and any juices collected from pork; add bay leaves. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until pork is tender and paring knife inserted into chops meets very little resistance, about 30 minutes.

4.       Transfer chops to warmed serving platter and tent with foil. Increase heat to medium-high and simmer sauce rapidly, stirring frequently, until thickened to gravy-like consistency, about 5 minutes. Discard bay leaves, stir in parsley, and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper. Cover chops with sauce, sprinkle with reserved bacon, and serve immediately.

Gravy set aside, keeping warm for later use.

Pork chops searing for 3 minutes on first side sprinkled generously with black pepper.

Searing other side of pork chops, once done, remove from frying pan and set aside and keep warm.

Browning the onions but add the garlic and thyme in the end of the browning process. Remove from pan and set aside.

Once onions have been removed from frying pan, add the pork chops back then cover with cooked onions.

Following with gravy that was set aside in the beginning and add some bay leaves and sprinkle with parsley.

Simmer for 30 minutes covered with a lid until tender.

Once done cooking I sprinkle the bacon all over the cooked chops and remove the bay leaves and serve immediately over diced potatoes.