Crockpot Vinegar Pulled Pork and Menu Plan

Last week, I ended up being home again with my little man, be was sick.  After a trip to the doctor to make sure it wasn't strep, I decided that since I was going to be home all day, I'd do something special for dinner.  Not only did I come up with this delicious recipe, but I also got the counter cleaned off and started on my desk!  Even though I wasn't working in my classroom for Spring Open House (which came together on Thursday anyway), I got a lot done around the house while my little guy recuperated by watching movies and playing with Legos)

Crockpot Vinegar Pulled Pork

1 lean pork tenderloin

1/2 cup high quality Cabernet Vinegar (You may need more if you have a large pork tenderloin, mine was only 3.5 lbs)

8-12 cremini mushrooms, sliced

6-8 basil leaves, shredded

1 tbsp. crushed red pepper

1 pinch salt

Cook in crockpot for 6 hours on low.  Serve as sandwiches.  I used Ciabatta bread.  

Menu Plan:
Dinners-
Sunday- Corn Chowder
Monday- Fettuccine with Broccoli Rabe and grilled Chicken
Tuesday- Steak Salad with Basil Dressing
Wednesday- Leftovers
Thursday- Dinner out, its my birthday!
Friday- Homemade pizza

Lunches:
Wraps
Sandwiches
Leftovers

Breakfast:
homemade granola
cereal
chocolate chip muffins

Snacks:
veggies with hummus or peanut butter
fruit
Pirate's Bootie
Popcorn

I'll be linking to Menu Plan Monday, Mouthwathering Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday,  Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits, What's on the Menu Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, and What's for Dinner?

Pineapple Chipotle Tacos and Menu Plan

I tired something a little different last week!  These tacos were delicious and so easy! 

Pineapple Chipotle Tacos

1 pork shoulder

1 jar chipotle salsa

1 pineapple, 1/2 reserved

corn tortillas (I used white corn tortillas)

monterey jack, grated I used half regular and half habanero pepper monterey jack

cilantro for garnish

Place pork shoulder in a crock pot.  Pour chipotle salsa over the pork shoulder.  Add half the pineapple, cut into chunks.  Cook on low for 8 hours.

When ready to serve, grill pineapple (I did it on my panini press) and heat tortillas.  Layer tortillas with pork, cheese, and grilled pineapple, and cilantro on  a tortilla.  I served it with a salad topped with mangos and a fat free tropical salad dressing.  This one was one to add to the favorites for our family!

Dinners:

Monday: Unstuffed Pepper Soup and buttermilk biscuits

Tuesday: Turkey Lasagna

Wednesday: Sausage and Pepper Sandwiches

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Homemade Beer Battered Pizza

Lunches:

roll-ups

leftovers

sandwiches

Breakfast:

english muffins with peanut butter

cereal

lemon donuts (I'll post this recipe later in the week!)

Snacks:

mulit-grain chips and hummus

fruit

veggie sticks

I'll be linking to Menu Plan Monday, Mouthwathering Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday,  Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits, What's on the Menu Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, and What's for Dinner?

Simple Pasta Primavera

This week, I made a simple pasta primavera for dinner.  This recipe comes from a cookbook I've had for years.  Its one of those well-loved ones I have in my cabinet.  I thought I'd share a yummy, easy recipe from it.

Pasta Primavera

1 lb fettuccine or linguine
3 medium carrots cut into 1/4 rounds
1 bunch asparagus, bottoms snapped off and cut into 1 inch slices
1 cup snap peas, stems and strings removed, if necessary

2 tbsp butter
2 tomatoes, medium dice
1 onion, sliced thin

Salt
Pepper
grated parmesan

Method:
Start water to a boil, add a tbsp of salt to water.  While water is coming to a boil, prepare vegetables.

According to package directions, cook pasta.  When there are 5 minutes left in cooking time, add asparagus, carrots, and snap peas to pasta and water.  While pasta is boiling, melt butter in large skillet.  Add tomatoes and onions, saute until onions are soft.   Reserve 3/4 cup of boiling water from pasta, then drain pasta.

Return the pasta and vegetables to the cooking pot and add reserved water, pepper, and 1/4 cup parmesan.  Toss.  Serve with extra parmesan and pepper, if desired.



 

This Week's Menu:
Breakfast:
homemade baked donuts
cereal
French Toast Waffles

Lunches:
caesar chicken wraps
quesadillas
ham and cheese pockets


Snacks:
homemade cheese crackers
cuties
celery and bell pepper sticks


Dinners:
Sunday:Won Ton Soup and Crab Rangoon
Monday: Baked Sausages with Herbed Beans from One Dish Cookbook
Tuesday: Corned Beef in the Crockpot ( I know St. Pat's Day in Thursday, but I wanted to make this for the family and my little guy is at dad's house Thursday)
Wednesday: Chicken Alfredo with broccoli
Thursday: Corned Beef Sandwiches with leftover corned beef and baked yukon gold fries
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: Beer Battered Pizza

I'm linking up with Menu Plan Monday, Mouthwathering Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday,  What's on the Menu Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, and This Week's Cooking.

Menu Plan Monday 2/27

I am so glad to be home and be able too cook again and just enjoy being in my kitchen!  I always love vacation and getting away and happy memories and fun as a family, but more than vacation, I love returning home and enjoying where we live.  I kind of wish we didn't have to go back to the hustle and bustle of the work week, but I get to make dinner for my family and being home together!

So, here's our plan for the week...

Sunday:  Out to dinner to celebrate my husband's birthday!

Monday: BBQ chicken fingers with spinach salad

Tuesday: Raspberry chipotle marinated flank steak sandwiches and sweet potato fries

Wednesday: leftovers for the boys while I'm at PTA meeting

Thursday:  I have a hair appointment after work, I think I'll pick up mexican on the way home!

Friday: homemade pizza

For more menu planning ideas, head over to www.orgjunkie.com
What have you planned for the week?

Menu plan Monday

Happy New Year! Hard to believe that vacation is almost over. I have a ton of pictures I have to upload to showmyou the gifts I made, but somehow it just hasn't happened. I'm not sure what I've done other than read and visit with friends, but I sure could use another week or 2 off! I did go into my classroom the other day and get everything ready for the week, so I'm ready to go. Today is cleaning and grocery shopping to get ready for next week.

How were your holidays? I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends.

Here is our family's back to work and school menu.

Saturday (1/1/11: enchiladas (my wonderful husband, who never complains about working constantly told me he was craving Mexican food. He doesn't ask for much, so when he does, I try to indulge him!)

Sunday: ravioli with marinara sauce

Monday: Swedish meatballs

Tuesday: split pea soup in the crockpot

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: BLAT wraps (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato wraps)

Friday: grabbing something out since it's movie night at school!

Saturday: Homemade pizza

What's on you menu?
More menu planning at www.orgjunkie.com

Crockpot Lentil and Mushroom soup

I've been in the mood for fall meals lately.  Fall and winter foods mean comfort food to me!

Last week, I stopped by Whole Foods and grabbed a cup of soup for myself.  The soup I grabbed was a lentil and mushroom delight.  Here is the recreation I made for Crockpot Monday in our house:

1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 32 oz. containers of chicken stock
1 lb bag of lentils
1-2 portobello mushrooms, cut into small cubes
2-3 sprigs of thyme
2-3 bay leaves, dried
salt and pepper
1/4-1/2 c. heavy cream

Place onions, garlic, 1 container of chicken stock, lentils, and spices in the crock pot and refrigerate over night.  In the morning, add the 2nd container of stock.  I find if I don't soak my lentils over night, they are crunchy in the soup the next day.

Cook on low for 6 hours.

Right before serving, add cream and stir.  I served it with a garlic cheese bread toasted and topped with avocado and a small amount of shredded cheese.  My son and I both had seconds!  I can't wait for leftover night tonight!

Crockpot BBQ chicken

My family loved this last week, it was a big hit!  I served it on homemade hamburger buns.

Sauce:

1/2 red onion, quartered, then sliced

**save other half for serving

2 tbsp. canola oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. water

2 6 oz cans tomato paste

3 tbsp. molasses

1/4 c. apple cider vinegar

Drizzle oil in the bottom of pan.  Add sliced onion and garlic.  Cook until softened.  Add water and tomato paste, cook until tomato paste dissolves in water.  Add remaining ingredients and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Place 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the bottom of the crockpot.  Pour BBQ sauce over chicken.  As I've said before, I prepare my crockpot meals the night before and refrigerate them, then take them out the next morning and place them in the cooking unit.

Cook for 6 hours on low.

Saute other half of onion and serve sliders on mini slider buns with onions and crumbled blue cheese or sharp white cheddar.

Serve with baked sweet potato fries and vegetable of your choice.

Crockpot Tamale Pie

This is a recipe my mom used to make on the stove.  After looking at a few crockpot recipes, this is the version I came up with.

For filling:

1 lb ground beef

1/2 tsp cumin seed

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 14.4 oz can fire roasted tomatoes (I like Muir Glen Organic)

dash of salt, pepper to taste

1 16 oz. jar salsa (do not use fresh, uncooked salsa)

1 15 oz can kidney beans (you can use black or pinto beans too)

2 cups frozen corn

1 2.25 oz can sliced olives

Brown ground beef.  As it begins to brown, add cumin seed, salt and pepper.

Once the beef has browned, add additional ingredients.  Allow to cook until about 1/2 the liquid evaporates (you don't want a lot of liquid in the filling because it will make for mushy crust)  Taste the filling, if it tastes a little too vinegary, add 1 tsp sugar.

For crust:

3/4  cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 cup sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 egg

1/8 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup pepper jack cheese, grated

Mix all ingredients for cornbread together in large bowl as filling cooks down.  Put filling on the bottom and layer the cornbread on the top.  Cook in crockpot for 4 hours on low.

I cooked it for 6 hours and the cornbread topping was a little burned around the edges.  

I always prep my crockpot dishes on Sunday night and refrigerate them so I can pull them out the next morning and put them in the cooking unit.  

Enjoy!

Crockpot Monday

Since Mondays are nutty around my house (the little guy has karate and we rush home for dinner and bedtime), Mondays have become Crockpot Mondays around my house. I search the web, my cookbooks, and other sources to find fun and creative ways to use my beautiful new crockpot! (After a couple weeks of burning dinner, my husband took the initiative and bought me a beautiful programmable one to replace my cracked dinosaur!)

This week's crockpot recipe came from my newest cookbook, called Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook

I will let you know how it turns out! I also wanted to know if any of you have favorite crock pot recipes you'd like to share.