Chop Salad-Cumin Vinaigrette

Meal 2 from the pork chops is this yummy salad. You can really make any kind of salad you want with whatever it is you put in salad, the best part of this is the delicious dressing. This has a wonderful variety of flavors that is a fun ride for your palette! YUM!

Salad ingredients:

Leftover P90X pork chops

Spinach leaves

cabbage or regular lettuce

orange pieces

red pepper

tomatoes

Calls for raisins but I did not use them because Dennis is not a fan, you could also use craisins maybe?

Directions:

Chop, peel, dice and toss into a salad.

Cumin Vinaigrette (taken from P90X recipe book):

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. lime juice

1/2 Tbs. orange juice

1/2 Tbs. Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp. cumin powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1 Tbs. olive oil

Directions:

Whisk all ingredients together until emulsified.

p90x Pork Chops

(Maybe this looks greasy, but it's the glaze you put on it)

A few months ago Dennis and I tried to do the diet and full P90X workout. We didn't make it the full 90 days but we did find a couple of really good recipes from the experience. This is one of them:

Ingredients:
16 oz. pork chops (the little medalion ones)
1/2 tsp. salt
14 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 Tbsp. fresh garlic minced
1/2 tsp. Tabasco sauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Stir together salt through cinnamon spices to make a rub, coat chops on both sides with the rub. Heat oil in skillet over mod. high heat and brown tenderloins, turning about 4 minutes.
Stir together brown sugar, garlic, and Tabasco. Place chops in oven pan pat sugar mixture onto chops. Cook about 20 minutes.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.

This is SUPER flavorful and really tasty with the combo of spicey and sweet.

(You'll like this one mom!)

Poor Man's Macaroni

This recipe is again from my friend Amity who got it from her mother in-law that had 12 children!!! So I call this Poor Man's Macaroni because with 12 kids there is no way they could have been anything else!!! Plus the ingredients in this recipe are perfect for the poor man's budget. This recipe may sound wierd to some, I questioned if it would be good or not but I was desperate for something super fast and super easy so of course I called my friend and this is what she suggested, in my desperation I gave it a try and was pleasantly surpised how yummy it was.
I also don't have a picture because I didn't make this this week, but thought I would put it on here if anyone was in need of something fast easy and out of the pantry!!!

(Mom, I know you wouldn't like this but maybe you will have a good suggestion to spice this one up!!!)

Ingredients:
1 box elbow macaroni
1 can tomato sauce (the small can)
cheddar cheese (as much as you like, I use about a cup to a cup and a half)

Directions:
Cook macaroni as directed, add sauce, add cheese stir and serve.

Again, it may sound yuck to some, but Dennis and I both really liked it and Ian and Cadey both will eat this. I keep some noodles sauce and cheese free for Will, so he will eat and Viv almost never eats dinner any way so most of us are happy for this meal. I am also picky about leftovers and this one does reheat pretty well.

Next time I make it I will add a photo!

On the Menu 3/29-4/4

Monday: P90x Pork Chops (freezer)
Tuesday: Pork chop salad (double meal, leftover new meal)
Wednesday: Taco Soup (fast, easy pantry dinner)
Thursday: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, so hopefully OUT to dinner!!!
Friday: Breakfast (fast, easy)
Saturday:Chicken Cordon Blue (freezer)

I am hoping this will be an easy week. One of my favorite and best time savers is to use leftovers for a whole new meal. I am using this idea this week with the pork chops and using leftovers to make a salad with it the next night. Another idea for this is to make a pot roast and use left overs to make tacos or enchiladas. It makes leftovers a little more fun and appetizing!!

Taco Tidbits

We had tacos last night and I think most people know how to make tacos. Two things I do that may be a little different is that
1: I always use morning star farms veggie meat crumbles. I usually don't tell people until they have eaten and praised the food to tell them. It is funny to watch their faces and then see them finish enjoying their meal. It really is good. I only use it for mexican and chili dishes though and find it gross in spaghetti sauce.
2: While on Guam my friend Nicole introduced me to adding diced cucumbers as one of my taco fillings. It is really tasty and now we always have that with our tacos.

Does anyone have any other fun taco tidbits?

Super Food Super YUMMY!

Awhile back our friends came over for dinner. They offered to bring a side dish to contribute to the meal. When they came over my friend had a big bowl of what looked like big green beans. She said they were called Edamame (ed-a-mom-may). Quickly she added that you don't eat the shells, you pod them and eat the beans inside. They were so good, they have since become a favorite food at our house. Cadey and Ian LOVE these. Ian thinks they are fun and enjoys popping them from the shell. He won't eat them if we do it for him!! Funny.

I get mine in bulk in the frozen section at Costco. They come in little individual steam bags. You steam for a few minutes then sprinkle with salt (I use sea salt). You can also steam them with salted water. I go for ease though and just pop the little bag in my microwave and voila a healthy side dish!

The other day one of my moms gave me a Flexitarian (post to come) cook book that many of the recipes call for and use edamame. I found it funny how just until recently I had never even heard of it and now it was popping up all over the place. The reason why it is so prevalent in this particular cook book is because Edamame is a soy bean and packed full of protien super power! This is great for those of us that don't eat a lot of meat!

A general look at edamame can be found at this sight.

Nutritional information can be found here if you are interested.

Manicotti

Dennis made this dish during our freezer cooking day and it turned out really well. We just got the recipe online from allrecipes.com. I was surprised to find out you don't cook the noodles. It made sense because stuffing these shells would be super hard once cooked!!
One thing we changed in this recipe was we did not add water to the sauce and added a can of petite diced tomatoes with juices instead.

To cook from frozen:
Pop in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about an hour and a half. Our's got just slightly over cooked on the top, next time I might cover with foil the last 15 minutes or so.

We also divided this recipe into two smaller freezer containers and it was perfect because we still have enough left for about 3-4 more servings even in the smaller pan. (NOT ONE KID EVEN TOUCHED THIS!!! Seriously, I think the food I provide is quite tasty and they just are not interested. Is this normal??)

Side note:
One thing I have found with freezer cooking is you need a bit longer cook time. So you save time in prep., but you do need to be home to put it in the oven.