Pork Loin Chronicles Volume One

Recently I took a pork loin out of my freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw. That sucker weighed over 9.5 pounds. I needed to come up with multiple ways to use it without getting sick of pork.

First I made almost half of it into roast pork like I did in this post. We ate that for super on the first night. When I cleaned up I made the leftovers into Barbequed Pork!! This is one of my childhood favorites.

Barbequed Pork 

Leftover Roast Pork
Barbeque Sauce
1/4 water

Slice the leftover pork and cover it well in barbeque sauce. Try to get as much of the surface area covered as possible. Refrigerate covered overnight. Place marinated pork slices in a ovenproof baking dish with a lid along with 1/4 cup water and more barbeque sauce (I used about a cup to cover over two pounds of slices.) Bake at 350 degrees for about 2 hours. Use a fork to break apart the meat into little chunks or shreds. Add more barbeque sauce if desired. Serve in buns or just on a plate. 

I made a few other meals with the pork loin. We'll get to them soon,
-Kristin
 

Quick Fixes: Yogurt Cucumber Salad

Here's a side dish I can whip up in a couple minutes. It also makes a good breakfast.

1 cucumber-peeled and cubed
1 tomato- coarsely chopped
 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 cup plain greek yogurt

Combine all ingredients & serve. 

Plain, simple and so tasty!

See you tomorrow.
-Kristin

Photo #26

It is nice to have something easy to post today!
I hope you have a lovely day.

Thoughtfully,
Kristin

Recipe Experiment: Power Cookie ---> Granola Bars

As I was doing the posts this week about leftover oatmeal, I had an idea of another possible way to use it.  I had never found a recipe for granola bars that I had liked at all. Usually they are so hard and crumbly that by the time you get them out of the pan you have a pile of regular granola. In fact that was what made me work out the recipe for power cookies in the first place.

My thought was, what if I added leftover oatmeal to the power cookie recipe. It had the potential to make a pan of bars kind of like the consistency of chewy granola bars. It was definitely worth a shot.

So tonight I tried it.  I used the power cookie recipe  and just added 1 cup of leftover oatmeal along with the eggs. I let it mix until well blended then proceeded to mix the dough the same way as the cookies. Then I poured the dough out onto a greased rimmed cookie sheet and baked it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

The results were not quite what I expected. The bars taste fine, the kids like them just as well as normal power cookies, but the texture is much more cake-like than chewy granola bar-like. They are very crumbly. This is not what I was looking for. 

I may try again. Maybe if I omit the baking soda and add another cup of dry rolled oats along with the cooked ones I will get a texture more like a granola bar. A little honey to make them a tad stickier may help as well.

If I try it I will post my results here.

Thoughtfully,

Kristin

Quick Fixes: Power Cookies

As my family and I were getting ready for a conference, I was trying to come up with a good grab and go snack. One we would want to eat and wouldn't take any work. I came up with a cookie recipe with lots of good stuff in it. I call them power cookies.

Power Cookies

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

1 cup butter (or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup peanut butter)
1 cup rapadura (or 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup cranberries or raisins
1 cup finely chopped nuts
1 cup  chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugar. Add in eggs and vanilla and blend. Mix in salt and baking soda. Gently stir in fruit, nuts and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 9-11 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

When I remember to make these they usually help a lot in getting through a busy week.
-Kristin

Cooking: Blueberry Pudding Muffins

These muffins are some of my favorites and a good use for leftover oatmeal. I call them pudding muffins because they are so warm and moist. In about 1/2 an hour you can have a whole basket of muffins.

Blueberry Pudding Muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Makes 24  muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of nutmeg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup leftover oatmeal
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries
rapadura (for topping)

Grease or line two muffin tins. In a large bowl mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. 
Add the milk, butter, vanilla and eggs. Mix lightly just until dry ingredients are moistened. In a small bowl mix water and oatmeal until well blended. Add oatmeal mixture and blueberries to the batter and mix gently. Use an ice cream scoop to fill the cups of the muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops with rapadura. Bake for 20 minutes.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do.
-Kristin



                                                                                    

Quick Fixes: Stovetop Oatmeal

Good Morning!

Today I am going to talk about one of our old time staples: Oatmeal. We used to eat this so often that my technique went through a lot of changes over time. I started out like many people with oatmeal packets cooked in the microwave, but those cost too much and were really, too sweet. Then I moved on to quick cook in the microwave, one bowl at a time.... I even worked out an elaborate system of 6 steps to make sure there was a big serving and it was nice and creamy. That did not last long. I tried making a big batch in the microwave, and that took a really long time (it usually boiled over, too so the mess was awful.)

Around this time I found out that the kids really liked the oatmeal cooked in milk. That made the leap to stove top seem impossible. How long was I going to need to stand there to cook it and keep it from scorching?? This was supposed to be a quick breakfast. Ughh.

Then I had an idea: powdered milk! I can do the cooking part with water and add powdered milk right before the batch is supposed to sit. It worked like a charm. It worked so well we had oatmeal all the time and I was left with extra, that I had to find something to do with! Now nobody in my house eats oatmeal, but I still love the recipes I made from the extra. So yesterday I made oatmeal to show you how I do it and I will make other things with the finished product today.

On to the recipe!




Stovetop Oatmeal



3 cups cold water (use less if you like stiff oatmeal, this makes it really creamy)
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
handful of raisins or dried cranberries (optional)
1 cup instant powdered milk

In a 2 quart saucepan add the water, oats and fruit.  Bring to a boil over medium heat stirring occasionally. Once the oats are boiling set kitchen timer for 6 minutes. Add powdered milk and stir 1 minute, the timer will now be on 5 minutes. Turn off burner, cover pot and let rest until timer goes off (5 more minutes).  Stir, and serve.


Makes 4 servings in around 10 minutes.

I didn't add fruit to this batch, since I am using it in blueberry pudding muffins today. (I'll share that tomorrow)










I hope you have a lovely morning and a lovely day.

Thoughtfully,

Kristin