I thought I’d try a coconut curry, bought the coconut milk, all was well. But, not enough room in the SC for the milk. Oops. The chicken was fine, but both the husband and I was visualizing something more creamy. More coconutty. And instead we got plain ol’ tomatoey curry. Oh well.
For leftovers, I added in the milk and was somewhat appeased. Somewhat.
This one is … Interesting. It’s simple enough: pork shoulder cut Into cubes; tart apple cored and cubed; sliced water chestnuts; hard cider.
I’ve cooked with alcoholic beverages in the past: beef stroganoff, Guinness BBQ sauce, husband makes these tasty whiskey mushrooms. The alcohol burns off, right? Right? Then why, when having my leftovers at lunch today, did I feel slightly lightheaded? Almost buzzed? I didn’t notice anything yesterday as I had the remaining cider with my meal. Husband didn’t notice anything but he also has a far higher tolerance than me, and the following morning he did mention a little weirdness. And child? Good golly, did I give my kid a spiked bowl of stew? I guess it’s a good thing she didn’t want to eat what I cooked.
There could be other reasons fir that feeling. I’ve changed my diet… I was running on about 4 hours sleep. Add any other reasons here. Not sure I’ll be making this one again.
Pork loin in the SC has not always worked out for me. I tend to shy away, but I suggested this to the Husband the night prior and he gave a thumbs up so I decided to go for it. A great dish, with the majority of the spice ingredients in-house.
Pork loin, teriyaki sauce, rice vinegar, red pepper flakes. The pork needs to be in for a good 8 hours, and peanut butter is swirled into the sauce at the very end. Brilliant way to do this, which was not a method suggested in an Internet version of a similar dish.
Tonight’s dinner was South Beach Phase 2. I imagine there is some sugar in the pre-made teriyaki sauce I used, but I suppose you could develop a non-sugar version if you were so inclined. today i was not. Instead of the suggested jasmine rice, I used lettuce cups. Kiddo and husband just went without a grain. I also made a salad and stir fried some green beans (what the kid and I call crunchy style). This tasted great. Will add it to the rotation. Next time, more pork, more leftovers.
Recipe from NYMSCC.
Catching up on some food posts. Found this pic from a month or two ago. Husband generally doesn’t care for chili or soup for dinner. So I conjured up this one on a day I knew he had other plans. Pretty sure he still had some despite his plans.
Brown the beef. Kidney beans, diced tomatoes and onions. Love recipes where they call for lots of cans of stuff! That’s guac and plain Greek yogurt on the side. While Greek yogurt is a great alternative to sour cream I wish it didn’t look like sour cream, because it does and you expect that creamy sour taste. Sigh.
Salsa Chicken: File this under easy-peasy. Chicken thighs and chicken breasts. Jar of salsa (our go-to is Newman’s Own Pineapple salsa, medium). On high for a few hours, 4-ish. This was what I made when I was supposed to be juice-fasting. For family members not fasting there was guacamole, shredded cheese wrapped in a tortilla.
Chicken with Lemon and Mushrooms: Last week, I did enjoy this. Whole chicken, lemon and spices shoved into the cavity. Mushrooms covering above. 4.5 hours on high. Instead of steaming I roasted some cauliflower and broccoli. We steam our veggies 95% of the time. Sometimes you gotta change it up. I love the making the whole chicken because we have leftovers for days.
Chicken isn’t always a favorite but it usually takes less time to cook, and it could be considered “lighter” fare compared to the heavier, beefier dishes I’ve done in the past. I make extra for leftovers but sometimes certain family members overindulge then pay for it. Happens less with poultry. But, some non-chicken posts coming up.
Both of these, with more detail and ingredients, courtesy of Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook.
A repeat of Moroccan Chicken. What could be a wonderful paleo dish, were it not for the can of garbanzo beans that goes in first.
Chick peas, diced tomatoes, 1.5 lbs chicken thighs, half can of tomato paste, raisins and crushed coriander seed. It calls for ground but all I have are seeds. I think I did high for 1-2 hours, added I another big spoonful of tomato paste, turned to low. Three hours later, chopped red pepper, a big spoonful of almond butter plus the rest of the paste. Gets it nice and thick.
On the side, some mashed cauliflower and a mixed green salad.
Dessert. Apparently Grandma (Gaga) has a blueberry bush in the yard. We picked some. I experimented with a crumble. Or a crisp. Whatever it was, it was an attempt at Paleo and it failed (coconut oil, coconut flour, agave syrup mixture on top. maybe a few chocolate chips). Only some blackberry ice cream could save it.
Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes it rains.
I did this for Super Bowl Sunday, decided to do a repeat this last week. That first time, the rice wasn’t really done until halftime, if i recall correctly. Most cookbooks call for slow cooker rice to be parboiled (or converted) rice. Think Uncle Ben’s. I picked up a box at the store. Then put it back. I have a weird bias against instant rice. i have weird feelings about rice in general, i think. probably because of all the rice i ate growing up. i digress, but it was a lot of rice. I’ve mentioned this before, i know. ANYWAY. The Uncle Ben’s at the store is found at the very bottom row, which should tell buyers something about converted rice, amiright?
I decided to experiment cooking with real rice, in my case short-grain brown rice. I added all ingredients except chicken, shrimp and green peppers and cooked on high for hour one. Added chicken and switched to low for 4-5 hours. Added shrimp and green pepper, back to high for 15 minutes. Stirred the pot a few times in between (more than my normal). Rice was more cooked, I’d call it a moderate success.
Due to the time it takes the rice to cook, this is a dish that tastes better the next day. I enjoyed leftovers for a couple of days. A nice break from eating out all the time at lunch.
This is the dish I’ve been itching to make since I got the SC 10 months ago. It’s extremely easy. I love easy. Marinated the Boston Butt (teehee) in BBQ sauce overnight. Dumped butt (haha) into cooker, added ketchup & water to BBQ marinade. SC on low 8 hours, then shredded and kept warm. Bought cole slaw and potato salad. Made salad. Bought Macrina Bakery brioche slider buns. That bun at top is a mini sandwich. Can you tell?
I feel like I missed the day in 7th grade Home Ec when we learned about different cuts of meat. Tenderloin, shoulder (aka Boston butt – har har), ribs, loin chops etc. I mentioned this to the husband and he shrugged. I just read up on it and learned, he said. Well, yeah, I’ve read about this but it doesn’t stick. I need a test, then maybe I’ll learn meat cuts.
But, I digress. The pulled pork tasted great. Slow cooking is an excellent option in the summer, to avoid a hot kitchen.
Happy Father’s Day! Last week I suggested barbecue ribs for Father’s Day dinner and Husband was on board. So the extravaganza kicked off last night when I made some Guinness Barbecue Sauce. I’ve never made a barbecue sauce from scratch. In fact I’ve never done much with barbecue, which is kind of silly when you think about how easy it is to combine sauce with meat, at its basest, that is. Barbecue snobs will probably scoff at my ignorance, but that doesn’t bother me.
Changes on the sauce: I substituted tomato paste for ketchup, halved the salt, and left out the hot sauce (kiddo doesn’t like hot). I also used Dijon mustard instead of dark brown since it was all we had, and slightly reduced that amount to tone down the horesradishy bite. The sauce was tangy, the Guiness gave it a nice distinct flavor. Tasty.
Barbecue Ribs
The ribs recipe (via my slow cooker of course) couldn’t have been easier, although next time I will mix/turn halfway through cooking time.
Oh, and did I mention this was an extravaganza? I made cornbread (from a mix), also had cole slaw and potato salad (from the market) and for dessert a 4-inch chocolate raspberry cake (also from the market). Plus a salad, in an effort to avoid overeating on the extravaganza stuff.
Father’s Day Dinner, Plated
Kiddo raved. “Mom, this is soo delicious.” It was much later I realized she was talking about the corn bread, not the ribs. Darn that carb-addict gene.
Husband enjoyed it immensely, and that means win.
He didn’t enjoy the dirty dishes. Can’t win ’em all.
P.S. see that glass peeking out from the upper corner of the photo? That’s my Guinness, reward for an extravaganza well done.
Guiness BBQ Sauce from Epicurious.com (the original idea was from Pinterest!)
Barbecue Ribs recipe from NYMSCC
Even though I’m no longer on Paleo, I have ingrained myself to think grain-free (see what I did there?). My family (meaning siblings and parents) mostly wonder how you can sustain such a life. well, my brother has been on South Beach, so he gets it. but, i do think my felow clan members are all carb addicts and i still marvel how things have changed since I was a kid, living in a household where white rice was served at every evening meal.
We don’t even keep white rice in the house these days, as I’ve probably mentioned before. The kiddo vacuums the stuff up when given the chance. Pretty soon i will really need to make a real effort to manage her carb intake so as to not repeat the mistakes of predecessors. For now I create substitutions likes using spaghetti squash instead of spaghetti. Or making cauliflower rice instead of rice. Fine for some meals. But, sometimes if a meal calls for rice, nothing else will do.
And so was the case with this meal. I created a sweet and sour marinade that included soy sauce, tamari, brown sugar green onions and various other spices and poured it over a whole fryer. Slow cooker and 4ish hours later this sucker was falling off the bone. Would have been great over a small bed of white rice. Would have been good over brown rice. But instead I cuisinarted cauliflower, pan-fried it with some five-spice and while it was okay, it wasn’t the same. Husband didn’t complain, though. And he will tell me if he doesn’t like it. Kiddo wasn’t impressed. It’s that carb-addict gene she got from me.
sweet and sour chicken with cauliflower rice
The chicken finished cooking before I was ready. Slow-cooker timing can be tricky when you can’t count properly.
Slow cooker Recipe from NYMSCC.
Cauliflower rice recipe from NomNomPaleo. Don’t get me wrong. I like it, just not this day.