Fried Rice

When was the last time you were offered fried rice and said "no"? That's right...fried rice is always a yes. Especially when you can make it at home and not go to a nasty Chinese place for it :)

This recipe is kind of one of those ones where amounts of ingredients are not very important, as you'll see below. Just go with it. Short one ingredient? As long as it is not rice, you'll probably be alright. Serve as a side dish or as a main dish with a protein meat!

For this recipe, you will either need a wok or a sauce pan with high edges.

Ingredients

• 4 servings of rice, cooked and cooled - the cooling is helpful when mixing the rice with other things later but not imperative.
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-3 carrots (or 2 handfuls of baby carrots), finely chopped
• 2 eggs, scrambled
• 1 can peas
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 cup cooked meat, if desired (chicken, pork, shrimp, etc.)
• Olive oil

Directions

• If possible, prepare rice ahead of time and put in refrigerator to cool
• Place a small amount of oil in a saucepan over medium heat and saute carrots for 3 minutes

• While carrots are cooking, scramble eggs in another pan
• To saucepan, add the minced garlic and sliced onions. Add more oil if needed. Cook 4-5 more minutes until soft

• To the veggies, add all remaining ingredients and mix well.

We used smoked pork

• Heat through and serve!

Sugar Free Fresh Strawberry Pie

You will need:

• 1 package of sugar free cook and serve vanilla pudding
• 1 package of sugar free strawberry jello
• Strawberries - about 3 cups cut up in bite sizes chunks ...
• 2 cups water
• Pie Crust
• Cool Whip

Mix together sugar free cook and serve vanilla pudding with two cups of water (do not follow directions on the box). After it becomes thick stir in the cook and serve sugar free strawberry jello.

Let cool but not still it is so cool that it is forms up.

Mix in strawberries. Put in fridge till it forms up and put cool whip on the top!

Enjoy this great summer "healthy" desert!

Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

I happened upon this recipe about a week ago and had been looking for an excuse to try it.  It makes a lot of food so I didn't want to do it with just me and my husband.  So I invited some friends over and gave it a shot.

O.M.G.  So delicious.  If only I could convey the fantastic smell of this dish to you through this blog.  Darn blogspot.  They need to do some upgrading...

So here's how you do it....

Ingredients

• 1 pork shoulder.  They generally come in the 5-7 lb range.  The packaging may read "pork shoulder butt".  Do not be afraid.

hehe...butt

• 1 (7 oz) can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce - I'd never purchased this before but found it in the grocery store aisle that had other types of "ethnic foods"

• 1 white onion, roughly chopped
• 2 cans Dr. Pepper
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Place the chopped onions in the bottom of a crock pot

• Season the pork shoulder with salt and pepper
• Place pork shoulder in crock pot, fatty side up
• Pour peppers and sauce on top of pork shoulder

• Sprinkle brown sugar on top
• Pour Dr. Pepper on top as well.

• Cook in crock pot on low for 8-10 hours - I did not have quite enough time for this so I did it on high for about 3 hours and low for another 3.  Turned out just fine!
• If possible, flip the pork shoulder over a couple times while cooking.  If you aren't around and can't, no biggie.
• When cooked, shred with two forks.

After the meat is cooked and shredded, you can do tons with it.  Serve it on burger buns as a sandwich, in warmed tortillas as tacos, or even on pizza.

For a little added flavor, we strained out the cooked peppers and onions and diced them up to be served on the side for those who wanted a little more of a spicy kick.  It was great!

Enjoy...we sure did!

Easy Sloppy Joes!

Who doesn't love a good sloppy joe?  The stuff in the can just doesn't cut it for us.  Next time you want some sloppy joe action, give this a try!

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 BBQ sauce
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Few splashes liquid smoke (if you have it.  don't go buy it for this recipe)
• Desired amount of spicy peppers if you'd like a little heat :)

Directions

• Over medium-high heat, brown the beef with the diced onion and bell pepper

• Drain fat, return to skillet
• Combine remaining ingredients and add to skillet
• Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 30 minutes
• Serve over hamburger buns

I like mine "open face"
For the realistic sloppy joe eater :)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Now HERE is a definitely favorite from this household.  I make a few pots of this every winter and this week marked pot number one.  Never has anyone expressed anything but love for this recipe.  Don't let the longish list of ingredients scare you off!  The recipe is derived from one I found online and modified to get as close to the one used at my favorite little Mexican place.

Ingredients

• 2 large chicken breasts (or equivalent amount), cooked and cubed
•  1 package taco seasoning, or make your own with this recipe
• 30 oz chicken broth
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 24 oz stewed tomatoes
• 1 jar of your favorite salsa or about 3 cups (pretty much takes care of most of the seasoning!)
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1.5 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 chopped zucchini
• 2 diced avocados
• 1/2 bag baby carrots, chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 can whole kernel corn, drained

Directions

• Coat chicken with taco seasoning and cook chicken in small amount of oil.  When done, cut into cubes.
• Combine cooked chicken with all other ingredients into crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours
• Serve with tortilla chips and shredded cheddar cheese

Sorry no picture!  Ate this bad boy up before I thought about grabbing the camera :(  

Guess I'll have to make it again :)

Spicy Shrimp Pasta

Here's a gem of a recipe that I made for the first time last year and forgot all about until just recently.  It got two thumbs up this evening and hopefully, you'll try it too!

Ingredients

• 2 lbs shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed
• 1 lb penne or other tube pasta
• 1 large can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes, or more to taste (in this out, we double it)
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Start water boiling and, when ready, cook pasta as directed by package instructions
• In a skillet, season shrimp with salt and pepper and cook in small amount of oil until opaque and cooked through - as I cooked this most recently, it occurred to me that it would be totally fine to start with pre-cooked shrimp for this recipe.  If you elect to do this, just set the shrimp aside for later.

• Remove cooked shrimp from skillet and set aside.  To skillet, add tomatoes (with juices), garlic, and red pepper flakes.  Cook, uncovered over medium-high heat until juices thicken, about 10-15 minutes.

• Add cooked pasta and shrimp to tomato mixture and continue to cook until heated through.

We served with shredded mozzarella cheese

Candy Cake Balls...

Ok this is something that my mom has started to make and it is so blog worthy!

You will need:

• One box of family size cake mix (we used German Chocolate) - and ingredients to make cake as directed on back of the box
• One thing of frosting (we used German Chocolate frosting)
• One package of white almond bark
• One package of white chocolate chips

1.) Make cake as followed on the box

2.) When cake is done take out in dump in a mixing bowl and mix in frosting a with mixer

3.) Make into teaspoon balls and place in the freezer for a couple hours till cold

4.) Melt almond bark and white chocolate chips together (we melted in small amounts so it did not get hard)

5.) Dip balls in white chocolate and let cool on a cookie sheet or wax paper

ENJOY!

Some other amazing combinations are cheery cake and frosting dipped in dark chocolate...