Family Foodies

Well, my crock pot amazed me again!

Last Sunday I was in a funk – have you ever been there? You know, just not sure what to make for dinner and the freezer seemed so ominous? I’m there a lot. It was 9 a.m…. hmmm I was looking into the freezer like a deer in the headlights….I knew I needed to make at least ONE nice meal this week…. But what should I do? I really didn’t want to cook.

Taking my “I didn’t know my crock pot could do that” thinking to a new level, I decided to throw four (4) FROZEN boneless pork chops into my crock pot.  I turned it on HIGH. Then I chopped an onion, put in 4 or 5 smashed cloves of garlic (took the back side of my spatula and gave it a good smack to totally smash the garlic then peeled it and threw it in), and a bottle of old BBQ sauce that’s been sitting in the fridge. I’m keeping it VERY real here, aren’t I??

Then I left it for the rest of the day. I spent time with my family, played with the grand daughters a while, and enjoyed my day knowing I didn’t have to think about dinner.

About 4 p.m. my house smelled heavenly!  And the crock pot looked great with simmering beads of steam dripping from the lid. I opened it up to a great reward – soft, moist pork chops. They were so tender, they broke apart with a fork. The onions had carmelized and the garlic was tender.

I shredded them easily with a fork and made hot shredded meat sandwiches for dinner. They didn’t need anything extra, just some mayo and a little dijon mustard to top them off.

So, if you have a whole day to let your crock pot do its thing, you can put frozen meat in it and let it go!

The finished sandwich was absolutely scrumptious.

Now that the days are getting warmer, it’s time to fire up the old grill that’s been sitting all winter. I have the perfect barbecue meal for you to make! It would be great for Mother’s Day, a birthday or any other special occasion. Most everything is made right on the grill. So if you choose to do this mid summer, your house won’t heat up!

Now, let’s talk about the Best Ever BBQ Meal, shall we?

We had a challenge this week here at FF: Find the BEST EVER “fill in the blank”. It was like Mission Impossible and I was SO up for this challenge. Since many of you have commented in the past that breakfast is a tough meal to change up, I thought I would share a dish that is as fun to make as it is to eat!

You may have heard that EVERYTHING is BIGGER in Texas…and it is true. Even Breakfast is BIGGER in Texas. I want to introduce you to the Texas Skillet–a breakfast any cowgirl would be proud to serve!

Looking for some yummy hor’dourves ideas for your Mother’s Day celebration?  I personally love having lots of choices for a holiday meal versus having one specific meal planned out – so an array of hot and cold hor’dourves are a great way to go.

Here’s my favorite hot hor’dourve:

Sue’s Stuffed Mushrooms

• 24 lg mushrooms
• 1/4 C sliced green onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced (or 1 tsp minced from a jar)
• 1/4 C butter (not margarine)
• 2/3 C fine dry breadcrumbs (I used Italian flavor cuz that’s what I had)
• 1/3 C (2 oz) finely shredded cheddar cheese

Wash and drain shrooms; remove stems; chop enough stems to make 1 C.
In med saucepan cook stems, onion & garlic in butter til tender. Stir in br. crumbs & cheese.
Spoon crumb mixture into caps.
Arrange mushrooms in a 15X10″ pan.
Bake @ 425 F 8-10 minutes.

And here’s my favorite cold hor’dourve:

Veggie Pizza

• Pillsbury Crescent Roll Dough
• Soft Cream Cheese
• Shredded Cheese
• Broccoli – Chopped Small
• Cauliflower – Chopped Small
• Carrots – Chopped Small or Shredded
• (Any other favored veggies)

Roll your Crescent dough out flat on a cookie sheet and bake until just golden. You don’t want to over cook or under cook.  Now let it cool completely.

Spread soft cream cheese over the bread, about 1/2 to 1/3 inch thick.

You may wish to make your Veggie Pizza more flavorful by mixing some ranch dressing into your cream cheese before spreading.  Or sprinkle some ranch flavoring over the plain cream cheese.

Now sprinkle your veggies on liberally and follow that up with the shredded cheese.

I give the whole think a semi-firm pat with my hand to press ingredients down into the cream cheese just a bit.

Now cut into desired servings

I usually make a triple batch of my veggie pizza and take a dish or two of it to friends and family as a treat.  My son loves it so I make sure to keep plenty at home for  us!

Green as in profits, that is!

Do you love to cook? Are you looking for an internet based business idea?  Combine the two!

I want to let you know about Just Add Sweat. It’s a great eGuide that has been released catering to people who are interested in cooking, recipes and making some money on the internet.

Have you been looking for a new and unique way to serve your family chicken? These Chicken Stuffed Shells look so beautiful, I wouldn’t want to mess them up by eating them. What a different way to have stuffed shells, too. It makes it’s own gravy too.

This recipe for Freeze and Bake Biscuits is a perfect addition to freezer cooking. What a great quick weekend staple. I was thinking they would be great with brown sugar and walnuts melted with butter in the bottom of the pan too.

I’ve always used a Secret Ingredient when cooking, but this one deserves an Oscar! The step by step picture guide for making home made pizza is awesome too.

Have you ever craved chocolate terribly? I have.  This ultimate fudgy Brownie Recipe could be called heaven on earth. I usually have all these ingredients in my pantry too! I feel a binge coming on!

I love rice, especially brown rice. However, I have a hard time getting it just right. Here is a brown rice recipe that you will want to keep on hand. I had never thought to put as much liquid in as is recommended, but it makes sense.

My mom used to make what she called “hobo dinners” where she put everything in a 13×9 pan and baked it together. I think this layered crock pot dinner would be the new millennium version of Mom’s hobo dinner. I’m looking forward to trying it out.

This blog post doesn’t have anything to do with food, however, if you are thinking about blogging, you want to read it. As a new blogger, I’m always second guessing myself. At WAHM 2.0 there was a great guest blog post from author Jen Singer that really helped cement my determination and inspired me to continue blogging.