Shredded Pork Loin Roast

The website I got this recipe from is working out some bugs, so I don't know what link to give you, but I got it from Crockin' Girls!

For sure interesting and also tasty.  I'm not sure that it's my favorite shredded pork, but still good :)

*Edit: the leftovers were awesome!  Way yummier than the original!  I drained most of the extra juices and poured a bit more bbq sauce over top before I put them in the fridge.  A few days later I ate it for lunch and it was super yummy!*

Shredded Pork Loin Roast:

1 (5 lb.) pork loin roast
1 bottle of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce
1 can Dr. Pepper
Onion powder, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste

This is a recipe that you can use for several different recipes. Such as:
1) BBQ pork roast sandwiches served with lettuce, tomato, chips, and a pickle
2) BBQ pork roast loaded baked potato served with sour cream, butter, and chives
3) BBQ pork roast nachos served with chips, refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, black olives, and shredded cheese
4) BBQ pork roast Corn tortilla tacos served with broccoli slaw and avocados

Directions:

Place roast into the slow cooker and season with onion and garlic powder. Cover with BBQ sauce and then pour Dr. Pepper over the roast. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours until pork is tender. Shred with forks.

 This is a little trick I learned from Pinterest as well!  Who knew you could use your Kitchen-Aid to shred your meat?  I will never use 2 forks again!  I got a blister once doing that!  And Bonus, I got to use my brand new Kitchen-Aid twice today!

I thought it would be easier to put the kids in a hotdog bun and I was right!  My older kids loved it and my younger 2, well, they don't eat much of anything, so you know...

Pumpkin Donut Holes!

One of my kids favorite after school snacks!  They love them so much, they ate them all today!  That won't be a norm, but I love that they love them!  I got the recipe HERE, but changed it, so my recipe is below.

Donuts:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pumkin pie spice (if you can't find that or don't have it on hand use: 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. allspice and 1/8 tsp. ground cloves)
1/3 cup vetetable oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup milk

Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
1/2 cup melted butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350*F. Spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray.

In medium bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice.  Set aside and combine the remaining ingredients in mixer until smooth.  Add dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

I used to cookie scoop to fill my muffin tins.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.
Meanwhile, melt butter in one bowl and combine sugar and cinnamon in another bowl.  Let muffins cool for 2 min.  Dip each muffin in the butter and then in the sugar mixture.  So yummy!  I can only handle a few because it's a lot of sugar!  I need to find a way to make less sugar adhere to the donut, but they are good! :)

Marshmallow Popcorn

This recipe isn't linkable because it was just a picture someone uploaded and put the instructions as the caption.  I ended up doing it my own way anyhow (not on purpose, lol!)

3-4 bags popcorn (pop and take out extra kernels) 

1 sticks of butter (1/2 cup) 

16 oz bag of marshmallows 

1 cup brown sugar 

Microwave butter, marshmallows, and brown sugar for 2 1/2 min. Take out and stir. Microwave again for 1 min. Repeat until thin sauce. When done pour over popcorn and mix. YUM!

The difference between what I did and the original recipe is the butter and the amount of popcorn.  The first time I accidentally only used 1 stick of butter instead of 2 and I liked the results better with less butter.  These pics are of the second attempt doing it "right" and I wasn't as pleased.  It was runnier and easier to mix on the popcorn, but it made the popcorn mushier and stickier.  I made them the first time for all my friends and neighbors for Christmas and got raving reviews, so I know it's not just me ;)  I also felt the need for a bit more popcorn, hence the 4th bag.

OH SO YUMMY! Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Lasagna!

I made this recipe once before and to me it was a bomb.  Justin said it was fine, but I thought it was flavorless and mushy.  So, HERE is where I got the recipe and this is what I did to make it yummy...

1 lb. ground beef

2 large cans Spaghetti sauce (26.5 oz. each) mine was garlic and onion flavored, but when I tasted it, you couldn't tell.

8 oz. package lasagna noodles uncooked

4 cups mozzarella cheese

2 cups cottage cheese (16 oz. container)

onion and garlic to season meat 

 Seasoning the meat in the original recipe was a side note, I feel it must be done!

I used about a half and onion and 1 tbsp. minced garlic, but to each their own on this, it just needs some flavor!  Once browned add the sauce.

 I forgot to take a pic with each layer, and then my flash wouldn't work :P

Spray with cooking oil and then put 1/4 the meat sauce in the bottom of the dish.

Layer 1/3 of the noodles to cover as best as possible.  Then mix up the cheeses and put 1/3 on top of noodles.

 Continue with this pattern until you end with meat sauce on top

 Cook on low for 3 hours

 Let stand 10 to 20 minutes (with lid off) to set.

Enjoy! 

*Note, I am using a 7 quart slow cooker, so that is why I ended up needing so much sauce!  Next time I will use my smaller slow cooker to do this, because we didn't even eat half.  But, this time it was yummy because I didn't use tomato sauce like the original recipe said and I cooked it less time and used a lot more seasonings.  So to do a smaller batch I'd say 1 can of spaghetti sauce would do, but have an extra one on hand just in case.

Chicken n Dumplings in the Slow Cooker

This is one of our new favorite recipes for the slow cooker!  It's so good that I'm going to have to double it for my big family so that we actually have some leftovers!  YUM!  I found the recipe HERE.  That recipe calls for the grands flaky refrigerator biscuits, but those aren't in my budget and I don't really care for them to begin with, so here is what I did. 

Total cooking time 4 hours on high (the original recipe calls for 4-6 hours on high, but I find that the chicken is dry if you cook it that long.)

2-3 Large boneless skinless chicken breasts 

2 tablespoons butter

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can chicken broth (I always use water and chicken bullion because it's cheaper and easier on my storage space.)

1 onion diced

1 tablespoon dried parsley
1-2 cups frozen veggies (we always add extra peas, yum!)

Dumplings:

2 cups Bisquick (I would have used my Jiffy Mix, but I was out.)

1/2 cup Milk
Mix Bisquick and milk together to form dough.  Powder your hands with some Bisquick flour and roll out dumplings.  I usually make mine about the size of a small bouncy ball.  I make them ahead and put them in the fridge just so that when it's time to put them in they are ready.

 Put the chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker and the butter on top (I was doubling it, but it ended up being too much chicken)

 Pour the cream of chicken soup and chicken broth on top

 Add the veggies and mix a bit and cook on high for 3 1/2 hours

 Shred the chicken then...

 Add the dumplings

After I put the dumplings in I try to cover them with sauce.  (these look extra big because they start to expand right away, but I made them about the size of a small bouncy ball.)  Place the lid back on for 30 minutes and serve.

Cheesy Vegetable Chower

I found this recipe HERE.  It took me about an hour and half to make including all the chopping.  It was a huge hit!  We love creamy soups in our family!

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrot

1 stalk celery, finely chopped (feel free to add more celery if you like celery; I don't, so I don't add much)

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

4 cups chicken broth (I usually use a mixture of low-sodium chicken broth and broth made with chicken soup base because it gives it such nice flavor)

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup milk

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a large soup pot.  Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute over medium heat until tender.  Add garlic and cook 1 or 2 additional minutes.  Add chicken broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender.  Mix flour with water, add, and simmer until soup is slightly thickened.  Add milk and broccoli and cook until broccoli is just tender and soup is heated through.  Stir in cheese, allow to melt, and serve.

Veggies in butter, yum!

Veggies after the broth was added.

After the flour mixture and milk were added it started to look more like a creamy soup, but it still wasn't thickening like I thought it should.  My potatoes ended up getting overly done (which I love) because I had to let the soup boil for so long trying to get it to thicken.  Then I added the cheese, which helped, but not as much as I would have liked.  I thought maybe when I cooled it would thicken.  It did a little.  Anyway, it was yummy and my 2 year old went back for seconds!  That's huge since getting her to eat anything is hard!

Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

 I made this soup last night.  Knowing my family and hoping it is super yummy I doubled it.  I had a small freak out right before serving realizing that I made A LOT of soup so if they didn't like it I was in big trouble!  I found the recipe HERE.

.

I of course changed it a bit, so here is MY version:
Cream Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients:
4 cups water with 4 tsp. chicken bullion
1 cup water
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 package of Farm House long grain and wild rice (because my grocery store didn't have the Rice-a-Roni kind) 
1/2 tsp salt (plus more to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
2 cups half and half 
1 cup grated carrots (I diced mine)
1 cup diced celery

Directions:

Combine broth, water, carrots, celery, chicken and rice (along with seasoning packet) in a large slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours. 

Take out chicken and shred with two forks and then add back into slow cooker. In a small bowl combine salt, pepper, and flour. In medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in flour mixture by tablespoon to form a roux. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Stir cream mixture into slow cooker and then let cook on low for 15 more minutes.  I ended up doing 3 hours 30 minutes on high, because I was low on time and knew that every time I do chicken in the slow cooker it gets over done.  I shredded it, added the roux and only ended up putting it back in for another 10 minutes.  My roux was a little extra thick because I only had 3 cups of half and half instead of 4 (I doubled the recipe remember.)  So, my soup turned out extra thick.

See how thick it is?  We loved it!  But, when I went to reheat it for my kids lunches today I had to add water!  If you don't want it so thick, use 2 cups of water instead of 1 and use all the half and half when making your roux. :)  It took some convincing to get my kids to try it, (see how hard my life is, lol) but, once they tried it they loved it!  I served it with cornbread! YUM!    

Easy French Bread

I have made this recipe twice and both times were not successful.  I'm going to give it one more shot and then call the recipe done!  It calls for you to put the dough in a cold oven and turn it on.  I feel like this is where the recipe goes wrong.  Starting with the cold oven is supposed to allow time to rise as the oven is heating up, but since I have a new oven and it only takes 9 minutes to preheat, my bread is always coming out flat.  It tastes good, but flat bread is, well just that, flat!  I will try again allowing time to rise and then cook.  We shall see.  (I'll update this post as soon as I get a chance to try it again.)

Easy French Bread (HERE)
adapted from James Beard

1 1/2 T active dry yeast
2 cups warm water
2 T sugar
1 T salt
5 cups bread flour
1 T egg white plus 1 T water, mixed together in a small bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, pour the warm water.  Add the yeast, sugar, and salt and mix with the dough hook until dissolved.  Add the flour and mix on low for 2 minutes and on medium high for 10 minutes.  The dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl.  Cover the mixer bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 1 1/2 hours. (I always spray the plastic wrap first so if the dough gets that high it doesn't stick to the plastic.)

Dump out the dough onto a lightly floured surface into 2 equal parts.  Shape each into long baguette and slash the tops with a serrated knife.  Brush with egg white mixture and place in a cold oven.  Turn the oven to 400F degrees.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.