Spinach-stuffed, Bacon-wrapped Pork Chops

I don't like cooked spinach - never have, never will. But my hubby does, and it's good for you, and it was a required ingredient in a Chopped Challenge cooking competition this month. So, after a bit of research, I came up with this idea - make a cheesy spinach stuffing, put it inside pork chops, and wrap bacon around the outside. Now if that doesn't make you start drooling a little, I don't know what will!

Ideally these would be made in an oven, but since I am on the road at the moment, I made them in the skillet. They tasted great, though the bacon outside didn't get as crispy/cooked as I'd like. I used the thickest pork chops that I could find so that the pocket wouldn't cut all the way through them.

While they were cooking, I chopped up baby golden potatoes and sautéed them with butter and diced fresh garlic, letting them cook at the same time as the pork chops. After the pork and potatoes were done, I served them onto a plate, put butter, parmesan, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning on hoagie rolls and placed them face down in the hot skillet to toast. The result? Amazingness.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter
1 clove fresh garlic, diced
1-1 1/2 cups fresh spinach
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
4 oz cream cheese
2 thick boneless pork chops
4 slices bacon
Wooden toothpicks
Italian seasoning

Start by melting the butter in a skillet and sautéing the garlic for about a minute. Take the stems off the spinach and add to the skillet, sautéing until wilted. Combine the mozzarella and cream cheese in a small bowl and stir in the spinach. Set aside.

Using a sharp knife, very carefully cut a pocket into each pork chop, leaving 3 sides intact. Divide the spinach mixture in half and stuff it down inside the pockets. Wrap each chop in 2 slices of bacon, making sure the widest part of the bacon is over the pocket of stuffing, and using toothpicks to secure the overlapping areas. Sprinkle both sides of the chops with Italian seasoning. Cook in a skillet or oven for about 40 minutes, flipping occasionally, until juices run clear and the center of a chop is only slightly tinted pink. Serve and enjoy!

Crockpot Lasagna

One of my favorite sounds to hear is the tone of my hubby's voice when he tries a meal that I've made for the first time and likes it...actually LIKES it - not just okay, but good! I got one of those moments yesterday when I made lasagna in the crockpot, and though it was a little bit of work, it was definitely worth it for a meal that we both really enjoyed!

I used Barilla oven-ready lasagna noodles, which don't require cooking first - they absorb moisture and expand as the meal cooks. However, since they are flat instead of ridged like most lasagna noodles, I used a jar of Prego spaghetti sauce with mini meatballs for the inside layers to give it a more interesting texture. You could always cook a pound of ground beef and mix it with regular spaghetti sauce for the inside layers, but this way was a lot simpler.

Ingredients:
1 15oz container ricotta cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
Dash garlic powder
1 jar meat-based spaghetti sauce
1 jar spaghetti sauce with mini meatballs
1 box Barilla oven-ready lasagne noodles
Mozzarella cheese

In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and seasonings thoroughly. Set aside.

Pour enough of the meat sauce into the slow cooker to cover the bottom of the pot, about 1/3 of the jar. Lay noodles on top, breaking to fit the shape of the pot. Divide the ricotta mixture in half and smooth half of it evenly over the noodles. Place more noodles on top. Pour half of the jar of mini meatball sauce on top, making sure the meatballs are evenly distributed, and top with a layer of mozzarella cheese. Place more noodles on top, and repeat the ricotta and meatball layers. Place more noodles on top and pour the remaining meat sauce over them, ensuring that all the noodles are covered. Top with another layer of mozzarella.

My Farberware 7-in-1 cooked it in 2 hours on slow cooker setting, so a regular slow cooker could probably cook it in 3 hours on low setting. When noodles are soft, cheese is melted, and sauce is hot and firm, serve warm and enjoy!

Easy Beefy Noodles

Easy, quick, and delicious!

This is one of those fantastic, super-easy, 3-ingredient meals you can make in 15 minutes, start to finish. I kinda feel like it's cheating, since I use precooked packaged steak strips, but any cooked or leftover beef will work. And if you feel extra creative, feel free to chop some mushrooms or veggies and toss them in.

Ingredients

Ingredients:
8 oz (half of a 1lb bag) egg noodles
1 jar beef gravy
1 cup cooked steak strips

Place egg noodles in skillet and add 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and stir frequently till noodles are soft and water is mostly absorbed. Add the gravy, mix well, and let simmer 2-4 minutes. Add steak strips, stir, and cover. Simmer another 2-3 minutes until steak pieces are warmed through and gravy is hot and bubbly. Serve and enjoy!

Three Package Roast

Have you heard of the 3 package roast? It's a recipe that has been going around a lot lately and I decided to give it a try for our Christmas dinner. It came out great! The meat was tender and flavorful, and the juices were scrumptious. I'm a firm believer in plain buttered mashed potatoes, never ever any gravy, but I even poured some of the roast juices over my potatoes! The juices come out thin, but a little flour and cornstarch whisked in could easily make a delicious brown gravy.

A few quick notes before we begin. You can sear the sides of the roast before putting it in the crockpot if you like, but it isn't necessary. I didn't sear ours and it came out adequately tender. Also, it does not need salt - the mixture of seasonings in the packages are plenty. In fact, I recommend using low sodium versions, if available.

Christmas dinner

Ingredients:
1 3lb roast (any beef roast will work)
1 package dry Italian dressing mix
1 package dry ranch mix
1 package dry brown gravy mix
2 cups water

Whisk together the 3 packages of seasonings and the water in the crockpot. Take the roast from its wrapping and rinse off any excess blood. Place the roast in the crockpot and use a spoon, ladle, or baster to thoroughly coat it in the seasoning mixture. Let cook on high for about 5-6 hours, basting it in the juices every hour and periodically flipping it over to ensure it cooks evenly. When it is tender enough to easily pierce with a fork, pull it out of the crockpot. Slice it, baste it in the juices, and serve. Enjoy!

Easy Crockpot Ham

Our Thanksgiving was spent on the road, in the truck...but together, which is the most important thing! There is much that we have to be thankful for. I'm also thankful for the ability to cook for us in the truck. It is usually a challenge, but I have found ways to modify recipes and adjust cooking times to match the resources I have available. And of course, Thanksgiving was no different. We used pre-packaged Bob Evans mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese, picked up at WalMart (which I highly recommend, by the way! Very tasty and they keep well for a few weeks - something that is important when you visit a grocery store only once a month!).

Thanksgiving dinner

In an effort to have something special for the holiday, I decided to cook a quarter ham in the crockpot. Well, technically it's a 7-in-1 cooker, but it has a slow cooker function. Anyway, after a bit of research, and borrowing brown sugar from my mother (quite conveniently, we were sent to California about a week before Thanksgiving!), I decided to give it a go. The result...super amazingness. It was wonderful served hot on Thanksgiving, and it was great cold as sandwiches for the next week. It stayed moist and tender...in short, the perfect, easy ham!

Quick note: make sure it is a sliced, fully cooked ham that simply needs to be warmed up. If it is an uncooked ham, a quick Google search should reveal easy cooking methods.

Ingredients:
1 quarter ham
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar

Spoon about a quarter of the applesauce on the bottom of the crockpot and sprinkle a little brown sugar on top. Add the ham, rind side up, and allow any juices in the package to run into the crockpot. Spoon the rest of the applesauce over the top of the ham and add the rest of the brown sugar. Let the crockpot cook for about 3 hours, periodically spooning more sauce over the top of the ham to keep it moist. When fully warm, separate the slices and make sure each slice gets dipped in the sauce as you serve it, to keep it moist. Enjoy!

Broiled Pork Chops

Pork chops are one of my favorite meals - they are delicious, packed with protein, and usually relatively cheap. They are also versatile, taking on the flavors around them as they cook.

This variation was made very easily in my toaster oven on the broil setting. They literally cooked completely in 12 minutes and were juicy and tender. I let the toaster warm up while I put Zatarains garlic butter rice in my 7-in-1 cooker on rice setting, and we had a satisfying meal ready in about half an hour total prep and cook time.

I used garlic powder and Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning. You can use pork rub, cajun seasoning, dry ranch dressing mix - whatever stirs your imagination and gets your taste buds drooling.

Pork chop with garlic butter rice

Ingredients:
2-4 pork chops
Olive oil
Garlic, seasoning as desired

Turn your oven or toaster to broil setting and let it heat up as you prep the chops and start whatever side dish you desire. Rub the pork chops with olive oil on both sides and sprinkle the top with seasonings. Place on a foil lined sheet or pan and put it inside the oven. Thin chops take 6 minutes on each side, thicker chops need more time. When the top is golden brown, flip the chops over and sprinkle the other side with seasonings as well. When both sides are lightly browned and chops are cooked through, pull them out and let them rest about 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Pork Chops and Potatoes

For my first time cooking on the road, I decided to make a very simple recipe - just 4 ingredients! It turned out perfect. The potatoes were tender, the meat was falling apart, and I was drooling after 2.5 hours of driving while smelling it cooking!

I used my trainer's Roadpro Lunchbox cooker, but it can easily be made in a crockpot, or even in the oven at home. This serves 2, so feel free to double as needed.


Ingredients:
2 pork chops
3-4 small red potatoes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 package garlic and herb dry salad dressing mix
Splash water

Scoop a third of the can of soup onto the bottom of a meatloaf sized foil baking pan, splash a little water, and sprinkle some of the dry soup mix. Place pork chops on top and repeat the soup and dry mix. Clean potatoes (I leave skins on) and chop into bite-sized pieces, and place on top. Add the rest of the soup and dry mix and another splash of water.

In a lunchbox cooker, 2.5 hours (checking every hour) was perfect. For crockpot or oven cooking, check every half hour. When potatoes are tender, sauce is thick and bubbly, and pork chops are cooked through, stir and serve.

Meatloaf

This is not your ordinary meatloaf. Not by a long shot! This is the best, most savory, most perfect meatloaf you may every taste. And it's rapidly becoming a staple in our house!

It is, of course, a simple recipe. And can pretty much be modified any way your family likes.

The way we like it is:

1 egg, beaten
1 lb ground hamburger
1/3 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
half package of dry ranch seasoning
dash of garlic, onion powder, Italian seasoning, and any other seasonings you like

Preheat the oven to 350 and mush all the ingredients together. This is usually the point where I ask my honey to mix it up for me since I really don't like mashing raw hamburger and he's just better at it anyway. But I digress. Once all the ingredients are thoroughly mushed together, shape into the general shape of a loaf, and place in a pan. I like to drizzle ketchup over the top, or sometimes cheese depending on my mood.

At 350, it usually takes my meatloaf around an hour. The main thing is that it needs to reach 165 degrees inside. After it's fully cooked, let it cool a little because it falls apart right away otherwise. Let it sit about 5 minutes, then slice and eat plain, drizzled in more ketchup, on a hamburger bun, etc.

It's good. It's really good. I promise.

Steaks on the Grill

Few things are as iconic of summer as the scent of meat on a grill...the smell wafting through the neighborhood, making everyone in the near vicinity begin to drool! My hubby is the grillmaster of the house, and wow does he know how to cook a fine piece of meat on the grill!

Last weekend we splurged on a feast: New York strip steaks, mashed potatoes, cheesy biscuits, and grilled carrots, with lemon squares for dessert. As I promised those protesting my facebook picture, here are the recipes!

Oh yes...oh my yes!

Steak Rub:
1/4 olive oil, a few splashes Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and a generous amount of steak seasoning, coated on the steaks before and during grilling.

Mashed potatoes:
Okay I confess, they were Betty Crocker dry mix garlic mashed potatoes...but I added extra melted butter and garlic to make them especially creamy and flavorful!

Grilled baby carrots:
2 Tbsp melted butter, a splash olive oil, a Tbsp lemon juice, garlic powder, and Mrs. Dash onion and herb seasoning; placed on aluminum foil and grilled about 10 minutes till barely tender.

Cheesy biscuits:
2 cups Bisquick, 2/3 cup milk, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, garlic powder and Italian seasoning, baked 10 minutes at 450 degrees, with garlic butter brushed on top.

Lemonade:
1 cup bottled lemon juice, 1 1/4 cup sugar, about 9 cups water, mixed and chilled


The meal was a success - a good deal of work but SO worth it. We'll definitely be doing it again!

Breakfast Egg Muffins

Once again, the idea started out when my honey made eggs, bacon, and sausage for breakfast one morning. We feasted like kings, then put the leftovers in the fridge. What to do with leftover breakfast? Make more breakfast, of course! And so, the breakfast egg muffins came into existence.



Ingredients:
1 cup hash browns, or 36 tater tots
1/3 cup cooked sausage patties, torn
10 bacon strips, torn
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup Bisquick
1/4 cup cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 350. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick spray.

Lightly cover the bottom of each muffin cup with hashbrowns (or 2-3 tater tots). Distribute the sausage and bacon till the cups are nearly full. Mix the eggs, milk, and Bisquick and distribute* evenly among the cups. Sprinkle cheese on top, bake 20 minutes.


*After several messy attempts with a spoon, my honey brilliantly suggested a turkey baster. Much less mess, although a little more difficult to wash.

Breakfast Quesadillas

 The idea started when my honey made eggs, bacon, and sausage for breakfast one morning. We feasted like kings, then put the leftovers in the fridge. What to do with leftover breakfast? Make more breakfast, of course! And so, the breakfast quesadilla came into existence.

Of course, the best foundation to any quesadilla is cheese. Lots and lots of warm, gooey cheese. Several different kinds of cheese, preferably. I like to use American and Cheddar as my base, and add mozzarella and provolone or whatever I have handy.

I find it easiest to alternate ingredient types when making quesadillas: e.g., American cheese, scrambled eggs, provolone cheese, torn sausage and bacon bits, and a lot of Cheddar cheese. This keeps the quesadilla together by sealing in the ingredients between the melty cheese.

So, to recap:

Ingredients per individual quesadilla:
2 tortillas, burrito size
1/4 cup Cheddar cheese
1 slice American cheese
1/2 slice provolone, mozzarella, etc.
1/4 cup scrambled eggs
1 sausage patty, torn
2 bacon strips, torn

Cook on low heat till cheese is melted and both sides are crispy and lightly browned. Yum!