Apple-cinnamon-pecan pork chops with roasted asparagus and baked sweet potato

I absolutely loved this recipe!!! It was kinda my own creation but I got the inspiration from Taste of Home, but changed it to suit my ingredients on hand. Normally my meals begin with a main ingredient and then what do I do- go to pinterest or google. I type in the ingredients and see what comes up. I get some inspiration, browse a few recipes and then create my own dish from that. I always try to give credit to the original inspiration site so others can enjoy their take on a similar dish! 

I bought a family pack of thinly sliced pork chops BOGO at publix this week (so you might be seeing pork chops again tomorrow). Since the weather is trying to change (we all know how that is in Alabama) I really had something nutmeg and cinnamon flavored on the brain. Asparagus is always a great go-to vegetable, and of course when you have nutmeg and cinnamon, sweet potatoes are the perfect companion. 

Asparagus: heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil. Break bottom ends off asparagus place on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil until lightly coated, then season with desired flavor. It cam be as simple as salt and pepper or garlic. Tonight I chose Penzey's Northwood's seasoning. Place in oven and check often until asparagus is roasted to desired crispiness (about 10 minutes). 

Sweet potato: The best way is in the oven, however tonight I cheated and used the microwave... Poke potato several times with a fork and microwave for 4 minutes, flip, 4 minutes and check softness. you should be able to squeeze the potato easily and it feels soft. Cover with cloth and keep warm.

** mix up apple cinnamon sauce before cooking chops.**

Apple-Cinnamon-Pecan sauce: One cup/package apple sauce, 4 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tbsp melted butter, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cinnamon sugar. 1/4 cup chopped pecans. Mix until totally combined. Set aside.

Pork chops: Melt butter in grill pan or spray with cooking spray. Salt and pepper both sides of chops. "Grill" in pan (about 3-4 minutes each side) until internal temp of 145 is reached. You should have nice brown color or grill marks on each side. Leaving chops on the heat, spoon a small amount of apple-cinnamon sauce over each chop spreading to cover the whole piece. (only use about 1/2 the sauce). Let cook for about one minute then flip chops over and repeat on other side.  When Sauce has warmed and slightly melted on chops remove from heat and plate. 

Use any left over sauce/pecans to make the presentation fancy. Arrange asparagus and sweet potato on plate. Enjoy!!!

Breakfast tacos with polenta cakes

This meal was straight out of "what can I make for Sunday breakfast from the random stuff in my fridge...". I had some left over chicken from the chicken and dressing I pre-made for Thanksgiving and also had about 1/4 of the tube of polenta left from the attack of the crawfish meal. so viola- here's your sunday brunch! I love making breakfast tacos or burritos, whichever you choose to call them. Its so easy, basically scramble some eggs and throw in whatever ingredients you want, place in a tortilla and bam- breakfast scramble taco. 

so here's the process:

** go ahead and have all add-in ingredients prepared, because once you start, things will move quickly.**

Scramble eggs and pour into heated skillet ( I used 4 eggs here and it made enough for about 5-6 tacos). As the eggs begin to cook, add in other ingredients- so for above add the shredded chicken. other ingredients could include: peppers, onion, broccoli, mushrooms, squash, bacon, etc... Toss/scramble ingredients until eggs are cooked through. If you choose to use salsa, you can add it shortly after the chicken or use as a garnish on top- completely up to you. When your egg scramble is done, place in bowl and cover to keep warm.

For the polenta, cook the same way you did in the crawfish attack recipe. Season as you wish- since this was breakfast, I used a little bit of bacon grease I had in the fridge instead of the butter in the pan. It changed the flavor slightly to go with the breakfast theme. 

Lastly I crisped up the tortillas in the oven. I use corn tortillas, but flour will work too. Spray lightly with cooking spray and put on low broil until desired crispiness is reached. WATCH THEM!!! They will burn quickly!!!

Assemble tacos, add garnish and enjoy!!!

Creole shrimp and broccoli in burned butter sauce over zoodles

This one is very similar to other posts with zoodles, but I wanted to show how truly versatile zucchini noodles can be! My husband actually asks for them now instead of pasta noodles- which is fine by me! More veggies, less carbs- big thumbs up in my book! For this recipe you will need:

- 1 lb medium-large shrimp (peeled)

- Cajun/ creole seasoning

- 1/2 stick butter

- 1/2 head of broccoli cut into bite sized florets

- 2 medium- large sized zucchini (one per person)

Since you will be making a burned butter sauce, I highly suggest prepping everything first. Once you start melting the butter everything will move quickly! Go ahead and peel the shrimp, cut the broccoli, and julienne the zucchini. If you're new to making zoodles, refer to my previous post on Zoodles for a quick tutorial on how to prepare and cook them ( however, for this recipe, wait to saute the zoodles until after you have cooked the shrimp and broccoli).

Start by melting 2 tbsp (1/4 stick of butter) in a large skillet, saute pan, or wok. Let the butter completely melt and cook until you see it just begin to turn golden/brown. Immediately, but carefully, add in the shrimp and broccoli. Season with creole/cajun seasoning to taste. When broccoli is cooked, remove and set aside in covered bowl to keep warm. 

Melt the rest of the butter in the same skillet/pan and when melted (doesn't have to be browned) add zoodles and cook according to previous directions (see link above). When noodles are almost done, add in shrimp and broccoli and toss until mixed together. 

Note: you may need more butter depending on the size and moisture of the zucchini

Plate, serve and enjoy immediately! 

Attack of the Crawfish over grilled polenta

Sorry for the hiatus in posts! Since Halloween I haven't really cooked anything I felt was blog worthy until tonight- and this was was honestly just more fun to plate than anything. I just can't help myself when it comes to crawfish! So I cheated on this one and the crawfish were actually cooked saturday for the football game against LSU, but hey- left overs are fair game right? So I had a small internal struggle as to whether or not to cook the crawfish with noodles, zoodles, dirty rice etc... So I started searching the pantry for options. I found some polenta I had recently purchased at World Market and bingo! That was the ticket! So without further adieu....

Crawfish: cook/boil/steam with cajun seasonings how ever you like. Mine were already cooked, so I simply added butter to a saute pan and "re-heated" them. I set them aside in a bowl in the microwave to stay warm.

Polenta: Polenta is rather versatile and easy to cook with. you can find it in various forms, however, the most popular and easiest is all ready prepared. (comes in a plastic tube like chorizo) I opened the package and sliced the polenta into 1/4 in cakes. Then brushed them with melted butter and sprinkled a bit of Tony Chacere's seasoning on them. I then turned back on the stove and cooked the polenta in the same pan as the crawfish, to soak up that extra cajun seasoning. My husband said this made it a little on the salty side- so you may want to use a different pan, or not season them before. Cook the polenta for about 2-3 minutes each side, of until you notice it lightly brown on the under side. Flip and cook the other side. Be careful when flipping or handling polenta cakes as the light brown crust on the outside will flake off. When they are done plate and serve!

Green beans: The green beans were simply pole beans from Sam's Club. I simply steamed them with some garlic and onion and then sauteed them with some butter just for a little more flavor and to take away some of the crunch. 

Now for the fun part! Assemble your plate! I chose to make it look like the crawfish were hiding behind a fortress of green beans ready to attack. Haha. you could do some many things! enjoy!

Salisbury Steak with a Turkey Twist!

Last night I was searching the kitchen for something for dinner. We were tired of left overs from the Halloween party and I wanted something different, however, I also was not in the mood for getting out in the rain to go to the store. So here we are! Salisbury Steak, made from turkey patties, not ground beef/chuck, with a side of cauliflower rice and lightly pan fried okra. Healthy comfort food for a rainy day!

Riced Cauliflower:

Cut one head of cauliflower into florets and steam until soft. I use a double boiler for this, putting about 1-2 cups of water in the base and boiling to steam through to the cauliflower covered on top. When cauliflower is steamed and can easily be stuck with a fork, remove from heat and place in mixing bowl of stand up mixer. (If you don't use a double boiler, make sure to drain cauliflower first).

Slice 1/2 stick of butter into "slabs" or "pads" and distribute among florets. You may also add minced garlic or onions if you desire. Begin to slowly mix. Cauliflower will begin to breakdown. As it becomes smaller, you may want to add chicken broth to the mixture. Increase mixing speed to get a finer breakdown- this is called ricing. Some people go as far as to put the cauliflower in a food processor and make "mashed potatoes", but for me the riced cauliflower works just fine. Move to a bowl, cover and place in oven or microwave to keep warm while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Okra: For okra I use My husband's Granny's method, and it's rather easy. Cut okra into bite size slices or rings. Place in mixing bowl and drizzle or spray lightly with cooking spray/oil. (the okra should be just barely wet not soaked). Then take about 1/2 cup cornmeal and season with salt, pepper, garlic,- whatever you like. Dust okra with cornmeal mixture adding a little, tossing the okra to coat, add a little more, toss to coat.... you get the picture. Then set aside and work on the meat- you'll cook the okra while the meat is simmering....

Turkey Salisbury Steaks:

I cheated and used pre-made Jennie-O turkey patties I had in the freezer, but you can easily make your own out of ground turkey. Turkey patties: Mix one lb ground turkey with 2 tbsp seasoned breadcrumbs (or if you're working in a house with allergies ground oatmeal works just as well), one egg white (again if you have allergies a flax egg works great!), 2 tbsp diced/minced onion, 1 clove garlic minced, and salt/pepper to taste. Combine all ingredients and form into patties. Then you will want to make your sauce- I just used the sauce part of this Salisbury Sauce recipe.  Do this before cooking the patties because when they are browned you'll want to pour the sauce immediately over them. Take one can of french onion soup and combine with 1/4 cup ketchup, 1 tbsp cornmeal (I used that because I already had it out from the okra), 1 tsp dijon mustard (I like dijon instead of powder), 1 tbsp Worcestershire, and it says one cup water, but I left that out. you can always add it if the sauce gets too thick. Warm a small amount of cooking oil or cooking spray in skillet and cook turkey patties until browned on both sides.  When patties are browned, pour sauce over and bring to a simmer. Cover and reduce heat to low. Let simmer/cook for about 10-15 minutes or until you think the patties have soaked up the sauce flavors. Feel free to flip the patties while simmering so both sides get a good flavor. 

Ok- back to the Okra- Warm cooking oil in medium sized skillet on stove. Just enough oil to cover the bottom of the skillet and cook the okra, but not enough that the okra is swimming in it. When the oil is hot, CAREFULLY place okra in skillet. Watch okra and stir occasionally so that it cooks evenly. When you notice the sides turning brown begin to remove okra from skillet- the most brown pieces first. Place on paper towel on plate to catch extra oil. 

Everything should be ready! Just plate and enjoy!!!

HALLOWEEN!!!

 I LOVE HALLOWEEN! So this year we threw a grown-up, full blown costume party at our house. I've pictured here a few of the fun Halloween themed foods that were served, and I'm going to give you the run down on one that's not pictured here, mainly because it was so good I couldn't get a good picture before it was devoured! And just to throw it out there Disclaimer: most of these ideas are not my own, they are adapted from other bloggers I found on pinterest (click the links to see original recipes)

Witch Hat Cookies
I definitely recommend these if you need something easy and quick for a party or school function. All you need is a package of fudge stripe cookies, about 30 hershey kisses, and some orange decorating icing (Betty Crocker makes colored icing in a can that it easy to point, press, and decorate). I suggest unwrapping the hershey's kisses first, because once you get started you need to move quickly. There are about 24 cookies per package and you will need one kiss for each cookie. Melt a few (3-4) kisses in the microwave until they

 are smooth and you can use it like glue. Take a toothpick, small paintbrush, or cotton swap to "glue" the kisses to the bottom (chocolate) side of the cookie. When the chocolate is set, decorate however you wish. I chose to make little bows on each hat. Store in air-tight container to stay fresh!

Spider web layered dip
This is another super easy and quick throw together recipe that's also cute and impressive. This is a simple version of the popular mexican seven layer dip. I didn't have exactly seven layers, but you understand the gist of it. Feel free to ass more layers in you desire. For this you will need: 1 can refried beans, 1 package taco seasoning (I used a tbsp Penzey's taco)1 can diced tomatoes with chilies- drained (rotel), 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 1/2 cup guacamole (I cheated and used store made because I honestly ran out of time), sour cream (or greek yogurt), and 10 olives. I used a pie dish, but you can use whatever plate or dish you like. Mix taco seasoning into refried beans and then layer ingredients in the following

order: Beans, tomatoes, cheese, guacamole. Then lightly draw your spider webs with the sour cream and cut olives to look like spiders. Keep refrigerated until time to serve! Serve with tortilla chips.

Blood-shot eye deviled eggs
This one is my own recipe. I did get the idea for making the eggs look like eyeballs from a magazine post, but the recipe is my own. You will need: 1 dozen eggs- hard boiled, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1 tbsp dijon mustard, 1 tbsp (or more) dill relish or diced dill pickles, celery salt and pepper to taste, one olive slice per egg, and hot sauce to make the red bloodshot lines. Peel and cut eggs into halves. Gently scoop yellow centers out into mixing bowl. Set whites aside. Using a fork, combine egg yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, pickle, celery salt, and pepper until creamy. (taste and adjust flavors if you desire more or less of anything). Fill egg white halves with almost a tbsp of yellow filling. Once filled, place one slice of olive in the middle of each egg, and then use a toothpick or small

paintbrush, to lightly dab lines on the yellow filling to make the eyes look blood shot.

Celery and pimento cheese mummies
I used the idea from the link above, however I changed it a bit for my own liking. You will need 1 bunch celery, about 1 cup pimento cheese (that's my fav recipe), 1 small package of thinly sliced deli meat ( I used carl budding's smoked turkey- if you want fresh from the deli, estimate one piece per celery stick), and tiny olive pieces or pimentos for the eyes. Wash and cut celery into 3 inch pieces (pretty much each stalk into 3 pieces), then stuff with pimento cheese. Cut the turkey into thin strips, then wrap each piece of celery. Place eyes to make mummies complete. Keep refrigerated until time to serve, store in air tight container in refrigerator.

Popcorn Balls
I'd never made these before, and while it was fun, I'll probably never make them again. They are very time consuming, messy, and honestly quite wasteful. Also, if you have special dental work I don't recommend eating these. The syrup that holds them together is sticky and worse than caramel to get off your teeth! However they are delicious and a great throw back to old timey Halloween! I followed the directions pretty much to a t. The only thing I did differently was that I used air popped popcorn instead of microwave or stove top, because I wanted to make them allergy friendly (no butter), and I also used Pam cooking spray instead of buttering the sauce pan for the syrup. I would suggest clicking the link above and using that, because they spell it our better than I can, and If I try I'll probably just end up confusing you, and rambling on for the next three pages!

The last recipe I will share, which was a total hit, was my own version of Queso con Carne. I normally stray away from cheesy dishes because we have a dairy allergy in our house, however for a party, it's always something that the guests flock to! It's a simple recipe, but I wanted to share my special "cheat" that everyone said really made it stand out from other cheese dips they'd had. You will need: 1 lb block of melting cheese (velveeta), 1 can diced tomatoes with chilies- drained (rotel), and 1 can chili without beans ( That's the cheat). Many times people will brown ground chuck or sausage and throw it in there, but I think that the extra sauce from the chili makes it more creamy and rich. First turn crock pot on to high heat, and place liner inside. - If you haven't discovered Slow Cooker Liners you're missing out! its a huge time saver, especially if you use your crock pot alot! Just place one inside, do your cooking, and at the end, just pull it out and dispose- clean up is a breeze- not scraping, or soaking required. Anywho- back to the recipe. Cut cheese into small blocks and place in crock pot. Drain tomatoes and pour over cheese, followed by the chili. As the cheese melts, occasionally stir ingredients together until smooth. When all is melted turn crock pot to lowest setting (mine has a "keep warm" button). Serve with tostitos scoops!
Hope you enjoyed! We had a fabulous halloween!