Pork and Bean Chalupa Filling

My friend Nikky shared this dish with me and I loved it! The flavors all go so well together, and what could be easier than cooking in a crockpot? Thanks Nikky!

Pork and Bean Chalupa Filling

3lb. pork roast or pork tenderloin
1 lb. dry pinto beans
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. salt
4 oz. can chopped green chilies
water

Cover beans with water and soak overnight in slow cooker (do not turn slow cooker on)
In the morning, remove beans and their water (don't throw away the water!), and put pork in bottom of cooker. Add remaining ingredients (including the beans and their soaking water) and more water if needed to cover all the ingredients.

Cook on High 1 hour, and then on Low 6 hours. Remove meat and shred with two forks. Return meat to slow cooker.
Cook on High 1 more hour.
Serve with tortillas, or over a bed of lettuce and top with grated cheese, chopped onion, tomatoes, guacamole, sour cream.

Chili Verde

This is amazing! Thanks so much Emma for sharing this recipe with me. I love to serve this over tostada shells with shredded Monterey Jack cheese on top. Letting the pork roast cook overnight in the slow cooker is really a must in this recipe, the pork will literally just fall apart when you shred it the next morning, so delicious!

Chili Verde

1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1 pork loin roast (as little fat as possible, if you buy the three pack from Costso they don't have any fat at all)
1 c. water
1 large can green enchilada sauce
1 small can chopped green chilis
1 small onion, sliced or chopped, whatever you like
1 c. chicken broth
1 tsp garlic powder

Rinse off roast and pat dry.
Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Rub over roast, save excess. Place roast in crock pot. Add garlic and water to leftover flour mixture, pour in slow cooker. Cook overnight on low setting. The next day shred pork, it should fall right apart. Remove any fatty peices. Add enchilada suace, green chilis, onion, chicken broth, and garlic powder. Let cook on low for an additional 2-4 hours to incorporate flavors.

You can break up the tostada shells, spoon chili verde over, and sprinkle with cheese and then broil until it's nice and bubbly.

Slow Roasted Pulled Pork

I was searching for a new pulled pork recipe and I found this one on the internet. It turned out to be so good! It was so moist and flavorful, exactly what I wanted. I served it on store bought rolls, I brushed melted butter and a little sugar on the top and baked for about 5 minutes until they were hot and nicely browned.

Slow Roasted Pulled Pork

3 lb. boneless pork loin roast NOT frozen
1/2 c. flour
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 c. water
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
8 oz. green chilies, diced
1 c. BBQ sauce
1/2 onion, sliced
3 Tbs. chili powder
1 tsp dried Oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp black pepper
hot sauce to taste
1/2 c. cilantro, chopped

Combine flour and salt and pepper. Rub over whole roast. Place in slow cooker. Whisk together remaining flour, water, and garlic. Pour in slow cooker. Cook overnight on low heat.
The next day shred the pork, it should fall right apart, remove any fatty pieces.
Add remaining ingredients through hot sauce. Stir gently to incorporate and let cook on low an additional 4 hours.
Serve with chopped cilantro and extra BBQ sauce.

Bacon Rolls

Thanks to my sister Becky for this great recipe! My husband loves sushi, I don't, so this recipe is great because it's got enough of the sushi ingredients to make him happy, and no raw fish to gross me out! The flavors all go really well together. I watched my sister make these on New Years Eve, so tonight was my first attempt at them and they turned out pretty good. I always had the impression that California rolls were hard to make, but they're not. My sister had all of the tools, the sushi serving set and the rolling mats, but they are not necessary.

Bacon Rolls

2 c. sushi or short grain rice
strips of bacon
strips of cream cheese
2 ripe avocados, sliced in strips
green onions (cut top and bottom off and then slice in half to form strips)
Seaweed wrappers
Soy Sauce, ginger, wasabi for serving

Cook the rice with 4 c. of water.
While rice is cooking cook bacon on stove top until done, or cook on a sheet pan at 425 for approximately 20 minutes.
Let rice cool, if rice is not sticky enough add 1 Tbs. rice vinegar and 1/2 Tbs. sugar, stir gently to combine.
Lay out seaweed wrapper, place a thin layer of rice over seaweed leaving 1" space on top, dip fingers in water to prevent rice from sticking to fingers.
Place 1 slice bacon, 1 slice cream cheese, 1/2 green onion, and 3 avocado slices at bottom. Roll up tightly, before you reach the end, dip your finger in water and run it along the top edge of the seaweed, finish rolling and press down on wet side to seal. Continue with remaining ingredients. Dip sharp knife in water and slice "logs" into 1 1/2" rolls. Serve with soy sauce, ginger, or wasabi.

Meaty Nacho Dip

This dip is so good! Sometimes I just crave it so I'll make up a batch. It's cheesy, and meaty, and spicy (but not too spicy :)
I love making it on Super Bowl Sunday!

Nacho Dip

1 lb. Jimmy Dean regular sausage
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can Rotel (original)
1 large block Velveeta cheese

Brown sausage and drain.
Cut up velveeta into cubes and place in slow cooker. Pour sausage, soup, and rotel over top. Turn slow cooker on low heat and cook for 2-3 hours until cheese is melted and it's hot! Tortilla chips or soft pretzels go good with this.

Sweet Honey Pork Tenderloin

Here is another pork tenderloin recipe! If you buy them at Costco, you get two in a pack so I made this recipe tonight to use the other one. This is my favorite tenderloin recipe, it's sweet and a little spicy, so good!

Sweet Honey Pork Tenderloin

1 pork tenderloin
1/2 c. Catalina Dressing, divided
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried thyme
4 Tbs. honey

Brush 4 Tbs. dressing over the pork. Combine next five ingredients, pat over pork, cover and refrigerate for at least two hours (can go as long as overnight). Preheat grill to low heat. Place pork on grill, grill 12 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, combine remaining dressing and honey.
After cooking 12 minutes on each side, brush each side with honey mixture and grill an additional 5 minutes on each side.
Remove from grill and cover with aluminum foil, let sit for 5-10 minutes. Slice and serve!

Sesame Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin is my favorite thing to barbeque. It's almost fool proof, it always comes out super moist and flavorful. This is a new recipe I tried tonight for dinner and it was so good!

Sesame Pork Tenderloin

1 pork tenderloin (apprx. 1 lb)
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c. honey
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. sesame seeds, toasted (to toast place in shallow pan over medium heat and stir until light brown in color, this releases the oil in the seeds and makes them more flavorful.)

Remove pork tenderloin from bag, you will have two pieces. There is a thin, almost clear skin/membrane on part of the tenderloin. Pull it off.
Place pork in resealable gallon plastc bag. Add soy sauce, olive oil, ground ginger, and garlic cloves. Seal and marinate at least four hours or overnight (I did mine overnight)
Preheat grill, on my lowest heat my grill is about 375 and that temp works great.
Spray grill with non stick cooking spray. Place pork on grill. Cook for 12 minutes on each side.
While cooking combine honey and brown sugar.
After pork has cooked 12 min. on each side, brush honey mixture over top half of pork, sprinkle with sesame seeds. Turn over and brush remaining half with honey mixture and sprinkle with remaining sesame seeds. Grill 5 minutes on each side.
Remove pork and place on tin foil, bring foil up kind of like a tent so that the pork is covered. Let sit for 10 minutes. Slice and serve! This is great served with rice and garnished with green onions.

Smothered Pork Chops

I've been making this recipe for a few years, it is so good. It's a great family meal because kids love it too. I usually have all of these ingredients on hand already, so it's a very inexpensive dinner.

Smothered Pork Chops

1 c. all purpose flour

2 Tbs. onion powder

2 Tbs garlic powder

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

4-6 pork chops (3/4 inch, bone in, boneless is okay too)

1/4 c. olive oil

1 c. chicken broth

1/2 c. buttermilk

Chopped fresh flat leaf parsley for garnish

Put the flour in a shallow platter and add the onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels to remove any moisture and then dredge them in the seasoned flour; shaking off the excess.

Heat a large saute pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat and coat with the oil. When the oil is nice and hot, lay the pork chops in the pan in a single layer and fry for 3 minutes on each side until golden brown (only one minute on each side if using thin cut chops). Remove the pork chops from the pan and add a little sprinkle of seasoned flour to the pan drippings. Mix the flour into the fat to dissolve and then pour in the chicken broth in. Let the liquid cook down for 5 minutes to reduce and thicken slightly. Stir in the buttermilk to make a creamy gravy and return the pork chops to the pan, covering them with the sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes (3 minutes for thin cut chops) until the pork is cooked through. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.

Pizza Rolls

So this is my husband and 14 year old brother's favorite thing that I make. It's like a cinnamon roll with pizza filling and you serve it with warmed pizza sauce, Yum! I usually make homemade bread dough, but you can also use the frozen Rhode's bread dough or Pillsbury refrigerated Pizza crust to save time. These also freeze well, just microwave to reheat!

Pizza Rolls

16 oz. sausage
4 oz. pepperoni
3 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 loaves frozen Rhode's bread dough, thawed
or 2 Pillsbury pizza crusts, or 1 recipe white sandwich bread (on this blog)
Pizza sauce for dipping

Cook sausage in skillet, drain and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, chop pepperoni by hand or with food processor. Combine sausage, pepperoni, cheese, Italian seasoning, and pepper. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll out into large rectangle, about 1/4" thick. Spread half of sausage mixture over dough. Press down on filling, and then starting at the bottom, roll up like you would cinnamon rolls. Pinch end tightly. Cut into 2" slices and place on baking sheet.
Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Makes about 20 rolls.