Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Saucy Pork Chops

this is supposed to be cooked on the grill, but I made it ont he stove only because it was pretty frosty out the night I made it.  It was very good, a make again meal.

Prep: 10 min., Chill: 30 min., Grill: 22 min., Stand: 5 min. Sweet orange marmalade is slightly less bitter than traditional orange marmalade. Either works fine in this recipe. If your chops are thinner than ours, reduce the grilling time.


Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 22 minutes

Other: 35 minutes

Yield: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 center cut boneless pork chops
• 1/2 cup orange juice

• 2 teaspoons soy sauce

• 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/4 cup sweet orange marmalade

• 1/2 cup bottled barbecue sauce

• 4 (1/4-inch-thick) orange slices

Preparation

Pierce pork chops with a fork several times on each side. Combine pork chops and next 3 ingredients in a large shallow dish or large zip-top plastic freezer bag. Cover or seal, and chill for 30 minutes.

Remove chops from marinade, discarding marinade. Sprinkle chops evenly with salt and black pepper.

Stir together marmalade and barbecue sauce in a small bowl. Brush one side of pork chops evenly with half of marmalade mixture.

Grill chops, marmalade mixture side up and covered with grill lid, over medium-high heat (350° to 400°) 10 minutes. Turn pork chops, and brush evenly with remaining half of marmalade mixture. Grill 10 minutes or until done. Remove chops from grill, and let stand 5 minutes.

Grill orange slices, covered with grill lid, over medium-high heat 1 minute on each side. Serve with pork chops.

*4 (1 1/4-inch-thick) boneless pork loin chops may be substituted. Reduce grilling time to 8 minutes on each side or until done

Nutritional breakdown for 4 servings  277 calories each, 35 carbs, 5 gr. fat, 23 protein

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Weekly Menu 1/23/11-1/29/11

Think we did a decent job last week, not really sure.  Can't remember what was on the menu, however I don't recall going out to eat so that's good.  Whatever it is that we ate was stuff at the house.

Sunday-Eye of the Round roast, potatoes and some sort of veggie
Monday-Saucy Pork Chops w/oranges (new recipe)
Tuesday-Beans & Hotdogs
Wednesday-Thai Coconut Chicken
Thursday-Chili
Friday-Chicken Pie

I do have a few new recipe's on the docket for the next couple weeks so I will review them and hopefully they are good.

Birthday Dinner!

Had a fantastic birthday dinner at New Tokyo with just about everyone from our family (missing a few but about 90% were there).  It was a great night, followed by hanging out at Dad & Lyn's for a bit.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.

enjoying a birthday Scorpion bowl!

everyone mingling

Dillon more interested in his trains than letting me take his picture

Ryder checking out the chopsticks

McKenna & Rachel not letting Kristine eat

Darren, Matt & Jordan

Aisling dancing!

Bob & Lyn

Alex and Aisling dancing fools

Matt & Jordan

McKenna and her Grandpa, my big brother Darren

Alex being goofy

Renee & Dillon

Monday, January 17, 2011

Weekly Menu 1/16/11-1/22/11

A little late, but better late than never.

Sunday-Nothing.  We munched at Pam & Don's and were not very hungry so I didn't cook.
Monday-Bourbon Chicken w/brown rice & broccoli
Tuesday-Firecracker Shrimp w/something else
Wednesday-Shake & Bake Chicken etc.
Thursday-Grilled steak with onions & hunter sauce, baked potatoes, green beans
Friday-Chili
Saturday-Not sure, we'll see.

Pan Grilled Pork Chops w/pineapple salsa

This was great.  Really easy, and very tasty.  Best part is it's super healthy!

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 chop and about 1/2 cup salsa)






Ingredients

The 5 ingredients

4 (4-ounce) boneless center-cut loin pork chops (about 1/2 inch thick)

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice, divided

4 (1/2-inch-thick) slices pineapple

1 medium red onion, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

1 tablespoon minced jalapeño pepper

Preparation

Combine pork and 1 tablespoon juice; let stand 10 minutes. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pineapple and onion; cook 4 minutes on each side or until onion is tender. Coarsely chop pineapple and onion; combine in a medium bowl with remaining 2 teaspoons lime juice, jalapeño, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle pork with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Heat grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done.



Nutritional Information

Calories:215

Fat:7g (sat 2.5g,mono 3.1g,poly 0.5g)

Protein:26.4g

Carbohydrate:10.9g

Fiber:1.4g

Cholesterol:70mg

Iron:1mg

Sodium:416mg

Calcium:42mg

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Asian Chicken & Cabbage Slaw

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half and 1/2 cup coleslaw mixture)






Ingredients

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic

1 teaspoon bottled ground fresh ginger (such as Spice World)

4 (4-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Cooking spray

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

4 cups packaged coleslaw

1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation

Preheat broiler.



Combine first 3 ingredients; spread evenly over both sides of chicken. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray; broil 6 minutes on each side or until done.



While chicken cooks, heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; saute 2 minutes. Add coleslaw; saute 1 minute or until coleslaw begins to wilt.



Place coleslaw mixture in a medium bowl. Add sesame oil, salt, and pepper, tossing to coat. Serve coleslaw mixture with chicken.



Nutritional Information

Calories:189 (16% from fat)

Fat:4.3g (sat 0.7g,mono 1.1g,poly 1.6g)

Protein:27.8g

Carbohydrate:9.5g

Fiber:2.1g

Cholesterol:66mg

Iron:1.4mg

Sodium:505mg

Calcium:52mg

Update: Don't make this it's not very good.  Not terrible, it's edible, I didn't mind the slaw, chicken was moist but virtually flavorless.  Skip this try one of the others.

Weekly Menu 1/9/11-1/15/11

Not a bad week, we did everything but the shrimp.  Even made dinner the night we went to the Celtics.  Have a couple new recipes again this week.  Hopefully we do as well this week.

Sunday-Baked chicken and sides
Monday-Asian chicken with slaw (new recipes)
Tuesday-Leftovers for me since I am staffing and Hot dogs on the bun for everyone else per Alex's request.
Wednesday-Slow COok Char Siu Pork Roast w/stir fry veggies (new recipe)
Thursday-Pork Chops with grilled pineapple Salsa (new recipe)
Friday-Shrimp of somesort.  Maybe scamp, maybe spicy shrimp over angel hair
Saturday-Kids Night Out so Allen and I will dining out

Will review new recipes later this week.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Slow Cooker Char Sui Pork Roast

This is on the list for this week.  Another reciept from Cooking Light.


In this recipe for Char Siu, the Chinese version of barbecue, the pork is cooked in the slow cooker for an extra tender, juicy, and stress-free meal. Serve with sticky or long-grain white rice and a steamed or stir-fried medley of bell peppers, carrots, snow peas, sliced baby corn, and water chestnuts.





Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 3 ounces pork and 1/4 cup sauce)





Ingredients

1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

3 tablespoons ketchup

3 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic

2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger

1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder

2 pounds boneless Boston butt pork roast, trimmed

1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

Preparation

Combine first 8 ingredients in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Place in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add pork to bag; seal. Marinate in refrigerator at least 2 hours, turning occasionally.



Place pork and marinade in an electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.



Remove pork from slow cooker using a slotted spoon; place on a cutting board or work surface. Cover with aluminum foil; keep warm.



Add broth to sauce in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes or until sauce thickens. Shred pork with 2 forks; serve with sauce.



Nutritional Information

Calories:227 (38% from fat)

Fat:9.5g (sat 3.1g,mono 3.9g,poly 1.1g)

Protein:21.6g

Carbohydrate:12.7g

Fiber:0.4g

Cholesterol:73mg

Iron:1.7mg

Sodium:561mg

Calcium:30mg

Review-Thai Coconut Chicken

Run out buy the ingredients and make this recipe.  It was excellent.  We only had time to marinate for about 2 hours, would have liked a little more, but it was still great.  I think it would work well on shrimp as well, but a short marinade time.  Enjoy!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Review-Spicy Asian Chicken Wraps

#1 By Spicy they mean spicy  Next time I need to cut the Chile paste in 1/2.  They were basically inedible.  I mean I could have kept eating them but after the first one my lips & mouth were on fire.

#2 Boston lettuce leaves stink.  They completely fall apart.  Need to find a better substitution.

#3 I added fresh ginger when the chicken was cooking.  Nice additon, plus I never use fresh ginger.  That stuff smells incredible.

#4 When the pacakge of bean threads , or celeophane noodles says sook 10-15 mintues, yeah let it, in fact go more towards the 15 mintues, otherwise the sharpest of teeth can't bite through them.

#5  I added some shitake mushrooms since I had them, I'm not a big mushroom fan, but these weren't bad.

So needless to say it wasn't a huge success, but I'd probably try it again.  It was easy, and despite being very spicy, it has a ton of flavors I like. 

Next up Thai Coconut Chicken