What's Cookin'

When I got married, I was a decent cook. I didn't enjoy cooking because I HATE making messes, but I 've come to terms with it. I used to make lots of food I had grown up with (Mexican) and recipes Rich's mom gave me when we got married (casseroles), and they were good...so good that each of us has gained about 60 pounds. So since I am in charge of the food around here and I can't stand for my menus to be boring and our bodies can't stand for them to be unhealthy, I have been on a year-long quest to improve our eating, especially by tripling the amount of vegetables & fruits we consume.

The quest for F&V led us to lots more Asian-inspired foods and vegetarian recipes. Of course we have always been smoothie fans and our girls are, too. Addie comes up with the best smoothie recipes! We try to keep a big tub of vanilla yogurt on hand as well as lots of frozen fruit (we got lots last September marked down, cut it up and froze it)--we LOVE the triple berries from Costco and their blueberries, and of course summer brings so many strawberries and peaches--yay! Rich made smoothies last week that were just peaches, blueberries, and apple juice and we loved it.

I discovered this great recipe for Kahlua Pork cooked in the crock pot. Costco has great little pork roasts, sold in three-packs for around $10--they're so great and usually make 2 meals each. Anyway, you can cook them overnight with just three ingredients: a splash of olive oil, 2-3 tablspoons of liquid smoke (hickory or applewood), and a few shakes of salt. Keep moist by adding a bit of water as needed and in about 8 hours, you've got a luau!

I made up a great recipe for the leftover pork: egg rolls a la Sister Gunn!

I know it's blurry, but the filling is just shredded pork, 1/2 head of cabbage chopped, and 2 carrots grated. Then I put in about a tablespoon of crushed ginger root, a tablespoon of crushed garlic, and 1/4 cup of Shoyu sauce (recipe below).
Then we wrapped them up in won tons and fried them in a little canola oil. YUM! We had the rest of the cabbage with mushrooms and broccoli steamed with Shoyu sauce on the side.

And it was DELISH.

My friend Megan gave us the recipe for Shoyu chicken and I love it because (a) it's tasty (b) I can buy dirt-cheap chicken legs and make a good dinner out of them and (c) I can freeze the sauce and use it in TONS of other recipes.

So here's how you make it:

1 cup soy sauce
1 cup pineapple juice
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 piece crushed ginger
2 cloves of garlic mashed
4 whole green onions
3 pounds of chicken thighs or legs, bone in

Mix ingredients in large saucepan, bring to boil, add chicken, simmer til chicken is tender (falling off bone--about 30 minutes). Then remove chicken with tongs. Allow sauce to cool then strain with collander and pour into ziploc bags to freeze for future use.
(The snack size ziplocs are the perfect amount of sauce for micowaving veggies--just put the veggies in a covered casserole dish with the frozen sauce and microwave for 3-5 minutes [or until tender--microwaves vary], stirring half way through. Carrots are so good if you cook them like this, and then drizzle with a mixture of honey and a little crushed ginger).

Here are some MUST HAVES (hot sauce & cruched ginger from Christpher Ranch--I love the CR garlic, too). We love them!(we have found that if food is flavorful, it's more satisfying--kimchi is a great example: lots of flavor, very satifying, but it's really just cabbage!)

Before I Left

We were still having quite the cold snap before I left for Utah. On Saturday, January 13, I made this big pot of chili for my family. I took some to Utah and left some for Rich. It was so good, especially with Marie Calender's "just add water" cornbread. Ricky Lauren's Cookhouse Chili
James in his seat, enjoying the ruckus from the counter
Heidi and Addie help clean the kitchen floor
"When we're helping we're happy and we sing as we go, for we like to help mother, for we all love her so!"

Or something like that.