"Sweet" Pork Barbacoa

Yes, this is extremely similar to THIS recipe.
The meat was done exactly the same, except with 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup brown sugar.

This time we did a black bean mixture.

And the rice was just lime rice....1/2 cup dry rice, 1 cup water, 1 tbsp lime juice, cooked til done!

But this time! We put meat, beans and rice all into the tortilla, wrapped it up burrito style, stuck it in a baking pan, smothered it with about half a can of enchilada sauce and a bunch of cheese! Then we had corn on the side. Quite tasty!

Harvest Season!

While its true * I * do not have a garden, I am the happy recipient of other people's garden surplus! A friend had given us some zucchini and due to a week full of migraines I hadn't had a chance to use it the way I like! (more to come on that later!) This meant I needed to find a new way to get my children to eat it. Those Betty Crocker emails come in handy! I found a recipe for a Zucchini Tomato Skillet Dinner HERE. Funny thing was that the same friend gave me tomatoes when I asked if I could use a can of stewed tomatoes to make the dinner! Nice that she contributed half our dinner that night!

Edits this time primarily come from not reading the instructions....LOL! I did use dehydrated onion, and then instead of waiting til the end for the chopped fresh tomato, I put that in with Step 2. Whoops. Its okay, it was still great.

Barbacoa Pork

Sunday was one of those days we'd managed to run out of grocery staples. That meant it was time to get creative for dinner, and my husband did an awesome job!! Doesn't this look dreamy good??

He started with the meat that is wrapped inside that tortilla. Here's what he did....
Thaw 2 lbs of boneless, country-style pork ribs. Put about a quart of water in a large pot and add the following:
2 tbsp taco seasoning
1 8oz can tomato sauce
3 tbsp minced garlic
1 large bay leaf
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar OR red wine vinegar OR apple cider vinegar
1 tsp hot sauce paste OR 1 tbsp liquid hot sauce

Boil/simmer until liquid is reduced to 1/4 volume, and has become a good thick sauce, and pork can be shredded and falls apart.
Remove the meat and shred, then return it to the sauce until meat is completely coated.
So that's the meat filling, which we put into a tortilla, topped it with cheese and rolled/folded it up burrito style.
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Then he made a side dish of honey lime rice:
Put a pat of butter into the pan and toast the dry rice. Then add the water, boil/cook til the rice is done. He drizzled on a little lime juice and a little honey, and a dash of the rice wine vinegar. Use way less than you think!
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And a side dish of refried beans.... which are simply a can of refried beans dumped into a pot, and add a tbsp or two of milk and a small handful of cheese, and heat through!
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The burrito was then smothered in enchilada sauce and some cheese, cheese on top of the beans, and it went under the broiler for about 3-4 minutes. And came out looking like this:

oh yes. it was THAT good!

Pepsi Chicken!

I made this the other day for the first time in years. Its easy and tasty and apparently there are other ways to make it but this is how my friend taught me!

Recipe courtesy Melissa Christensen:

1/2 cup bbq sauce
1 1/2 cans pepsi
1/2 cup ketchup

Put BBQ sauce, pepsi and ketchup in pan and boil. Add chicken and simmer for 45 minutes. Take lid off for additional 10 minutes. Serve over rice.
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When I made it, I thawed three boneless/skinless chicken breasts and cut them into chunks. About the size that would take 3 bites to eat, if that makes sense. Also, we were surprisingly low on ketchup so there was actually more BBQ than ketchup.
I made brown rice again, and here's our dinner that night:

* I have also used Dr Pepper, and root beer, depending on what's in the house. 

"Healthier" dinner

It was an afterthought to post this. But again, in the spirit of eating better, I opted for some healthier dinner ideas.

I thawed two large chicken breasts and cut them into strips. I find they cooker quicker in smaller pieces and then don't dry out as much. I ground black pepper into the pan and stuck the strips right in the pan. Then I sprinkled seasoning salt over the chicken but not much. Just turned them til they were done! They were tasty too, we all liked it.

We have a ton of white rice, but a- the boys in this house don't care for rice and b- white rice is not that healthy. So I bought a small bag of brown rice, intending to just mix it half and half. My friend told me you can't mix rice, they cook differently. Rats. She was right, of course. The packages said a significant time difference, and at my house, it took about 12 mins to cook the white rice and about 55 to cook the brown rice. WOW. Then I mixed them in a bowl with a smidge of black pepper so that everyone got a little brown rice on their plates. 
*Brown rice is much more flavorful, and its better for you but it will go rancid if you keep it on a shelf too long.

Then I just heated some frozen mixed vegetables and there was dinner! The boys put butter on their rice but I thought it was tasty plain.