Crockpot Freezer Meal - Teriyaki Pork and Cream Cheese Peas

Tonights dinner was one of my Freezer Crockpot meals that I made a week or so ago, to help me with evening dinners since we are doing Football in the evenings and it's new for our family. These easy dinners have really helped me with juggling these busy evenings.

This recipe was originally for pork chops, but I only had pork roasts, instead of cutting them up into chops, I figured cooking the whole roast would be tasty. It really was! My husband raved that I needed to keep this recipe and make it again. Soon! So, because it tasted so yummy I'm posting it on my blog and sharing with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

ingredients:
2-3 pound pork roast or 6-8 pork chops
salt and pepper to taste (I recommend sprinkling them before you freeze them)
1 Tbsp minced garlic
4 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce or amino acid
2/3 cup chicken or veggie broth

Add the garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce and broth in a large gallon size ziploc freezer bag. Mix well, then add the pre-seasoned pork roast or chops. make sure you coat all of the roast or chops in the marinade. Place in the freezer. Pull out the morning you want this for dinner, run warm water over the outside of the freezer bag to loosen up the items in the bag. Place in a crockpot on low 6-8 hours. I removed mine about 10-20 minutes before the end of the cooking time, and let set for about 5 min. This will allow the pork to stay moist.

I served this with cream cheese peas and instant mashed potatoes.

The cream cheese peas is super easy and I made that in the microwave. it's half a cream cheese package, salt and pepper to taste, and 1 pound sweet peas. Microwave 5 min on high, stir, microwave on high another 5 min. Serve warm.

Applesauce Banana Oatmeal Cookies

These last couple of weeks I've been trying to see how little I can go to the grocery store by using my food storage to make meals for my family. So far I've only had to buy milk, eggs, and bread. I do have powdered milk, powdered eggs and flour. However, those items are quite expensive to replace in powder form. I want to make sure I keep those for a true emergency. Therefore, I am willing to purchase only those items from the store. I have been using frozen and canned vegetables instead of fresh, just for this experiment since I currently don't have a garden. I have several banana's that were getting quite browned in places and I needed to use a few of them up. Instead of the typical banana bread I wanted to make something that was a "treat" for my kids. They won't eat banana bread. I found a recipe on yummly.com for banana oatmeal cookies. I had most of the items and I decided it sounded delicious to make. However, I got a phone call part of the way through making the cookies... never a good idea. However, I made a mistake in making the cookies, and they still turned out delicious. Here is my altered recipe from the one I found on Yummly.com. I am posting the doubled recipe since I doubled the original recipe. this recipe makes 4 doz cookies.

Total time 20 min
Bake 10 min
Prep 10 min

Applesauce Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter shortening
1/2 cup applesauce (homemade)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup coconut sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup white unbleached flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
4 ripe (browning) bananas
4 cups oatmeal (old fashioned)
4 Tbsp flax seed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cream sugar, shortening and applesauce until fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time incorporating each egg before adding the next. Add dry ingredients alternating between flours and other dry ingredients. Add oatmeal, bananas, and flax seed. Drop by teaspoonful on greased baking sheets. Bake 10 min each.

These cookies are delicious! My kids LOVE them! I was worried that the baking powder would change the flavor and consistency of the cookies but it didn't bother them at all. They are fluffy almost cake like cookies. Nice and soft! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Banana Oatmeal Wheat Muffins

I was craving banana muffins today and I had several bananas that were perfect for banana muffins. So I looked on Pinterest here and found a recipe for Banana Oatmeal muffins. I had all the ingredients except for chocolate chips. I know a travesty but none the less, no chocolate chips. :( I thought I could make it a little healthier if I wanted so I made a few changes to the original recipe. Here is what I did. I have the muffins in the oven right now. I tripled the recipe and made 18 muffins and 2 loafs of banana oatmeal wheat bread.

Banana Oatmeal Wheat Muffins

• 9 mashed bananas (the more ripe the better!)
• 1 cup vanilla Almond milk (you could use skim but you may want to add a little sweetener)
• 6 eggs
• 3 tbsp Baking powder
• 8 cups (240g) Old Fashion or Rolled Oats
• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 9 tbsp (42g) mini chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Mix all ingredients except the chocolate chips together, and let sit while you prepare the muffin pans.

Spray a muffin pan and/or liners with with non-stick spray.

Stir the chocolate chips into the oatmeal batter.

Divide batter into 15 muffin cups. They should be just about filled.

Bake 20-30 minutes, you’ll see the edges just starting to brown and they will be firm to the touch.

The muffins may stick when hot but are removed easily when cooled for a bit.

*For bread bake for 60 minutes.

They look and smell delicious. I hope you give them a try :)

Garden Shepherds Pie (meatless)

Garden Shepherds Pie (Meatless)

Tonight I wanted to celebrate National "PI" Day. PI not Pie... 3.14. I know math nerds everywhere rejoice.
The base for this recipe I got from Clean Eating Mag I found online when I googled clean eating shepherds pie. It looked good so I did my best with the ingredients I had on hand. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

I really wanted something like pie with a nice flaky crust and yummy center... so if your looking for that kind of pie... this isn't it, I mean the nice yummy center yes, but not the flaky crust. This does not have a crust. Instead of using potatoes, I am using cauliflower, leeks and turnips with a hint of almond milk sprinkled with salt and pepper, topped with parmesan cheese. Sound yummy... I think so too. :)

The middle is full of rich delicious nutritious vegetables. Full of good nutrients and appeasing my new lifestyle of eating cleaner healthier meals. This is one of the first meatless meals I will be serving and hopefully not the last. I did use a lot of organic vegetables but not all are fresh, some have been previously canned, such as the beans and the carrots and peas were previously frozen. My house smells delicious and I'm hoping it tastes as good or better then it smells. :)

Ingredients:

Cauliflower Topping
1 cauliflower, cut off stem pieced
1 medium leek quartered and diced
1 medium turnip, diced
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Add cauliflower, leek, turnips and garlic to a pot of water, boil until cauliflower is tender and turning translucent. Remove from heat, drain in strainer. Return to pot add almond milk. With a submersible blender, blend until creamy. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Use as topping for shepherds pie, or smooth out on a lightly greased cookie sheet and use for a pizza crust by cooking (drying out) in oven for 15 min.

Shepherds pie filling

2 tsp coconut oil
1 large leek, white and light green parts thinly sliced, rinsed well.
2 medium carrots diced or sliced (I used frozen carrots mixed with peas)
1 medium turnips, diced small about 1 1/2 cups
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1/4 lb fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
5 small garlic gloves (minced)
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth, divided
3 large swiss chard leaves, torn into medium pieces - I rough chopped mine and I used Rainbow chard
1 sprig rosemary - chopped
1 sprig sage - chopped
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 can cannelloni beans - rinsed
1/2 can black beans - rinsed
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions:
Preheat oven 400F.
Add oil to a large dutch oven or wide sauce pot on medium-highheat. Add leek and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring often, until begins to soften. Add Carrots, turnips, peas, green beans, and garlic and sauté for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Until vegetables begin to soften and brown bits form on the bottom of the pan. Pour 1/2 a cup of broth, scraping brown bits from bottom of the pan as the broth evaporates.

Add chard and herbs (thyme, sage and rosemary) and sauté until chard wilts, about 2 minutes. add beans and remaining broth, salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes, until liquid thickens and reduces slightly, and vegetables are tender.

Transfer stewed vegetables to a 10-in pie dish. Spread on top of stewed vegetables cauliflower mixture over vegetables, to the edges of the dish. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until browned (mine cooked for 26 minutes to lightly brown). Remove from oven let rest for 10 minutes. and enjoy warm!

***VERDICT!!!

SUPER DELICIOUS! I will be making this again, soon! I love how healthy this is and delicious. I am so, very pleased with how delicious this turned out. I love being able to add a meatless dish to my families dinner, which helps us stay healthy and helps our tight budget. Enjoy!!! Let me know what you think and how you adjust for your family.

Black Bean, Corn and Avocado Salad

I am sorry I thought I took a picture of this beautifully, yummy salad, but I didn't. :(  I know how sad. Well. When I make it again I will take a picture of it and post it. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. :) I brought this dish to our Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet this tuesday. It was a real hit! Super easy to make, just lots of chopping fresh ingredients. But this is a delicious salad. Totally worth the time chopping veggies. Enjoy!

Black Bean, Corn and Avocado Salad

2 – 15 oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained

4 ears of fresh corn, cooked, and kernals cut off the cob

2 peppers – 1 yellow bell pepper and 1 orange bell pepper

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tbsp minced shallots (1 Medium shallot)

2 tsp kosher salt

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

1-2 Tbsp stevia (optional)

3 passes around the bowl with olive oil

2 limes (The juice of 2 limes)

zest from 1 of the limes

½ cup chopped parsley, plus more for garnish (can substitute cilantro)

2 – medium avacado’s diced

1 cucumber, peeled and diced (if using English cucumbers leave peel on)

4 roma tomatoes, diced

1 bunch of green onion stalks (dice the green off the tops of 1 bunch of green onions)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl except the avacado. Cover and chill for a few hours or over night. Right before serving add the avacados and mix gently. *Do not mash the avacados. Garnish with a few sprigs of chopped parsley or cilantro. Serve at room temperature.

Serves 8-10 people generously

Clean Eating Fajita Taco's with Caramelized Onions

Fajita Taco's with Caramelized Onions


4 - Chicken Breasts, sliced thin
3 (1 of each) Red, Yellow, green or orange Bell Peppers, Sliced thin
2 - Onions, sliced thin(reserve one for the caramelized onions)
1/2 packet fajita spices (low sodium)
1 cup salsa (homemade)
Romain Lettuce Leaves


Cook the chicken, bell peppers and 1 of the onions until the chicken is cooked through, onions translucent and peppers are soft. Add fajita spices and salsa, add 1/3 cup water and simmer down. In a separate pan, slowly cook on low/med heat, add onions in 1/2 a tsp of  heated coconut oil, and a sprinkle of kosher salt until they are tender and browned. 


Spoon the fajita mixture into romaine lettuce leaves, then add a light layer of the caramelized onions on top of the fajita mixture. 


ENJOY! These are so super tasty and full of flavor. The sweetness from the onions and the spice of the fajita meat are a perfect combination. I made these for a dinner with my husband and they were so supper tasty! WE ate them all up.

Clean Eating Turkey Burgers with Homemade Salsa

Turkey Burgers with homemade Salsa


1 pound Ground turkey
1 zucchini (shredded)
1 onion (diced)
2 Tbsp Ms Dash
1 Tbsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp Fresh Grated Pepper

Preheat oven 350 Degrees F.
Combine all ingredients together in a medium bowl. Make a medium size ball of the mixture in your hand, and flatten to about 1/4 inch thick. Place on non-stick foil. Repeat until all mixture is completed. Or make meatballs using a medium (Pampered chef) scoop. Once all meat is used. Place in the oven and bake for 30 min, rotating the pan half way through and flipping burgers. Remove and serve warm and refrigerate the remaining meat for a different meal.

Homemade Salsa

3 Roma Tomatoes diced
1 big bunch of cilantro, minced
1 small onion, diced
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 jalepeno, diced (seeds removed)

Mix together and eat! :)