Cooking with Coca-Cola

Trader Joe's had tri-tip on special this week, so I decided to give it a try.  I thought that tri-tip in the slow cooker might be the way to go but had no idea how to cook it.  Here's my made-up recipe that ended up being fabulous!

Take a 2.5 lb. tri-tip roast and rub it with some meat rub seasoning.  I found this all natural rub in our local grocery store and it ended up being really tasty.  Be careful not to rub too much on the meat, as the seasoning can overpower everything.  Put the meat fat-side-up in the crock pot and add 12 oz. of chilled Coca-Cola Classic.  Pour most of the Coke around the meat, but do pour a little over the top.  Cook on low for 8 hours.

After the 8 hours is up, remove the meat from the slow cooker.  It should look something like this and fall apart really easily.  :9 

To make the BBQ sauce, remove drippings from the slow cooker and put into a fat separator.  Let the fat rise to the top.  While that process is going on, pour 6-8 oz. of chilled Coca-Cola Classic into a sauce pan.  Add 4-5 good squirts of ketchup (I used Simply Heinz).  Add 1/4 tsp. of ground mustard.  Then pour in 1/4 cup of the drippings.  I also added a few shakes of cracked black pepper to balance the sweetness of the sauce.  (We love pepper around here.)  Bring the mixture to a boil and boil uncovered for 8 minutes or until the mixture thickens into a sauce.

When you're done, the sauce should look something like this. (Please excuse the skillet with leftover egg bits from breakfast.  What?  I have a small child and dishes don't always get done.)  ;)  Shred the meat and place meat onto a bun.  Add sauce to your heart's content.

For a side dish, I made tiny potatoes.  Preheat oven to 375.  Take 1 lb. of tiny potatoes (from Trader Joe's - fingerling potatoes would work, too), place on a cookie sheet and drizzle with 1 Tbsp. olive oil.  Sprinkle 1/2 tsp. of kosher salt and 1/4 tsp. of ground pepper on the potatoes.  Toss well to coat.  (I added a little smoked paprika to the potatoes.)  Bake for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

And, of course, to continue the Coca-Cola theme, pour yourself a nice glass of Coke to go with your awesome BBQ sandwich and potatoes! 

What to do during an Ice Storm...

Make brownies!  :)  I ate so well today that I can have TWO tonight (per my WW points).  Hooray!  Here is the recipe:
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
2 Tbsp. water
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa (such as Nestle or Trader Joe's)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease 13x9-inch baking pan.
Combine sugar, butter and water in a large bowl.  Stir in eggs and vanilla extract.  Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture.  Stir in nuts (if desired).  Spread into prepared baking pan.
Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky.  Cool completely in pan.  Enjoy!

Breakfast for Dinner

I love to cook but, unfortunately, having a baby doesn't leave a lot of time for me to flex my gourmet chef muscles.  I've taken up making this dish probably once or twice a month and we love it!  I use about half of an asparagus bunch and break the stalks into one-inch pieces.  Place the pieces into an 8x8 Pyrex dish and pour water into the dish until you have about 1 cm of water in the bottom of the dish.  Cover the dish with plastic wrap and microwave for 2 minutes.  Slice button or baby portabella mushrooms.  Heat 1 tsp. of olive oil in a non-stick skillet.  Add mushrooms and saute until lightly browned.  Add steamed asparagus pieces and saute until warmed.  Scramble 5-6 eggs in a separate bowl and pour into skillet.  Dot with 1 oz. goat cheese, if desired.  Sprinkle dried thyme, rosemary, pepper and salt onto egg mixture.  Now, let's be honest, this would be a lot prettier if I could make it look like an omelet.  However, I'm not that fancy, so it basically turns into scrambled eggs with veggies.  :)  But it still tastes good! 

The skillet after sprinkling the spices

The scrambled egg mixture

The finished product with a little bacon on the side.  YUM. :9

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Since we are all in the Fall spirit around here (Hubs perhaps begrudgingly), I decided to use our leftover pumpkin from our pancakes to make some cookies. This recipe came up on The Pioneer Woman's site and it sounded the best of all the recipes I found, so we decided this would be our foray into the pumpkin cookie world. Hubs does not like the combo of sweet/salty and I'll admit that I wasn't much for putting salt on top of my cookies, so I decided to add Fall sprinkles to the top instead. Here are the results:

I'd like to send a shout out to HomeGoods for their fabulous selection of Fall sprinkles.  As you can see, we have the colorful leaves, pumpkins with chocolate sprinkles and the fall color sprinkle medley.  They are delicious!  I will definitely be making these cookies again.

Slow Cooker Vegetable Beef Barley Soup (aka Our Winter Staple because it's easy and delicious!)

This makes quite a bit of soup - enough for dinner, leftovers another night and a couple of meals in the freezer, too.

1 1/2 lbs. beef stew meat
1 cup 1-inch pieces green beans (frozen)
2/3 cup uncooked barley
3/4 cup whole kernel corn (frozen)
1 cup mixed veggies (frozen)
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups water
2 (14 1/2 oz.) cans diced tomato w/garlic, undrained
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt
3 1/2 cups beef broth (I use low sodium)

To prepare: Mix all ingredients together in a 3 1/2 to 6 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat setting 8 to 9 hours (or high heat setting for 4 to 5 hours) or until vegetables and barley are tender. NOTE: Fresh vegetables may be substituted for frozen. I usually add additional frozen mixed veggies and corn to the soup. Serve with warm, crusty bread. :)

Fall is coming! (OK, possibly wishful thinking...)

We got a lovely butternut squash at the Farmer's Market last week, so I decided to find a good recipe that would incorporate this yummy fall staple! I made this dish last night and it was delicious. I will say, cutting a butternut squash is quite a challenge. I microwaved the squash for three minutes, after poking it with a fork a few times. Once the squash cooled, I was able to peel the skin and cube it much more easily. Also, the store did not have pork shoulder so we used pork tenderloin instead. I would actually recommend using the tenderloin, as it cut the cooking time by 1/2 hour. The recipe calls for an additional 1/2 hour of cooking once the squash is added but I added the squash during last 1/2 hour of the 1 1/2 hour cooking time. It was delicious! We served with cornbread, as suggested. And it really does taste better the next day after the flavors have had more time to settle.

Side note - I may add a little cinnamon next time I cook this. Yum!!

Fabulous Fall Festival!

Well, it's not really a festival, but I figured we needed a Fall celebration at home since it's finally cold for a change and feeling like it's not summer anymore. This evening while Daniel watched college football (Baylor v. OU, Texas v. Colorado and Florida v. LSU), I did this:

Yes, that is ModgePodge, an Arthur paper plate and tiny pumpkins. They are going to be part of my lovely Fall decorations. :)

I also made these pumpkin cookies. I changed the recipe up a little (of course). I added 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon in place of the 2 tsp. of cinnamon. I only used 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips and used 1/2 cup of pecans instead of walnuts. I also increased the oven temp. to 365 and cooking time to 12 minutes. They were scrumptious!

The pumpkin mixture

Mixing the wet and dry ingredients

Waiting to be put in the oven

The oh-so-yummy finished product

Thanks Easter Bunny...bock, bock...

I tried my hand at making chicken noodle soup today. I used 2 quarts of low-sodium chicken broth, 1 quart of vegetable broth, 1 rotisserie chicken (original flavor, all of the breast meat, 1 thigh and 1 leg), 1 big carrot (sliced), 1 cup of chopped celery and 1/2 package Reames egg noodles. I brought the broth to a boil and added the noodles and boiled for 20 minutes. While the noodles cooked, I sauteed the carrot and celery and a bit of garlic in 1 tsp. of olive oil until almost tender. I shredded the chicken while the noodles cooked, too. Once the noodles were done, I added the carrot-celery mixture and the chicken. I added a pinch of rosemary, pinch of thyme, pinch of sage and some freshly ground pepper and I simmered the ingredients for 10 more minutes. Homemade goodness!

Pumpkin pancakes!

Oh hooray! We made this deliciousness for dinner. (Non-fat Bisquick, added a little extra pumpkin and left out the oil. Of course I used soy milk, too.) We also had some preservative and nitrite-free bacon with the pancakes. It's the perfect way to celebrate Fall being here! If only the weather would cooperate...

Homemade Pho

Alton Brown has a fabulous recipe for ramen shrimp pouches, which end up tasting like homemade pho. I found some GINORMOUS shrimp at Whole Foods (note to self: use smaller shrimp next time) and I added extra veggies (because we all need more veggies!) and used a triple-foil layer. The results were amazingly delicious.

Before:


Pouches ready to go into the oven:


Pouches out of the oven:


Yum!

No-boil goat cheese lasagna

I made lasagna for the first time ever! Here is the recipe. I subbed goat cheese for ricotta and pecorino-romano for the mozzarella and parmesan. It was delicious and cow-milk free. :) I forgot to take a picture on the day it was cooked, so here is a pic of the leftovers. Fancy!

Hatch Chile Season

Yessss. I love this time of year. Hatch Chiles are in the grocery store, which means I can make this yummy corn chowder. Of course, I sub soy milk for milk and leave out the cheese and devil weed (aka cilantro).

My pre-dinner snack: (Lots of chopping - it's hard work!)


The roasted chiles:


Got to use my soup mixer for the first time:


Finished product!


It was delicious. :9


Next month - heirloom tomatoes! I can't wait for all the fun recipes!

Cheater, cheater, pumpkin-eater

Oh, it's a glorious time of year. That's right - pumpkin everything is out in stores and restaurants. Starbucks is now serving the delicious pumpkin spice latte (soy, no whip), Einstein Bros. is busting out the pumpkin bagels, IHOP is serving pumpkin pancakes and (fanfare, please!) Target has debuted their autumn mix. Yes folks, candy corn and mallow pumpkin goodness for all to enjoy. I'm betting that Mimi's Cafe has some sort of pumpkin muffin as their seasonal treat. Must make sure to check that out this weekend! Dee-lish!

For the chefs out there, try these Pumpkin Praline Custards from Cooking Light. They're so good, my dog jumped up on my coffee table and scarfed one last year - he NEVER does that!