Hawiian fried rice 7/10

SO easy, and one of my families favorites, east with some chop sticks and nothing but a bowl on the table. easy peasy!

INGREDIENTS:
21/2 cups rice
4 large carrots, diced
1/4-1/2 diced onion
3 garlic cloves
1/4 cup tamari sauce
1 can spam-diced
3 eggs ( optional)

Rice-
cook until its nice and soft

IN a wok next to your cooking rice- cook up
1/4 and onion
3 garlic cloves ( I pushed mine through my garlic press)
4 large carrots chopped up

Once those are nice and cooked- add 1 can of spam diced into the mix

THEN add your cooked rice into the wok, and put about 1/4 a cup tamari sauce into the mixture

While you stirring that you can pull out any for those Egg free family members to enjoy and fry up and egg for those who would like it to add to the pot.

Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy. good for a quick night and something fun from Hawaii!

Breaded Pork Chops 7/10

Ingredients

4 pork chops, trimmed
2 tablespoons DF "butter", melted
Flax seed gel to dip pork chops in-in place of egg
2 tablespoons almond/ soy/ rice milk
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup herb-seasoned dry bread stuffing mix- or use GF bread crumbs with italian seasoning

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Pour butter into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
Stir together egg, milk and pepper. Dip pork chops in flax seed mixture, coat with stuffing mix and place in pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Turn chops and bake for another 10 minutes, or until no pink remains in the meat and juices run clear.


*** I loved it! however, my main dish was tainted by the fact that I burnt the side dish! =( but I would reccommened these to any one, I didn't even use the flax gel, only wiped the excess blood and water of the chops let them soak in almond mile for a minute and then dipped them in the breading! WONDERFUL! I also seared them in a pan with a bit of olive oil before I threw them in the oven.

Smoked pork tacos and pineapple salsa 6/10

Smoked Pork Tacos


1 ½ pounds of lean pork, loin or tenderloin works well here, although any part will do
A full cup of freshly squeezed lime juice and orange juice (mixed together half and half to make a cup)
Salt and pepper
Lots of garlic

**I had in my freezer some kalua pulled pork, which is just basically pork, salt and smoke. so I took that pork and added the garlic and orange and lime juice. I like the idea of a shredded pork better then the strips.

I am also going to make a simple Pineapple salsa with it:

Pineapple salsa:
Ingredients:
1 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple
2 tablespoons finely chopped purple onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
1 tablespoon finely chopped red bell pepper, optional
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon honey
dash ground red pepper, cayenne or chipotle
2 teaspoons finely minced jalapeno pepper, optional
juice of 1 fresh lime, about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Preparation:
Combine all ingredients; cover and refrigerate for an hour or more to blend flavors. Serve with grilled or broiled fish, chicken, or pork. Makes about 1 1/3 cups.

***** We LOVED this dinner, but it was a lot of citrus with the Pork, pineapple salsa and the guac ( which I like tart). The pineapple salsa was a huge hit getting 10's and 9's all around, the pork was 5's and 7's. If I were to do this meal again I would not pair the salsa and pork together and stick with a traditional salsa, saving the pineapple salsa for another meal. I also might try and crock pot my ingredients to get my shredded pork it would be a fun experiment. =0) OH, and we take corn tortillas and fry them in a pan to make "homemade taco shell" this was the true star of the night and what the kids enjoyed the most!

Breakfast for dinner 10/10

In our house a family favorite is ALWAYS breakfast for dinner! Maybe its because their mom is to lazy in the morning to get her cook on, or maybe its just that good, either way- the happy dance is done by all when we have breakfast for dinner.

Pancakes:

I use Pamela's Baking and pancake mix, and I ALMOST follow the directions like it says, except-
In place of the eggs I use 1 1/2 TBLSPNS of ground flax seed
In place of water I use Almond milk
then I add a sprinkle of cinnamon and about 2 TBLS of brown sugar

Bacon?? YES please!
for those who haven't heard...cook it in your oven! throw down some parchment paper, lay out your Bacon and cook at 350.

Hash Browns:
roasted garlic seasoning is my favorite to throw on there. but the best part about hash browns is cooking them up in the bacon grease with a little pepper and they usually turn out NICE.

get a little fruit on that plate and call it good for a night, greasy, sugary yumminess. only once in a while though- o.k?

Our version of Cafe Reo Pork 9/9

This dinner is my very favorite!! I gave it a 9/9 my kids would probably give it less, but only because we eat it SO often! with this dinner, its all about the crock pot baby! In my mind you need three important components to make this dinner shine, the pork, the rice and MANGO SALSA! here are the three recipes:

Sweet Pulled Pork:

4-5 lbs pork roast
19 oz of your favorite salsa
1 can of sprite or mountain dew
1 1/2 cup brown sugar

I dump all the ingredients into my crock pot and put it on low or high depending on how much time I have it needs a minimum of five hours I think to really get tender and full of flavorful. Its easy to mess with more or less salsa, more or less soda and sugar. you decide but these key ingredients always come out fantastic!

RICE:

1 cup Uncooked Rice
1 teaspoon Butter
2 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lime Juice Plus 1 Teaspoon, Divided
1 can (15 Oz. Can) Chicken Broth
1 cup Water
3 Tablespoons Fresh Chopped Cilantro
2 teaspoons Sugar

Combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 teaspoon lime juice, chicken broth and water in a saucepan or rice cooker. Cook for 15-20 minutes until rice is tender.
In a small bowl, combine remaining 1 tablespoon lime juice, sugar, and cilantro. Pour over the hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice.

** I actually just cook in the cilantro, lime and sugar with my rice, PURE laziness...

MANGO SALSA:

one bag of frozen mango salsa thawed, diced
one can of corn
one tomato diced
one orange bell pepper diced
1 can black beans drained
1/4 diced red onion
1/8 cup lime juice
2 tablespoons orange/apricot/strawberry ( whatever you have around...except grape) jelly
1 bunch of cilantro chopped

I love to do this in my food processor, I put in the cilantro, red onion slices, bell pepper quartered and pulse it a few times until I like the consistency, then I throw in my mango and hit pulse a few more times until I like it all, dump the mixture into a bowl and add the remaining ingredients.

***I thought I found this recipe on a web site, but after an extensive search I realized I had taken about five different recipes and made up my own....so there you have it. OH and if you are having black beans on the side ( which we usually do with this dinner) then I leave the black beans out of the salsa.

NOW that you have read though this dinner ( which surprisingly sounds much more complicated then it actually is!) don't forget so many of the amazing sides! Some GF chips or tortillas to make burritos, DF cheese and DF sour cream, guacamole and maybe some regular salsa for those not feeling as sweet. =) I hope you enjoy this one, it my FAVORITE!!