Cris's Aunt Mary's Pork Mary-nade

One last pork recipe for Cousin Molly...

This one comes from my gal-pal, Cris, but I've made it myself so I can attest to it's greatness. I've made these on the grill & in the oven. Both turned out super yummy!

Click this link to take you to the recipe over at Goodeness Gracious:

Cris's Aunt Mary's Pork Mary-nade

Aloha Pizza

I first had this recipe at a friend's Pampered Chef party.  It is a Pampered Chef recipe, originally, but I'm going to give you the simple cook version ('cause this gal isn't going to stand & hand grate her cheese or mess with chopping up a fresh pineapple :) 

Aloha Chicken


2 green onions with tops (optional - I didn't use these), chopped
2 packages (13.8 oz. ea.) refrigerated pizza crust - I only used 1 package & it fit my large bar pan just fine
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 garlic clove, pressed (we had the pressed garlic at the party, but I just sprinkled garlic powder on my crust & it tasted the same to me)
1/2 cup barbecue sauce, divided
2 cups (8 oz) mozarella cheese, shredded (or grated if you're ambitious)
2 cups diced cooked chicken (I used the frozen, pre-cooked strips, just defrosted them & chopped them up into cubes)
1 medium pineapple (I used 2 cups of canned pineapple tidbits, drained well)
1/2 medium red bell pepper, chopped.


Preheat oven to 400.  
Unroll pizza crust & place in bottom of large bar pan.
Place into oven for approx. 10 min. (This will help the pizza dough finish cooking without over cooking the toppings)


Remove pan from oven & add the following:
Combine the olive oil & garlic (if using fresh) & brush onto pizza crust  OR brush olive oil onto pizza crust & then sprinkle with garlic powder


Spread half of the BBQ sauce over pizza


Sprinkle cheese & chicken onto pizza


Put back into oven for 20-25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown


Remove from oven & add chopped red pepper, pineapple


Put the remaining BBQ sauce in a small baggie & cut tip off the end.  Use this to drizzle BBQ sauce across entire pizza.


If using chopped green onions, add them last. 


Enjoy!
I have to say, I HATE pineapple on pizza and yet, I LOVE this pizza.  I think it must have to do with the fact it has BBQ sauce instead of a tomato based sauce. I'm not sure. All I know is it is awesome! 

Pork Chops in Gravy

This is one of my all-time favorite pork recipes.  I'm not a real big fan of pork chops, but these are DELICIOUS. You can cut them with a fork & they melt in your mouth.


Pork Chops in Gravy


1 egg
2 Tbsp water
8 pork loin chops (1/2" thick)
3/4 c. seasoned bread crumbs (I always use flavored croutons crushed up for this)
2 Tbsp. veg. oil
1 can (10-3/4 oz) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 can (10-1/2 oz.) condensed French Onion Soup, undiluted
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese


In a shallow bowl, beat egg & water.  Dip pork chops in egg mixture, then coat with bread crumbs.  In a large skillet, brown chops in oil.  Transfer to a greased 13x9x2 baking dish. Combine soups; pour over chops.  Sprinkle with cheese. Cover & bake @ 325 for 1.5 hours or until meat is tender. 


Serve with mashed potatoes.

Chili Chops

Chili Chops


4 pork loin chops, 1/2" thick
4 onion slices
4 green pepper slices, 1/4" thick
1 bottle of chili sauce


Place the pork chops in a greased 9" square baking dish
top with onions, green peppers & chili sauce.
Cover & bake for 20-30 min @ 350 (or until meat juices run clear)

Sweet & Sour Pork

The next 3 recipes are some of our family's favorite pork recipes for Cousin Molly.  As with the other picture-less posts, I'll try & remember to get pics the next time I fix these. 


Sweet & Sour Pork


4-6 thick pork chops
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. chili sauce
1/4 c. honey


Preheat oven to 350.


Mix honey, soy & chili sauce.


Place pork chops in greased 3 qt. casserole dish.  Pour sauces over chops.  
Bake for 1 hour. 

5-Can Soup

This super simple soup is on the menu this week.  I'll do my best to try & remember to take a picture when I make it.  This recipe is just a small piece of paper torn from a cookbook so I have no idea where it came from. It is a Weight Watcher's friendly recipe having only 2 pts per 1 cup of soup.  Most shocking to me was how filling it was.

5-Can Soup

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can minestone soup
1 can mixed veggies (you can use frozen if you want)
1 can of black beans (or you can use whatever kind of beans you have on hand)


Mix all together in a pot, heat & serve.


How simple is that!?!?!

Menu Planning

When I started school, it immediately became apparent that meal time was going to be a challenge.  First off, 2 nights a week my schedule has me getting home at times that mean Liv has to either start supper or be solely responsible for getting dinner on the table.  Secondly, deciding what to fix, what to have on hand & what to buy at the store was consuming a lot of my extra time (which I have precious little of). 


So, I decided to sit down & make out 6 weeks worth of menus.  I added a section for helping Liv know what she needed to do each night. I added in all our favorites & tried to use one crockpot recipe & one soup recipe each week to keep it mixed up.  All together it took me 2-3 hours to come up with 6 weeks of menus.  

Obviously, the stress of "what am I gonna fix when I get home" disappeared. However, interestingly, a couple of benefits came from this that I hadn't expected.  


1).  Getting my grocery list together became extremely easy.


and 2). My grocery bill decreased significantly. 


Now, when it's time to get my grocery list together, I go to the kitchen, get next week's menu, pull out any needed recipes for that week, check the cabinet/freezer for what we already & add what we need to my list.  Add on the usual milk, cereal, etc. and my grocery list making is done. (These other add-ons are actually kept as a running list on a recently acquired white board in our kitchen - thanks Chad & Sheena! - so all I have to do is copy them over to my paper list, erase the board, & we're ready to start another week! )

Another benefit, is that I'm realizing that we have enough left overs during the week that I'm usually having one extra meal each week left unmade.  I either make the meal on the weekend or I put the perishable ingredients in the freezer & plan on using it for a 7th week menu comprised of "left over" meal ideas from weeks 1-6.


It was time consuming to make the menus, but it's been well worth it. I would highly recommend trying this to any family that's busy, wants to save $$$ on their grocery bill or is just sick of the "what's for dinner" stress every day.