Ribs and Corn, yummy easy and fast dinner...

I have to admit, when I travel to the states I like to go into the grocery stores and check out what they have there and can't get here in Canada.  There are staples that we always pack home like Red Vines, love them.  But I also like to look in the spice isle for new spice packets or these pre-package dinner ideas.  They are handy, almost always good and easy.  Tonight we tried the Knorr Roasters Southern Style BBQ with some spareribs that were on sale this week.

I didn't end up using all the meat since there was only going to be two of us dining tonight and the bag is actually quite small.  I already didn't have all the meat in a single layer like it suggests.  It also says in the instructions that you may use chicken which would have been yummy as well.  I also cooked for two hours since I used much for meat that their suggestions as well.

After two hours (I also cooked a couple potatoes on the same pan) it looked like this and was ready to come out.  Clean up was easy and fast, love that.  I did let them rest for a couple minutes to let the steam out.  After I took the ribs out I poured the remaining juices into a gravy separator, I wanted to pour the sauce out but not the fat.

I did like these the flavour wasn't over powering, juicy and tender.  Oven bags are a great way to cook ribs, they don't dry out at all.  Defiantly recommending these Knorr's Roasters, can't wait to try a different one.

As another side, I made this corn recipe from Pinterest, Addicting Corn Recipe.  It was quite good but I don't follow the recipes completely.  I didn't used all the Paprika, only have and I used Smoked instead of regular.  I will make this again but I will probably only use half again but of regular Paprika.

Try my recommendations and let me know how they worked out for you.  Thanks:)

Loaded Baked Potato Soup made in a Vitamix Blender

As you can see in my prior post, I love my Vitamix and have been using it so much lately.  I have been using for Smoothies in the morning and Soups for lunch.  My newest soup that I just love was adapted from a Vitamix recipe.  I was super easy, fast and very tasty.  I knew I was going to be making this so I baked a few extra potatoes the previous night since we were having baked potatoes.  I do notice that when I do plan ahead and do some prep work the previous day, that I stick to the plan and don't have something unhealthy for breakfast or lunch.  Also to cut down the time on the running time of the blender I do use steamed veggies and or hot liquids.  It is not necessary, the Vitamix will cook it up but I just like to cut down the time of the blender noise.

So please see my Vitamix Baked Potato Soup Recipe below, it is a great beginner Vitamix Recipe.  Please let mw know if you try it and how you liked it.

VITAMIX LOADED BAKED POTATO SOUP

In your Vitamix place:
~1 baked potato (peeled, you will need an additional potato but that goes in later)
~1/4 onion, steamed or sautéed (I placed mine in a covered bowl and microwaved for 70 seconds)
~1/3 cup cheddar cheese
~2 cups milk ( I also microwaved this for a couple minutes to get it hot)
~1 tbsp Becel (which I will be leaving out next time, not needed)
~1/2 tsp salt
~1/2 tsp Rosemary Leaves

So, start the blender and turn it to high.  Let is run for about 4 minutes.  If you used hot liquid it should be steaming by now.  I you didn't heat the liquids it will need to run for a few more minutes, be careful of the steam.

When is is hot turn it down to variable 3 and add 1/4 cup pre-cooked bacon and your remaining potato. Run it until it has the consistency you like.

Pour into bowls and top as you see fit, I toped mine with more bacon, shredded cheddar cheese and green onions.  You may want to add additional salt and pepper.

It is yummy and perfect for a winter's day lunch.  This recipe is freezable incase you make too much but this recipe only makes about 4 cups total.

Enjoy, cheers.

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken, super easy and very yummy :)

Hello,
It seems like I have taken a very long break from blogging and I am fired up to get to it regularly.  I had an amazing summer and have made some awesome food so I have some tasty recipes to share, I still took photos of the meals and will share so really great ones.  Today I am going to share one that I just made tonight using a cook book my sister loaned me to take a look at.  It did not make a lot but  it was enough for my daughter and myself with enough for my lunch tomorrow.  Usually there is three of us but my husband is out of town.

The Big Cook 2 is filled with many recipes that have simple ingredients.  I have only made this one recipe but I have marked many to try.

I needed a simple slow cooker meal for tonight and selected their Honey Garlic Chicken.  I was using my small cooker which was just so handy, didn't even start it til 3:15 this afternoon.  Took me a couple quick minutes to get all the ingredients in since there are only 5.

Steamed some broccoli and made a batch of brown rice to go with it and at 6:30 we were having a nice quick dinner.


DOLCI'S HONEY GARLIC CHICKEN

2 lbs Chicken Pieces (boneless, skinless thighs or breast)
1/4 cup Honey
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp Brown Sugar
2 minced Garlic Cloves


Place all ingredients in slow cooker and cook for 4-5 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.  For a freezer meal just place all ingredients in zip lock bag instead of the slow cookers.  Recipe also mentions the it can be baked in the oven for 1 hour at 350', covered.  Uncover for last 10 minutes.

It was easy to prepare, had all ingredients on hand and it was yummy.  Will be making again.

I love using my Wolfgang Puck Mini Versa Cooker for brown rice.  Makes the perfect amount for us and it is so easy.  

Please check out my other post will share more on this lil' cooker, it is just so great.    

Mexican Pork Chops

Mexican Pork Chops was a freezer meal that I had prepped in one of my earlier posts which I prepared this week for dinner.  The recipe was from the 30 Day Gourmet Website.  I had always had great luck with their recipes so I was really looking forward to this one.

I thawed out the package in the fridge:

Sprayed a baking dish with cooking spray and assembled the casserole.

The photos do look horrible, I have to work on my photography skills.

Baked in oven for an hour, removed foil and put the shredded cheese on and baked for another 15 minutes.

The meal smelled really good while it was cooking.

As I had mentioned I was really looking forward to tasting this meal and I have to admit I was disappointed.  Yes it did smell amazing, the pork chops were cooked nicely and the rice was not over done but the flavours just weren't right.  It wasn't inedible but I will not be making it again and for once do not recommend this recipe, which surprised me because I do love 30 Day Gourmet.

I do still have a couple more pork chop meals that I prepped that day and I am sure they will be good.  I will post about that soon.

Happy cooking!

Slow Cooker BBQ Beef Ribs. So delicious, just yummy!

Yesterday I was catching up quite bit on some freezer meals that I had been prepping lately and there is one that we had this weekend and it was so yummy.  I will be making this again, very soon.  It was fast, simple and easy to prep.  I got the recipe from the A Year of Slow Cooking Blog.  

I just thawed the package in the fridge.

 Poured all the contents in to my slow cooker set on low heat.

And a few hours later the ribs were ready.  I must admit that I did sneak a taste while I was waiting for the family to get home for dinner.  I couldn't resist, the smells were luring me in to the kitchen.

The ribs were very tender and juicy, just perfect.  Is a family favourite recipe now.  Can't wait to try the other beef rib meal I have in the freezer.

Try this recipe, you will be thanking me.  Enjoy!

BBQ Beef Ribs, easy, fast and cheap freezer meal

Recently my local wholesale store had Beef Ribs on sale for $1.99/lb.  I had never cooked with them before but the price was right.  Just looking around on the web I saw a couple of recipes that were easy and super simple.  Everything except the ribs I had on hand so I thought I would prep 2 meals and freeze the remaining ribs to try a different way.

Using these ingredients I had on hand:

 I bought 5 packs of these ribs:

The first recipe I prepped was fast as it do not require me to brown the ribs before hand.  The recipe for this recipe was from  The Simple Skillet.

The next recipe was still as fast but had to brown the ribs first.  Kind of like that I have prepped them two ways to see if the browning makes a difference, which we can almost say for certain that it will.  Of course the ribs smell delicious when they are browning in the oven which is a fast and clean way to brown them.

I got the recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking which is a really fun blog.

I did freeze the remaining two packs of ribs to try a different way.  In my Williams-Sonoma Grill Master Cookbook there is a recipe to smoke the ribs on a BBQ that I would like to try.

Will post the the recipe results soon, enjoy.