Sunday Supper -- Meatloaf

I am a fan of Next Food Network Star and a few episodes ago when Mary Beth made meatloaf for the cast & crew of Cougar Town and it got rave reviews from Paula Dean, I knew that I just had to try it.

We had Mary Beth's meatloaf last Sunday and it was okay but not as good as what I was hoping it would be. I really am a fan of Paula Dean and have never been lead astray when she recommends a recipe but this one while it was good wasn't great. The glaze was sweet but there was no spice to it and it was a bit bland. We all agreed that we prefer our regualar meatloaf.


Knock-Your-Pants-Off Sweet & Spicy Glazed Buttermilk Meatloaf
By Mary Beth -- Next Food Network Star
Serves 6

Glaze:
1 cup ketchup
1 cup barbeque sauce
½ cup brown sugar

Meatloaf:
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1 cup whole-fat buttermilk
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup small-diced onion
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 ½ lbs. ground beef (85% lean-15% fat)
½ lb. ground pork
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground pepper

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan and place over low heat.

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until soft and translucent (try not to brown). Add parsley, basil, and tomato paste and cook for about a minute. Set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, combine Panko and buttermilk and set aside for 5 minutes. Then in a large bowl, place beef, pork, cheese, salt and pepper, the onion mixture, and the panko mixture. Mix with your hands until just combined.

On a rimmed baking pan, form the mixture into a loaf shape sitting in the center of the pan, with all four sides exposed.* Brush sides and top with some glaze, then bake for about 50 minutes, removing the pan every 10 minutes or so to brush on more glaze.

(At the end of baking, you will not have used all of the glaze mixture – just keep it in the saucepan on low and stir it every few minutes.)

Cool for 5 minutes, slice, and serve hot with leftover glaze as sauce.

***I did add in a bit of green & red bell pepper and diced mushrooms that we had in the fridge***

Fast Friday -- Drunken Pork Chops

I am not a beer drinker at all, I prefer a mixed drink or a nice glass of wine. E on the other hand does like beer and so much that he has now started brewing his own beer at home. I got him a beer kit for Christmas and he has made a few batches now (we have a 4th batch going now). That being said, when I saw this recipe that uses beer I thought that it might end up being a hit at our house.


Drunken Pork Chops
Adapted from: www.siggyspice.blogspot.com

5-6 pork chops- bone-in or boneless
Salt and pepper to taste
1 bottle of beer (I used Fat Tire)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup ketchup

Put a little bit of extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of a skillet. Season the chops with salt and pepper and brown both sides. While pork chops are browning, combine beer, ketchup, and brown sugar in a bowl. Pour sauce mixture over the pork chops and simmer for 40-45 minutes.

Remove pork chops and thicken the sauce a bit. In a small cup, combine 1 TBSP of cornstarch in 1/4 of water. Stir to combine and add to boiling sauce, whisk so no lumps form. Put pork chops back in the thickened sauce, flip to coat.

Serve over mashed potatoes or rice.

Slow Cooker Sunday -- Pineapple Green Chili Pork Tacos

I have had this recipe bookmarked for awhile now and finally decided to try it out. I saw it over at Let's Dish and it caught my attention for two reasons: 1) it is a slow cooker recipe and 2) it uses pork instead of beef. We use more beef that pork around here and it was nice to use something other than beef (or chicken).

Pineapple Green Chili Pork Tacos
Adapted from: http://www.letsdishrecipes.blogspot.com/

1 (2-3 pound) pork roast
1 (16 oz.) jar salsa verde
2 (8 oz.) cans crushed pineapple, undrained
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chiles
1/4 cup brown sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste
Flour tortillas
Favorite taco toppings

Place the pork roast in a lightly greased slow cooker. In a medium bowl, combine salsa verde, crushed pineapple, green chiles, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Pour over pork roast. cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove roast from crock pot and shred with a fork. Drain the juices from the crock pot through a colander. In a bowl, combine the shredded pork and drained pineapple/salsa mixture that remains in the colander. Serve in warm tortillas with your favorite taco toppings.

Our thoughts:
We liked this on tortillas but it was better how we had the leftovers. I had it for lunch over spanish rice & charro beans and that was good, then we put it on french bread with grilled onions and provolone cheese and it was really good. The pork is much better if you make sure to put the pineapple/chili mixture on it.

Asian Pork

We planned grilled pork chops this week and I wanted to jazz them up a bit and went through my Taste of Home magazines and found this receipe.

Asian Pork Tenderloin (chops)
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c soy sauce
2T lemon juice
2T sesame oil
2T worcestershire
4 cloves minced garlic
1T ground mustart (used dijon mustard)
1t ground pepper

Marinade in 1/2 of the marinade for at least 8 hours. Bake at 450 for 20-25 minutes and use the rest of marinade to baste.

What we did was marinade in all of it and then grilled them. I would probably marinade for longer than 8 hrs in the future to get more of the flavor into the middle of the pork.

Pork Chop Potato Bake

Here is what we are having for dinner tonight. It was easy to prepare and could even been done ahead of time and just pop into oven when you get home from work.

Pork Chop Potato Bake
weightwatchers.com
WW Points -- not sure


8 boneless pork chops
1 can FF cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup FF milk
1/2 cup light sour cream
20 oz Ore Ida Country Style Hashbrowns (I used a store brand)
1 cup shredded 2% cheddar cheese
4T dehydrated onion flakes (I omited these)
salt and pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray skillet with cooking spray. Season pork chops and brown (I used a cajun seasoning). Drain on papper towels (if needed).

In a large bowl, combine soup, milk, sour cream, salt and pepper. Stire in potatoes, cheese and onion flakes. Spread in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Arrange pork chops over mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Removel foil and bake 5 minutes more.


I have linked up to:

Easy Ranch Pork Chops in the Slow Cooker

I love my slow cooker and try to use it at least once a week. Here is an easy pork chop recipe that we tried out on Sunday. It wasn't anything exciting but it was simple, had the ingredients in the pantry and the pork was super tender.

2-4 pork chops
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 can of cream of chicken soup

Mix ranch and soup and pour over pork chops in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours.

We served them with mashed potatoes, brocolli for the boys and zucchini for me. No leftovers at all and Grant even liked the pork chops.