Pulled Pork Sandwiches

My carnivorous boyfriend, Jon, has been in town for a few days, so it was only right that I strayed from my typical veggie recipes and whipped up something a little more meaty than I would typically go for. A good compromise? Pulled pork sandwiches - so delicious, I think they could possibly convert a real vegetarian.

What you need:

• Pork shoulder cut, thawed - we made do with a 2.3 pound pork sirloin cut (the best time to grocery shop is certainly not late Sunday afternoon... not too much left to choose from!)
• Salt and pepper to season
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4-5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 to 1 cup water (depending on how large your slow cooker is)
• 1 white onion, cut into half moons
• 1 12-oz bottle Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (we used about 2/3 of the bottle, use as much or as little as you would prefer)

How to cook this bad boy:

1. Season the pork with salt, pepper, and 2 cloves garlic.
2. Heat a large saucepan on high, add olive oil, then brown pork on all sides.
3. Get the slow cooker ready. Add water and half of the onions. Then, add the pork, topping off with remainder of onions and last clove of garlic. Heat on low for 6 hours, or until pork separates at the light touch of a fork.
4. Put a colander inside a large pot or bowl, strain pork, and keep juice that sieves into pot. Put pork back into slow cooker and 1/4 cup of juices. Add BBQ sauce to desired taste. Allow pork mixture to cook on low heat in the slow cooker for about 15 minutes.

Pork, water, garlic, and onions in slow cooker.

When the pork is done, it should fall apart at the light touch of a fork.

Served on toasted Hawaiian sweet rolls with melted cheddar cheese and topped with onion strings. Our sides included homemade cornbread, Bush's Best Grillin' Beans, and Red Stripe lager. The best part of this meal? Coming home after an afternoon out and smelling the delicious slow cooked pork from the lobby of our apartment building! YUM.

Our homemade cornbread ended up with a smiley face!

The delicious dinner spread.

Summer Chicken and Veggie Salad

It has been brutally hot here in DC, as in most of the East coast. In this heat, I try to avoid the oven at all costs, since we're practically living in an oven at the moment. Tonight's solution? A summer chicken and veggie salad, which was gloriously refreshing, and absolutely filling.

This super easy salad contains:

• Grilled chicken (marinated in Italian dressing for about an hour prior to grilling)
• Spring mix salad greens
• Avocado, cubed
• Tomato
• Orange and red peppers
• Red onion
• Feta cheese
• Walnuts
• Craisins

Layer it all, as shown in the top picture, so you can scoop straight down when serving and get all the goodies at once.  Top it off with Ken's Lite Honey Mustard dressing. Served with grilled asparagus (made with garlic and oil) and grilled corn on the cob (made with butter and salt & pepper).

Penne a la Vodka

This is a favorite go-to recipe of mine. It's super easy, but tastes amazing, so your dinner guests will think that you are a kitchen master (or at least that's what I like to think mine believe...).

What you will need (serves 4):

• 1 pound penne pasta
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup vodka
• 2 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon dried basil, or 3 to 5 fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1 pinch of red pepper flakes

Instructions for cooking:

Pour olive oil into a large saucepan and heat on medium-low. Sauté diced onions until they are clear in color, then add in minced garlic and heat for 2-3 minutes. Add vodka and raise heat to medium-high, cook for 5 minutes. While the onions and garlic are cooking in the vodka, begin to boil a pot of water for the penne pasta. When water is boiling, add pasta and cook according to the instructions on the box. 

Lower heat to medium and add tomato sauce, cook for 5 minutes. Add heavy cream and cook for another 5 minutes. Then lower heat to medium-low, stir in basil and red pepper flakes, and let the sauce mixture heat for 10-15 minutes to allow it to thicken, stirring occasionally. 

Drain pasta and stir into sauce mixture, or serve sauce over pasta. Serve with Pepperidge Farm Five Cheese garlic bread. Enjoy!

What's in that lunchbox?

Every night, Sunday through Thursday, I endure that torturous activity of packing my lunch for the next day of work. It is such a chore, and so irritating to do, but if I don't do it right, I can be very cranky at work the next day! This post is a peek into what I have in store for lunch tomorrow...

From left to right -

• Greek Gods Honey Yogurt with fresh raspberries, fresh blueberries, and Bakery on Main Triple Berry Fiber Power Granola. Adding the fresh fruit gives a plain, vanilla, or honey flavored yogurt extra pizzazz, and the granola changes the texture just enough to make lunch at work a bit more exciting.
• Harris Teeter brand Carmelized Onion Hummus and thin pretzels. I almost always include this combination in my lunchbox. I switch up the hummus flavors just about weekly (sometimes it depends on what's in stock, what's on sale, or just plain what I'm in the mood for).
• Gala apple. They say one a day keeps the doctor away, so it must be true... right?
• Clif Kid Zbar: S'mores. I am absolutely obsessed with these. They're smaller than regular Clif Bars, but still pack a great amount of taste in a small package. The S'mores flavor is just the right amounts of sweetness, chocolate-ness, and delicious-ness. This is another one of my daily lunch menu items, and I like to have it last for an extra burst of energy before I head back to the grind for a few hours.
• Lemonade and seltzer in a 9 oz Lifefactory glass water bottle. So what if this size Lifefactory bottle was designed with toddlers in mind? I think this is the greatest lunch accessory ever... and it helps me save a ton in juice bottles, seltzer cans, and whatever else I was sticking in my lunchbox before this amazing purchase a couple months ago. My roommate Ashley introduced Lifefactory glass water bottles to Julianne (our other roommate) and I last year when we were still living the great college life. Needless to say, I thought the idea was 100% crazy at first. I mean, I drop practically everything that I hold, I trip over things that normal functioning people manage to avoid effortlessly, and I find more mystery bruises on myself from bumping into who knows what than I care to admit. So clearly glass water bottles are not at all appropriate for someone of my level of klutziness, right? Wrong. The silicone sleeve on this bad boy has protected this water bottle (and my reliable, adult-sized 22 oz water bottle) from all my clumsy endeavors. Brick, marble, wood, tile, and concrete have yet to take a toll on either of my water bottles, so it's safe to say that they will continue to join me at work for some time to come. No BPA here!

Here's to hoping all of you have some great lunches in store for the rest of the work week! Only 4 days left until Friday!

Veggie Pizza

When I am back at home in New York, my boyfriend and I really enjoy making homemade pizza together, and we always get our dough from the local pizza place. When I moved to DC, I realized I was going to have to find another way to get my pizza dough, since I'm sure Jumbo Slice wouldn't be able to cater to my needs. Back in college, my roommate Julianne was extraordinary at creating pizza masterpieces with a batch of Stop & Shop pizza dough, so my DC roommate Danielle and I traveled to our local grocery store, but were unable to find any pizza dough. Thankfully, I had another great college roommate - Ashley - to help me, and her fiance had the PERFECT recipe for homemade pizza dough! Easy to make, and absolutely delicious, this recipe makes for 3 servings of pizza dough, which you can easily store in your freezer to use at your leisure! I like to make the dough on a Sunday afternoon when I have about 15 minutes spare time.

To make the dough, you will need:

• 5 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 packet of yeast (about 2 tablespoons)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 3/4 cups room temperature water

What to do for the dough:

Incorporate all the ingredients into a large bowl and let it rest for 5 minutes. Then, knead the dough for about five minutes until it develops a fluffy, dough-like consistency. If you feel that your dough is too damp and sticky, add bread flour by the tablespoon until you get the consistency you are looking for. 

Then, oil up 3 zip-lock sandwich bags, separate the dough into 3 equal-sized sections, and put each section into its own bag. You can throw them all into the freezer if you aren't making pizza until later on in the week. If you plan on using one that day, just put it in the fridge for 3-5 hours. Take the dough out of the bag and place it in a bowl on your counter for 45 minutes prior to cooking so that it can rise.

Now... the fun part - putting together the actual pizza!! Clean off an area of counter space and wipe it clean to use for rolling out the dough. Spread a thin layer of all-purpose flour over your work area. Add another thin layer of flour to whatever you will be cooking your pizza on (pizza stone or baking sheet). This will prevent the pizza from sticking to the pan.

What you will need:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup tomato sauce (this amount can vary depending on personal preferences)
• 1 clove garlic
• Dry Italian seasoning herbs (choose depending on personal preferences)
• 1 bag shredded mozzarella cheese (or more if you like cheesy pizza!)
• Vegetables and other toppings of your choice

Preheat oven to 425°F. Now place your pizza dough on the counter and spread it out with your fingertips until it is the shape you desire. Then, place it onto the stone or pan. I like to have the dough drape over the edges a bit so I can stuff the crust with cheese. If you choose to do this - sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese on the surface of the dough, along the edge of the cooking surface. Then fold the dough over so that it covers the cheese, sealing it onto the rest of the dough by pressing the prongs of a fork onto the dough. Top it off by sprinkling a thin layer of garlic powder over the crust.

Once the dough is situated on the cooking surface, spread a thin layer of olive oil on top of the dough. Sprinkle some minced garlic and seasoning herbs atop the olive oil, spread some tomato sauce on, toss a good amount of mozzarella cheese all over the surface, and you are ready to add toppings!

Toppings are entirely up to the chef. For this meal, I chose to use chopped red onion, fresh spinach, tomatoes, chopped yellow peppers, and fresh parsley sprigs. You can add mushrooms, meats, clams... anything really!

Once you're all set with the toppings, transfer the pizza to the oven for approximately 12-15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden. Two minutes before the pizza is ready to be taken out of the oven, transfer it to the bottom shelf of the oven so that it gets a nice, crispy crust. After taking the pizza out, let cool for 5 minutes prior to slicing. Once it is cooled, divide it up in slices and you're ready to eat!

Portobello mushroom burgers and sweet potato fries

This is one of those recipes I've been using ever since the good old college days (when I would mostly rely on my roommates to do the cooking... I've grown a lot since then!). I've made a couple individual variations since then, and this recipe is so easy to manipulate to suit your feeding mood. It's a really fantastic vegetarian option to burgers - and my super carnivorous boyfriend also enjoys it so it's a hit for meat eaters as well!

This recipe makes 4 servings and requires portobello mushrooms, balsamic vinegar, pepper, garlic, red onion, avocado, and tomatoes.

Start off by rinsing 4 mushrooms - If I am making these on a weekday, I like to rinse them off the night before, cover them, and throw them in the fridge, that way I have less to do during the hustle and bustle of getting ready for work. After rinsing, make a marinade of balsamic vinegar, pepper, and garlic. Use enough balsamic vinegar to coat the mushrooms evenly (this amount may vary depending on the size of your mushrooms). Add pepper to taste, and mince up a clove of garlic to add to the mushroom mixture. Cover, and let marinate for at least a few hours prior to cooking (I have them marinating prior to leaving for work in the morning, but if you will be around for the day, you can start marinating around mid-afternoon).

After you have successfully marinated your mushrooms, fire up that grill! While the grill is heating up, start slicing up the red onion, avocado, and tomatoes for your burger toppings.

Once the grill is nice and toasty, stick the mushrooms on, top-side down first, for approximately 6-8 minutes on each side, or until the mushrooms are tender. I like to stick the buns on the grill for a couple minutes as well. After the grill items are ready, get your plates and add whatever toppings you choose! Other tasty options not shown can include shredded mozzarella cheese, bruschetta, spinach, or roasted red pepper (really, anything you like can go atop the mushrooms). Make sure the buns are fairly large, or else it can turn into a messy meal!

Bon appétit! Served with Sweet Potato Julienne Fries and Shlafly Brand Kölsch beer. Homemade sweet potato fries dipping sauce is a combination of 2 parts mayo and 1 part honey. Delicious!

Balsamic bruschetta chicken

This recipe was a Pinterest find, originally from Budget Bytes. I'm looking forward to finding more recipes from this site because, as it name implies, it provides recipes for cost-efficient meals! The balsamic bruschetta chicken comes to a grand total of $6.75 for 4 servings, and a lot of the ingredients were items that were already stockpiled in the fridge.

The recipe calls for chicken breasts, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, minced garlic, salt & pepper, roma tomatoes, sweet onion, and shredded mozzarella (which we thought about substituting with fresh mozzarella, but Harris Teeter was out of it, so hopefully next time we can try it with that). We were only feeding two with this meal, so we used one chicken breast instead of two, but kept the rest of the ingredient sizes the same - resulting in juicy, delicious chicken, and extra bruschetta to dip garlic bread into. This recipe calls for the chicken to go in the broiler for 5-10 minutes, but I suggest keeping an eye on it so you can pull it out as soon as the cheese melts (we have a smaller-than-normal oven, so our broiler got super hot and our cheese melted in about a minute).

The bruschetta chicken was delicious, and so quick to make! It took us about 25-30 minutes, including prep work. Served with garlic bread, extra bruschetta, and sweet red wine. Next time, I would like to include rice or broccoli on the side to round it out a little more.

Cauliflower and clams in parsley broth

As a native Long Islander, one of my favorite food groups has always been the seafood group - so much potential for absolute deliciousness there! But when I transplanted myself into DC back in February, I realized I was at a loss as to where to purchase any fresh seafood. Thankfully, I have a fabulous cousin who lives in DC and is far more knowledgable about these things than I am and steered me in the right direction - the Maine Avenue Seafood Market at the SW Waterfront! Armed with this new knowledge, I searched Pinterest and my favorite recipe websites for a fun and easy fresh seafood recipe. Well, thank goodness for Clean Eating Magazine, because they introduced me to a fantastic recipe for cauliflower and clams in parsley broth!

Every Sunday before grocery shopping, my roommate and I plan out our dinner meals for the week so we can try our best not to overspend (it's been working so I recommend this strategy to any young professionals on a budget!). We decided to stick this item in the Saturday night slot so we could have ample time to head out to the fresh fish market. Unfortunately, I was stuck at work on Saturday (the patients still need their therapy on the weekends!) but my resourceful roommate embraced the beautiful DC weather and biked her way over to the market. She got us 2 dozen clams for $12 from Captain White's.

Clean Eating Magazine is probably my favorite go to website for new recipes - they always call for fresh, clean ingredients and are usually easy to make. This recipe only required olive oil, shallots, garlic, cauliflower, chicken broth, parsley, salt and pepper, and, of course clams. For dinner, my roommate and I served our clams over whole wheat spaghetti. The whole process took about 30 minutes to make, but according to the reviews on the recipe website, it can be done in just 20 minutes! Paired with a glass of Merlot and a sunny evening on the back deck, this dinner made for a good way to end the work week, and begin my (one day long) weekend!