BBQ Pork, Handcut Fries, and Fried Apples

I love cooking and baking!  My husband and I don't go out to eat much.  It's too expensive.  For $20 or $30 we can get a ton of groceries and make several meals instead of just one.  Yeah sometimes we get a pizza or Chinese food but those times are mainly for a special occasion or when we are way too lazy to make something.

Yesterday for dinner we had BBQ Pulled Pork.  I marinated it in the fridge in my crock pot on Monday night with some Amish apple butter BBQ sauce.  I also sprinkled some black pepper, red pepper flakes, and parsley flakes onto the pork.  I got the jar of sauce for FREE from Nate's Amish Half Marathon in Ohio.

Yesterday morning before running errands I put the crock pot together.  I added some water to the pot till it just covered the pork and let the pork cook on high for 8 hours.  After 8 hours I then turned the crock pot down to low.  Throughout the day I checked on the pork and turned it over in the crock.  (The pork was $6 with a $2 off coupon.  $4!  We got dinner and lunch leftovers with it.)

I made my Grandma Runyon's fried apples to go with the pork.

I sliced up 1 honey crisp apple.  To my pot on stove, I added some unsalted butter and brown sugar till it melted.  I then added a squeeze of lime juice (I didn't have lemon), cinnamon, nutmeg, homemade vanilla extract, apple slices and corn starch.  I let it cook on medium until it got thick and bubbly and then turned down to low until we were ready to eat.  The apples went really well with the pulled pork and fries.  Sooooo good.  :)  (paid 5.99 for a bag of 9 honey crisp apples)

I also made some handcut fries.  I just sliced up some gold potatoes and added them to a pan.  I added some olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes and parsley flakes.  They are a little spicy but I like spice on my fries.  (2 lb bag of potatoes 2.99, used 4, I can get 4 to 5 meals out of the potatoes)

So delicious and cheap!  :)  Yeah you gotta cook it but it's so worth it.

2015 Garden Update- #11

I did a garden update yesterday but I am doing another today.  When I watered the plant babies this morning I decided to do some rearranging as well.

Before:

After:

I moved all the peas together.  The first 4 pots are all peas.  Sugar and Alaskan.  Then the green beans, zucchini and squash plants.

I still don't have any flower sprouts.

No eggplant either.  Here's tomatoes, carrots and broccoli.

My aloe plant is still going strong.  It sits on top of my baking cabinet in the kitchen.  I got him a year ago in April.  Read about it here.

I water the aloe plant when I remember to.  It's such an easy plant and doesn't crave attention.

I need to repot it.  One day.....  :)

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

I made Banana Oatmeal Breakfast cookies yesterday.  Today, I made Banana Oatmeal Breakfast bars.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

You will need:

2 cups rolled oats

4 ripe bananas

homemade vanilla extract (optional)

cinnamon (optional)

craisins, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, dried cherries (optional)

peanut butter, honey or melted chocolate for top (optional)

Mash bananas and mix with rolled oats until combined.  Mix in some vanilla extract and cinnamon until mixed in.  Just eyeball it.  You may also mix in some other items if you want like craisins, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips or dried cherries.  Make it your own and experiment with them. 

Scoop dough onto a pam sprayed cookie sheet.  I shaped the dough into bar shapes with my hands.  

I was able to make 8 bars exactly.  You can make them however big or small that you'd like.  

They will not spread.  They will stay the shape you make them.  :)

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes and then move to a cooling rack to cool.

You can eat them plain.

Or drizzle some peanut butter, honey or even melted chocolate chips on top.

Cut in half

Yummy

I ate one bar as a snack.  I wrapped the others in wax paper and taped shut shut.  I did not add anything to the top of these.  I left them all plain.  I might add some melted chocolate chips next time.  We'll see.  They are good plain too.

They are ready to grab and go.  A nice healthy snack or breakfast on the go.

I placed the wrapped bars on my baking cabinet with our fruits and aloe plant.  :)

Yes, we like apples and bananas.  :)

Hard Boiled Egg Spoon Trick

My BFF, sent me a text last week with a link to peel hard boiled eggs with a spoon.  Yes, a spoon!

Watch the video below.

  

Pretty genius right?  I figured I would try it next time I made hard boiled eggs.

I made some hard boiled eggs this morning to have as snacks for the week.  My husband is on stay-cation this week and I took off 3 days so I wanted to make the eggs so we had them.  :)

I boiled the eggs, let them sit for 10 minutes and then gave them an ice bath.

I cracked an egg.

I took a spoon and peeled the shell away.  It works!!!! OMG so cool.  I was really careful at first because I was afraid that I would pierce the egg but I didn't.  YAY

Look how awesome.  I am doing this from now on.  My husband saw me doing this and said "hey that's really smart".  :)

Perfectly peeled eggs with a spoon.

New Things Monday

I like to try new things and give my opinion on how I liked the product.  

I saw on target cartwheel a deal to save on Earth's Best chicken nuggets.  They were also on sale.  Win win!  :)  I was looking for something to take to work for lunches so when I saw these I figured these would work.  Who cares that they are for kids.  They are just chicken nuggets.  They are whole grain and gluten free.  And they are better for you than eating nuggets at a fast food place.

I cooked the nuggets in the microwave.  They were okay.  They are probably better in the oven.  

I took them to work on several occasions and even had some at home for lunch.  My husband just finished off the rest for lunch the other day while he was home.  He ate them but he didn't love them.  I would probably buy them again because they are an easy and quick lunch.

(Picture taken from google images)

2015 Garden Update- #10

My happy little garden.  I took this picture on Friday morning.  I also took the yellow leaves off the green bean plant.  It seems to be doing better now.  :)

I have more peas growing.  Still no marigolds or sunflowers yet.  I hope they pop up soon.

I am excited to start growing some sweet potatoes.  A blog I read just posted "It's sweet potato time" and it makes me smile.  Spring is just 12 days away.  YAY!  I can't wait to go to the Farmers market or spend time outside in my garden.  And of course get my greenhouse built.  Come on SPRING!!  :)

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

A few weeks ago I saw on facebook a recipe for an easy banana oatmeal cookie.  I don't remember where on fbk is was posted but I did take a picture.

I'm changing the name to "Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies" because that's what they are.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

You will need:

1 cup rolled oats

2 ripe bananas

homemade vanilla extract (optional)

cinnamon (optional)

peanut butter or honey (optional)

Mash bananas and mix with rolled oats until combined.  Mix in some vanilla extract and cinnamon until mixed in.

Scoop cookies onto a pam sprayed cookie sheet.  I got 12 cookies exactly.  I pressed the balls down a little bit because I figured they wouldn't spread while baking.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes and move to a plate to cool.

Perfection

I tried a warm cookie.  I broke it in half.  I tried plain and I liked it.

I also added a few with some Amish Peanut Butter.  These are really good.  Nate loved them too.  You could add whatever nut butters or even honey if you want to the top of them.

They are the perfect grab n' go breakfast.  You could bake these into bar shapes too if you don't want rounds.  They don't spread while baking so you can shape them however you'd like.  I would recommend doubling the batch if you make bars.  I will try this next time.

Sycamore Tree

I learned something new today.  Well actually a couple things.  

I have this tree behind my shed in my backyard.  I didn't know what type of tree it was.  There are these strange balls hanging from the tree that I don't know what they are.

I managed to pull a ball down and hang it on a limb.  The stem on the ball is like a silky string that's attached to the ball.

I didn't know what was inside.  Is is a seed pod or is it some sort of cocoon for an insect?

I smashed one of the balls to see what was in side.  It's little seeds!!!  Fascinating....at least to me.  :)

I did some research once I came back inside.  I found this blog.  I learned that the tree is a sycamore tree.  The sycamore is a native to the eastern part of the US and can live up to 250 years.  The fluffy balls are indeed seed pods and stand out in the winter when the leaves have fallen off the tree.  The tree flowers in March.  I love learning about my trees and plants in my yard.  :)