Category Archives: Recipes

Beef  Round Roast Recipe Slow Cooker

Sometimes weekday meal planning can be difficult but with a slow cooker recipe and a cut of beef round roast you can put together dinner fairly easy.

This easy to follow recipe requires little work and can be prepared in less than 15 minutes, however, depending on the size of the roast it may require up to 8 hours of cooking time in the pot.

Ingredients:

2-3 carrots
1 bell pepper
1/2 dozen large mushrooms (sliced)
1/4 onion sliced (optional)
3-4 cups beef broth

So, a little tip… if you do not have all of these ingredients try experimenting with some that you do have, just use your imagination, if it doesn’t work then next time you will know not to add particular ingredients.

Easy beef round roast recipe slow cooker style: With pictures provided below!

Directions:

veggie prep
After a thorough rinse, chop all of the vegetables.

veggies in slow cooker
Add the veggies to the empty slow cooker.

wash mushrooms
Wash the mushrooms, slice them with a chefs knife.

beef topped with mushrooms
Add the sliced mushroom to the pot with the other ingredients.

beef round in slow cooker
Place your cut of round roast on top of the other ingredients in the pan.

beef broth canned
Add 3-4 cups of beef broth (depending on how big your roast is) adding a little water helps if you need.

round roast in crockpot
Depending on big you round roast is cook on high or medium anywhere from 4-8 hours until tender and cooked thoroughly.

Once the meat is cooked you can remove and serve with the vegetables. Use the juices to make a nice gravy to serve your dinner with!

Quick Super Easy Pork Chop Dinner Recipe

Try this Flavorful Pork Chop Recipe that you can make super fast for a weeknight dinner. Cooking pork chops in a pan is a little harder to keep from overcooking, just keep an eye on the meat and be sure to take off when heated to an internal temperature of 145 degrees. How long to cook pork chops in skillet depends on how high you have the heat on your pan, try to stay at medium temperature.

Below is an easy step by step recipe in pictures for an asian influenced pork chop with a side of greens.

Main ingredients: Bone in pork chops and Turnip greens for the vegetable.

pork chops value pack
Boneless pork chops will not have as much flavor as the bone in but you can choose whichever cut is best for your family. I chose a value pack that had four cuts of meat two will be cooked and two will be set aside for the next days meal planning.

marinate pork chops asian style
Marinate for the bone in chops for 15 minutes in the following: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp white pepper, 1/2 tsp ginger powder, and a dash of garlic powder.

turnip greens
Next, Thoroughly wash the turnip greens

de stem turnip greens
Remove the leaves off of the turnip green stalks and set aside. Proceed to next step when you finish all of the leaves.

turnip greens chop
Form the turnip green vegetable into a “roll” and slice. The roll makes it a little easier to get all the green cut evenly and fast.
turnip green choppedgreen turnips washed
Once the vegetables are washed and sliced place them in a bowl and add some salt and pepper.

cooked greens
Add some olive oil to the hot pan and cook the turnip greens until tender. When cooked serve on to plate.

cook pro chops bone in pan
Next, cook the pork chops with some olive oil.
pan seared chops

east pan seared dinner plate
Serve and enjoy this super fast pan seared pork chop meal!

Save time and marinate the day before! As noted above I saved two cuts of the meat out of the value pack for the next days meal, this is what I did with them. I placed them in a zip top or zip lock bag. zip lock marinade I added about 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, honey and olive oil. I will let this marinate until the next day and use this time saving technique for a family meal!

Pumpkin bread recipe

We took a trip to the local arboretum for a fall pumpkin exhibit and found several recipes posted (including this pumpkin bread recipe) that used pumpkin as the main ingredient.

Pumpkin patch
The many varieties at the arboretum.

Making bread from scratch can be somewhat time consuming but around Christmas or during the holidays baking can be fun for the whole family, especially is you have guests coming into town.

recipe for pumpkin bread
Try this pumpkin bread recipe!

Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
1 cup oil
2/3 cup water
1 can pumpkin puree 15oz
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp nutmeg
2tsp baking soda
3cups flour

Directions:
Mix egg, water, oil, pumpkin. Add spices and flour mix well. Pour into loaf pan bake 350° for 50-60 minutes.

Enjoy!

Can you identify squash?

There are an unlimited amount of recipes that use squash or gourd for the main ingredient, the question is… Are you missing out on those delicious dishes because you cannot identify squash at the supermarket?

Chances are if you are not cooking with gourds – one of the healthiest and with longest lasting shelf life of the vegetables – its because you are having trouble identifying them at the market.

So I have for you three extensive charts that you can reference that will help you identify squash for cooking your favorite recipes!

gourd and squash identification chart
From left to right: Hyakunari, Sennari, Mini, Mini Pear, Banana, Mexican Bottle, Warty, Apple, Canon Ball, Basketball

long gourd identification chart
Peni Shield, Nagahyo/ Japanese Bottle Siphon, Long Handle Dipper, Short Handle Dipper, Snake Gourd,Extra Long Handle Dipper, Caveman Club, Maranka / Dolphin, Apache Dipper, Hercules Club, Long Gourd

bottle gourd identification chart
African Zulu, Chinese bottle, Water jug, Corsican flat, Canteen, Indonesian Bottle, Goose-neck /Lump-in-the-neck, African Wine Kettle, Zucca, Bushel Basket, Kettle, Large African Bushel

Easy butternut squash soup recipe

Below is a recipe that is perfect a cold winter night. This is for an easy butternut squash soup, step by step in pictures!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey
1 medium sized butternut squash
2 stalks green onion
1 bunch collard greens
3 cloves garlic
2-3 carrots
4-5 cups chicken, vegetable, or turkey broth
2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

How to make the soup step by step in images:

Cubed Butternut Squash
Cube the butternut

Wash, peel, and cut the med squash into cubes. The sizes can be determined by your personal preference.

carrots and onions
Chopped carrots green onion and garlic

Chop the carrots and onions along with 2-3 cloves of garlic and set aside.

collard greens
Sliced collards
cut collard greens
Wash and de-stem the collard greens then roll up and slice into strips.

Turkey meatballs
Turkey meatballs

Salt and pepper the ground turkey then roll the meat into smaller balls.

Chicken Broth
Chicken Broth

Set aside 4-5 cups chicken broth.

ingredients-prepped
Prepare and set aside all of your ingredients.

stir vegetables
Combine vegetables

With olive oil grease a 5 quart pot, when hot add carrots, garlic, and onion, and allow to sweat several minutes. Add turkey meat balls for a few minutes until browned. Add chicken broth salt pepper spices and remaining ingredients.

cooking-soup
Bring soup to boil then turn down heat and allow to simmer 15-20 minutes. Be sure turkey and vegetable are cooked.

turkey meat balls collard green soup
After cooking time serve the soup and enjoy!