Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Pork Stew-Simple Delicious!

Sometimes when I just make a meal "off the top of my head", it comes out the best. Monday was my birthday. I had taken out boneless pork ribs for dinner but my husband decided to take us out to dinner. We don't go out too much anymore, so that was a big treat. The meal was great!

I put the pork ribs in the refrigerator for last night. It was cold last night, so instead of pork ribs, I cubed them up for a stew.

Here's what I did:

Cut up about 1.5 lbs of pork into cubes and saute in a little oil
Add 1 chopped onion, 2 ribs of chopped celery, 2 chopped carrots (I did not have carrots but if I did, I would have added them) and 3 cloves of minced garlic.
Saute for a few minutes.
Add a splash of wine (1 cup), water and a few bay leaves
Cover and simmer for a few hours.
About 30 minutes before it is done, add 1 cup of cubed butternut squash (I used some frozen leftovers) and 3 medium cubed potatoes.
Simmer until the potatoes are tender.

I also served this with some dumplings that took about 20 minutes to cook in the stew. I just use the dumpling recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook.

This was delicious! It tastes even better for leftovers the next day for lunch. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Easy Skillet Meal

One of my favorite things for dinner is to just open up the freezer and pantry and see what happens. Last night I took out some boneless chicken thighs to defrost. I had no idea what I would make with them but I figured I could make something my family would enjoy.

At 3:45 pm, I realized that my daughter had to leave at 4:30 to work with some friends on a project. I wanted to make sure we had dinner before she headed out the door. This is a little earlier than we normally eat but it was Saturday, so we did not have to keep to any schedule.

Here's what I came up with:

1 lb boneless chicken (I used boneless chicken thighs)
1 can of diced tomatoes with juice (14.5 ounce or more)
1 onion, diced
1 cup or more green beans (I used frozen)
3 minced garlic cloves
splash of olive oil
1/2 cup wine (I used white because that's what I had)
1 packet of Goya Sazon (I use the one with Annatto)
fresh ground pepper
2 cups cooked rice (white or brown whichever you have)

Dice chicken and saute with onions and olive oil until no longer pink. Add minced garlic, Goya packet and can of tomatoes with juice. Bring to a simmer and then add wine, green beans and ground pepper to taste. Simmer and serve over rice.

My husband and I loved it! My picky eaters thought it was OK. I did not have it over rice, I ate mine like a soup. Simply delicious! It only took me about 20 minutes, start to finish. I hope you enjoy it!