Basil and Peach Pork Chops

I have a new found love for the combination of peaches and fresh basil. It started by subbing peaches for tomatoes in a caprese salad before all the peaches I had on my counter began to rot. It was truly one of the best things I've ever thrown together to see what might happen in the kitchen.  And now I don't want to eat anything peaches without some fresh basil.

We have been getting a lot of pork from our meat share at 1st Generation Farms and I am thrilled to have found a new summer goto recipe for them since my previous pork goto included a crock pot and sauerkraut and typically tasted best with a side of Sunday afternoon football. Add in the fact that I used the peaches and basil from my CSA and I feel like a true locavore, supporting local farms and eating fresh and in season. It makes my heart sing.

So I've done cooked down peaches over pork before and it's pretty complimentary. BUT this time I added some basil and it took it to the next level. Not to toot my own horn but *toot toot* this may have been one of the best dinners I ever made.  So far I've made it twice. Once with the bourbon butter sauce and once with some Paleo substitutions to make it compliant for my Whole 30.

The substitutions didn't really alter the awesomeness of this recipe, even if saying a bourbon butter sauce makes it sound so much tastier. (Because it does. I've gone over it in my head and will always want to choose the one with the bourbon and butter sauce.) Truth be told,  it wasn't as sweet (skipped adding a little maple syrup) and it didn't have quite the depth of flavor from the bourbon but it was still summery and glorious. I subbed ghee in for the butter so there was still a buttery sauce even if ghee doesn't sound quite as delicious and buttery as butter. But really WHY HAVE I NOT BEEN TOLD ABOUT THE GLORIOUSNESS OF GHEE AS A COOKING FAT BEFORE NOW. Or why have I not paid attention. Because it rocks my socks.

I am going to post both variations below.


Happy Eats!


Peach & Basil Pork Chops

• 4 bone in pork chops (or whatever you have on hand)
• salt & pepper - to taste
• dried basil - to taste
• 1 to 2 teaspoons ghee (or other cooking fat)

• 1/2 small onion, diced*
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 fresh peaches, sliced
• 1/2 cup homemade chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons pure maple syrup**
• a handful of fresh basil, cut into long thin strips (chiffonade)
• 2 TBS bourbon**
• 2 TBS grass fed butter (or ghee)

Sprinkle pork with salt, pepper and dried basil.

Add 1-2 teaspoons ghee to a large skillet. Add pork to skillet and cook until browned on both sides. About 3 minutes each side.

Remove from pan and keep warm.

Add onion and garlic. Saute until onion begins to become translucent. Add peaches and broth and maple syrup. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally for another 3-5 minutes. I like to make sure the peaches are getting good and cooked down. Add bourbon, ghee and fresh basil. Cook for 5 minutes until sauce looks like it is beginning to thicken.

Pour on top of pork chops and garnish with more fresh basil if desired.

Enjoy and marvel at the healthy, fancy pants dinner you just made.

xoxo


*I think green onion or glamming it up with some shallots here would be amazing but I only had a small yellow onion on hand. It is what it is.

**skip for 21 Day Fix or Paleo/Whole 30 (trust me it's still good)
** sub apple cider vinegar for 21 Day Fix or Paleo/Whole 30

21 Day Fix Containers:
1 red
1 purple
2 Teaspoons

Summer in a Burger (Cilantro Lime Turkey Burgers with Asian Pear Slaw)

The sun is shining and the temps are slowly creeping closer to summer weather. Ummm...Yay! This is the type of weather that makes me want to head outside. I want to eat outside, drink on patios and grill things. The type of food I want to eat also changes like crazy. Suddenly I want food that tastes light and bright and citrusy. I want to drink caipirinhas and lay by a pool. If lime is part of the recipe, it is something I want to eat. Fish tacos, guac, salad dressing, burgers, adult beverages. If it is cilantro and lime flavored anything it is pretty much a guarantee it is going to make my menu.

I have been working out with weights again (hello Les Mills Pump) and this program is awesome. It is fun. The music is upbeat and motivating. It is leaving me crazy sore. (I totally understand why this is a craze in gyms. Doing it live would be kind of amazing.) But every time I add a lot of weight training to my routine, I find myself craving meat. And for someone who can typically go weeks without meat, this is not only something I find kind of strange but also a struggle. Since I don't cook a lot of meat (and chicken still makes me gag) I am usually up, searching the internet for yummy recipes that will satisfy my jonesing for meat and not leave me feeling like I have a brick in my stomach. (I just have food issues. Seriously. I am kind of a mess.)

This lovely little burger not only satisfied my meat craving but also gave me a bite of summer flavor that made me so happy. (Well as happy as I could be sans sunshine and pool. This just screams let's grill out by the pool and float our way to happiness after we eat. Is that anyone else's idea of bliss or just mine?)

Anyway....they turned out awesome. Lots of flavor in these little babies and I even had to cook them in a pan (as we are in an upstairs apartment with zero outdoor space for this job and sans grill). I love using fresh herbs so I used fresh cilantro in this recipe. I put a big handful of it in the mini chopper (I have no patience for dicing and slicing fresh herbs....as much as I love them this makes me crazy.) and added them to the ground turkey along with everything else. I mixed it all up with my hands (gross!) The juice made them a little wet but the stayed together great and it is so worth it for the yummy summer flavor.

Here is what I did:


Asian Pear Slaw

1 bag pre chopped coleslaw mix (or 1 small head of cabbage chopped)
1 asian pear cored and julienned

Dressing:

3/4 cup good quality olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons honey (I used raw honey)
1 teaspoon salt

Place all dressing ingredients in a blender and blend (or in a small bowl and whisk until honey is dissolved.)  Pour over coleslaw mix. You can serve immediately or chill to allow the flavors to mingle. I add the pear right before serving so it doesn't get soggy.

I am also thinking next time about adding some fresh ginger and maybe some slivered almonds for some crunch.


For the Burger:

1 lb ground turkey
bunch of fresh cilantro
juice of one lime
1/4 of a sweet onion- diced (but a red onion might be yummy too!)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Place ground turkey in a large bowl.

Add all the other ingredients and mix well.

Shape into 4 burger patties.

Grill, broil or cook in a pan until no longer pink inside.

(I  used just enough coconut oil to coat the pan. Heat the oil on medium high and then add the burgers. Cook for 5-7 minutes on each side - or until cooked through.)

We ate them topped with avocado and asian pear slaw but you can easily add your favorite condiments and burger buns.

My three year old proclaimed it the best dinner ever so there was that. She cleaned her plate (which these days is a rarity.) Needless to say I will be making these often, at least until she decides she hates them....which could be any minute now.

Happy eating!



21 Day Fix container equivalents:

1 red
1 green
1/4 purple
1 teaspoon
1 blue (if using avocado)

A Bowl Full of Green (And this green bowl of pasta and veggies was awesome!)

If I told you I found a recipe that was super easy, yummy and healthy (also vegan and with the potential to be even gluten free -- if that's your jam--) who would call this girl a liar? Yeah, I would too. So I was super psyched when I tried a recipe buried in Chloe Coscarelli's cookbook. She is pretty much a kick a$$ vegan chef whose food is always amazing but not always clean.

I found this recipe and was shocked I never paid it much attention -- probably because it didn't have a picture, let's be honest here. I tend to cook things that have nice pictures. It's what I do (don't judge me.) Recipes sans picture tend to get overlooked and never cooked. But as I was flipping through Chloe's Kitchen looking something easy I could have prepped and ready to go for my dear friend who offered to stay at my house and watch my child and my dogs for a weekend, I stumbled upon this recipe.

So I bought a giant tub of baby spinach, busted out my food processor and made three goes of the sauce (and froze two of them for later.) All she had to do was boil noodles and add some veggies to the same pot for the last few minutes of cooking and add the pre-made spinach pesto. I also just had her use a whole bag of frozen green beans that were already cut into small pieces and the entire bag of frozen lima beans. I figured the more veggies the better. Bulking up a pasta dish with veggies is a super easy calorie saver.

And the entire thing takes maybe 20 minutes. Quicker if your pesto is pre-made. Easy-peasy.

So here is the actual recipe:

1 lb of whole wheat pasta*
4 oz frozen green beans, cut into bite size pieces (about 1 inch)
10 oz frozen lima beans

5 oz fresh baby spinach
3 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Cook pasta according to package directions but with 5-3 minutes left on cook time add green beans and lima beans to the water. (Vary based on how crunch you like your veggies. I lean toward less time in the water and crunch veggies.) Let cook until veggies are tender and pasta is ready. Drain.

For the sauce, combine spinach, garlic, olive oil, water, lemon juice, salt and pepper. (I skipped the salt and pepper in the sauce just because I tend to like to add it to taste. After having it once I would go ahead and add both right into the sauce.) Pulse until combined.

Put the cooked pasta and veggies into a bowl and toss with the sauce.

And you have your bowl of amazing green goodness.


*the original recipe called for oreccheitte pasta -- I used spirals because I like how they grip the pesto.

**If you aren't looking to make this vegan, a little bit of fresh grated parmesan on top is yummy! I have to watch my dairy intake so depending on how my week has been, I skip this or add it. 

Enjoy!

Gooey, Yummy Orange Sauce (the way Chinese food is supposed to be sauced)

I love Chinese food. So much. But since being exiled to to the Pacific Northwest, I have found that there aren't any crazy good places to get Chinese food out here. So I started googling and Pinterest-ing (is that a verb yet?) and have tried scads of stir fry and other supposed "takeout fakeout" recipes. Nothing has come close to even touching my Chinese food want. The sauces are too runny and thin or they have a blah flavor or they call for way too much spice (probably to mask the fact that there is no real flavor in there in the first place.)

Well I have a huge announcement because I have found a sauce that makes me jump up in down in happy circles (or maybe hum to my food while I eat it and chair dance.) And it was toddler approved, which is a big deal in this house these days.

What I like about this recipe is that it is for a sauce. It is super quick and easy and I can throw in there anything I want. This time it was with a bag of frozen veggie stir fry plus some extra peas for B and whatever veggies I had in the fridge that needed eating (or tossing soon!) I was due for some seafood so I cooked up some shrimp for in there too (easily swapped with chicken, beef or tofu.) Then I threw it all over some brown rice. Done. Dinner in 20 minutes or less. My kind of cooking.

So the origin of this recipe was an article on Yahoo Voice by Natalie Ivette. I made some changes to clean it up and it was awesome. It got thick and yummy and made everything kind of goo together in the best possible way. For the juices, I squeezed my own. There wasn't a ton of juice called for an it only took a few minutes. The recipe called for brown sugar and I subbed honey.  I also used the soy sauce. I have read conflicting things about soy sauce. Some say it's not clean. Some say it is okay in small amounts. Again I use it probably less than once a week so I'm not going to sweat it. If it was something I used all the time, I would be more concerned. I did read the labels and try to find one without scary ingredients. (The one I found had six ingredients and they were all things I could recognize - like soybeans and vinegar.) I have also read conflicting views on cornstarch. Again, I barely use it so I wasn't worried (and that was what I had in my pantry.) In the future, I will probably switch to arrowroot as a thickening agent.

Orange Sauce for Chinese Stir-fry 

- 2/3 cup orange juice (I squeezed some oranges)

- 1 teaspoon lime juice (again from a lime not a bottle)

- 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce

- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

- 1 teaspoon honey

- 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

- 3/4 teaspoon grated ginger

- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (or arrowroot)

- 2 tablespoons water

Directions:

1) In a small bowl, combine orange juice, lime juice, soy sauce, vinegar and honey. In another, combine cornstarch and water - stir until the cornstarch is dissolved.

2) In a skillet, heat sesame oil over medium-high heat. When really hot, sautee garlic and ginger for 1 to 2 minutes- do not let stick. (I might have skipped this step and it all turned out fine.)

3) Give orange juice mixture a stir and pour it into skillet. Bring to a boil for a minute or so.

4) Reduce heat to low and add dissolved cornstarch, while stirring. (You want to be sure to stir constantly, until completely combined, or the cornstarch could clump while adding to hot liquid!)

5) Turn the heat back up to medium and stir continuously until sauce thickens considerably. It should thickly coat the back of the spoon. 

At this point I set the sauce aside and cooked my veggies, shrimp and rice. I wanted the sauce to get extra thick (I was paranoid it wouldn't thicken as I haven't had much luck in the past.)