Dr. Pepper BBQ Sauce & Microwave Smashed Potatoes

My favorite pop in the entire world is Dr. Pepper. Actually, I hate pop unless it is Dr. Pepper. So, when I stumbled upon a recipe for Dr. Pepper BBQ Sauce, I HAD to make it and as soon as possible.

And so, it happened, and it happened within 48 hours of me finding the recipe.

 

But, in the end it didn’t meet my extremely high expectations. This is mostly my fault because I imagined heaven in a sauce. It was good, but not great.

The BBQ sauce was extremely tangy!

I think it would have been better with Chicken, it tastes like a chicken sauce not a pork sauce, but I had defrosted Pork so that is what we had it with.

 

 

Dr. Pepper Barbecue Sauce Recipe

Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook Time: 1 hr 35 mins | Servings: Makes 2-3 cups | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 1 cup minced onion
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups Dr. Pepper
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes, about 15 ounces
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne
• Salt to taste

Directions:

1 Heat the vegetable oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring often.

2 When the onions are just beginning to brown, add the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. Simmer for 30 minutes.

3 Pour the sauce into a blender or food processor and purée it until it is smooth. (Note that if you are using a blender, either work in batches, filling the blender no more than a third of the way at a time with the hot sauce, or slowly add the sauce while the blender is running on low speed.)

4 Put the sauce into a saucepan, bring to a simmer and continue to simmer, uncovered, for 1-2 hours.

The sauce will store for several weeks in the fridge.
Source: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/dr_pepper_barbecue_sauce/

 

What we had with the Dr. Pepper Pork Chops was ‘Microwave Smashed Potatoes’ which were So so SO easy to make, and tasted as though I had slaved over the oven to make the real deal. They look like normal potatoes, I pressed them into a bowl and served them in neat little piles because I think they look fancier that way 🙂

 

 

 

Microwave Smashed Potatoes

Prep Time: — | Cook Time: 20 MINUTES | Servings: 4 | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 4 (6-ounce) baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Place potato pieces in a large microwave-safe bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; cut a 1-inch slit in center of plastic wrap. Microwave at HIGH 10 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes. Add sour cream and remaining ingredients to bowl; mash with a potato masher.

 

SOUTHWEST VARIATION: Omit sour cream and chives; decrease milk to 2 tablespoons and salt to 1/4 teaspoon. Add 3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt; 1 tablespoon chopped chipotle chile, canned in adobo sauce; and 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 cup). CALORIES 206; FAT 1g (sat 0.6g); SODIUM 236mg

 

ROASTED GARLIC VARIATION: Note: You can find roasted garlic cloves at the salad bar in many grocery stores. Omit sour cream and chives; increase milk to 3/4 cup. Add 1/4 cup coarsely chopped roasted garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 cup). CALORIES 223; FAT 2.9g (sat 0.7g); SODIUM 329mg

 

BACON AND CHEDDAR VARIATION: Decrease salt to 1/4 teaspoon. Add 1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded reduced-fat extra-sharp cheddar cheese and 1 slice center-cut bacon, cooked and crumbled; mash with a potato masher to desired consistency. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 cup). CALORIES 254 (0% from fat); FAT 6.1g (sat 3.7g); SODIUM 280mg

Nutritional Info:

Amount per serving Calories: 225 Fat: 4.1g Saturated fat: 2.5g Monounsaturated fat: 1.1g Polyunsaturated fat: 0.2g Protein: 5.6g Carbohydrate: 42.6g Fiber: 2.8g Cholesterol: 13mg Iron: 0.8mg Sodium: 333mg Calcium: 78mg

Source: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/microwave-smashed-potatoes-50400000112982/
That night Chris and I had the Bacon & Cheddar Variation, but I have since then made the normal ones using only 1 potato as a lunch with some left-over gravy and it was great! (Not a very healthy lunch, but yummy!)

Overall, the Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce was great to try but next time I will be making changes to it just using this recipe as a guide line, and the potatoes were super easy and yummy- an easy and quick side for a busy day =D

Bacon & Egg Toast Cups

Wow! I feel like I made these in another life time. It was about a month that I made these, one morning I woke up and remembered seeing these on Foodgawker, so I made them.

They were quick, and yummy. Not something I would make often because it is a lot of work for bacon, eggs, and toast, but it was a nice little treat. If you are hosting a brunch they would be a great idea for how to wow your guests with something everyone will enjoy.

Bacon & Eggs in Toast Cups

Prep Time: 7 mins | Cook Time: 12 mins | Servings: 6 cups | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 6 slices of bread
• 6 slices of bacon
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheese
• salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray muffin pan with butter non-stick spray.

2. Using a cookie cutter, cut circles out of bread slices about 3 inches in diameter. (I confess I do not have a cookie cutter so I use the lid to my tub of orzo pasta and just cut around the edges ;D)

3. Take bread circles and press them into the muffin pan, set aside.

4. Heat a large skillet on medium-high. Cook bacon on the skillet until partially cooked but still pliable, about 3 minutes.

5. Shape bacon strips into the toast cups, fill with 1 Tbs of shredded cheese. Place in the oven for 5 minutes, allowing the bacon to toast just a little more. Remove from oven.

6. Crack your egg and separate out most of the egg white. Drop eggs into the cups, sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste. Place back in the oven and cook until white begins to set, about another 8 – 10 minutes. The yolk should be creamy.

7. Remove from oven when done and pop out using a spoon, serve warm.
Source: http://thenoshery.com/2009/03/29/a-two-bite-breakfast/

Now the best thing about this post, is that I have finally found an easy way to copy recipes onto the blog without having to type it all out again. I use an IPad app called Paprika, it is fantastic. I should have figured this out before, but you can email recipes from Paprika, which is how Chris’s mom and I exchange recipes, and so in order to put recipes in my blog all I have to do is email them to myself and copy/paste them here. UGH. I can’t believe this took me so long to figure out.

It’s one of those things that takes one second to figure out, but you never really think about so you don’t realize it until a time like now when it is embarassing that you’ve waited so long to figure it out. Like when you were younger and realized how a Lava lamp works…. Yepp, one of those moments.

 

Well, while the bacon, egg, and toast cups were a nice little treat. The ‘Beef and Mushroom Burgers’ we had the next night were not.

I would give the Beef and Mushroom Burgers a 4 of 10 star rating.  They were rather bland, or so I found. Chris liked them more than I did, but he said they were nothing he would make again. Nice to try but nothing worth raving over.

Beef and Mushroom Cheeseburgers

Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook Time: 10 mins | Servings: 4 | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 8 cremini mushrooms
• 1 small onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 lb (454 g) extra-lean ground beef
• 1 tsp (5 mL) chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tsp (5 mL) dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) black pepper
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) cayenne pepper
• 4 slices Cheddar cheese
• 2 cups (500 mL) baby arugula
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 4 whole grain kaiser rolls, halved and toasted

Directions:

In food processor, finely chop mushrooms with onion; scrape into large bowl.

Add beef, thyme, mustard, salt, and black and cayenne peppers; mix until combined. Shape into four 1/2-inch (1 cm) thick patties.

Place on greased grill or in grill pan over medium-high heat; close lid and cook, turning once, until digital rapid-read thermometer inserted sideways into centre of each reads 160°F (71°C), 10 to 12 minutes.

Top each patty with cheese. Sandwich with arugula and tomatoes in rolls.

Nutritional Info:

Nutritional Info Per serving: about – cal 451 pro 36 g total fat 18 g sat. fat 8 g carb 39 g fibre 7 g chol 82 mg sodium 780 mg potassium 914 mg % RDI: – calcium 25 iron 33 vit A 18 vit C 22 folate

Source: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/quick_and_easy/beef_and_mushroom_cheeseburgers.php

Buffalo Chicken Burgers

        Alright, so, what feels like forever ago Chris and I had Buffalo Chicken Burgers for dinner. We used pre-breaded chicken filet thingy’s from Janes and Dipped them in our favorite Hot Sauce. We didn’t invent the hot sauce, but we use it all the time.

How to make the hot sauce:

• Butter
• Hot Sauce, about 1.5X the amount of butter (We like it hot so we use a little more than that)
• White Vinegar, just a splash

Melt butter, mix in hot sauce and white vinegar. Easy as pie.

It was a pretty easy main for dinner that night, so to dress it up a little I mixed together a Strawberry Spinach Salad with a homemade Poppyseed Dressing.

The poppyseed dressing was really yummy. Here is the recipe, I’m not sure where it comes from, I got it from Chris’s mom.

Poppyseed Dressing for Strawberry Spinach Salad:

• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Rice Vinegar
• 1 Tsp Onion, grated
• 1/2 Tsp Dry Mustard
• 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 cup Canola Oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Poppyseeds

Combine sugar & vinegar in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Add grated onions, mustard & salt. Whisk in oil until well blended, then stir in poppy seeds. Pour dressing in a jar, cover & refrigerate until ready to use. Add about 1/3 dressing to salad. Excellent when chilled for about an hour.

The Salad was great and light on the side of the spicy Buffalo Chicken Burgers.

Greek Food!

Food from my trip to Greece ❤

There are a lot of pictures in this post, about 30… yeah, it took forever to upload. This is not everything I ate, just an idea. The greek food I had while Island hoping in Greece was DELICIOUS!! (After about a week of nothing but Greek food, I did crave food that was more normal to my usual diet, but still… delicious)

 

So, this is the first thing I had in Greece, a smoothie at the airport. The problem was that neither Chris nor I could figure out the other flavours, so we had to get the one with the picture on the front 🙂

Alright, well, fresh squeezed orange juice. Yummy, yummy yummy. It is also EXPENSIVE. The waiter asked if I wanted Orange Juice with my breakfast so I said yes, and he brought fresh OJ… then when the chit came, it was €5. €5!! That’s about $8 for a glass of juice!! A glass of wine was €5 and I paid the same for a glass of OJ. Let’s just say, I did not make that mistake again, and will not fall for it in future trips.

The first of many crepes. I never knew that the Greek’s LOVED Nutella so much. I mean, it was everywhere. I had a lot of crepe over the two weeks I was in Greece for.

A traditional greek salad. This was Chris’s. I do not like tomato or olives… or in this one’s case, capers. So, whenever I had a greek salad while we were there I shared it with Chris (and left him all the tomatoes)!

When Chris had that greek salad, I had this fruit salad ^^. How adorable right? I was not ecpecting this fancy deliciousness when I ordered a fruit salad, it was a nice surprise. And so refreshing on the beach.

Alright, so this is a hot dog… just a normal old hot dog in bun with ketchup and mustard. But, instead of slicing the bun open, they stick it on a metal pole kind of thing then squirt the ketchup and mustard in, then slide the hot dog in. I have NEVER seen hot dogs made this way, I think it is so cool! No ketchup sloping onto your clothing, it is next level hot dog skills.

Chris’s Greek Omelette- all the fixings of a greek salad in breakfast form.

Turkey Sammig. Yupp, not much more I can say about that.

 

Fresh made Baklava from a tiny little shop in Mykonos. We enjoyed this sitting at a little table outside the shop, while the shop dog watched us eat. Apparently dogs wandering around is normal for Greece, I felt kinda bad for the little guy.

More crepe, yummynummynummnumm.

Gyros Pizza. Pizza with gyros meat on it. Oh, I did have regular Gyros but I forgot to upload pictures of them.

Chris had a full breakfast, eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, tomato. The sausage was a little different than the sausages we usually have, but it was good.

Gyros Meat- at first I found this very cool and intriguing. By the end of the trip, however, I couldn’t look at these because I was so grossed out by the fat seeping down the meat. Blah.

Sauce for bread with dinner- I am not sure what it’s called but it’s made wit hcaviar and is the same colour as Pepto Bismol. This night was not a good night for me, it was our first night in Santorini and had a late dinner with the group, and we went to a balcony style restraunt (which most restraunts are in Santorini) and not being able to see in front of me because it was dark out and there was nothing in front of us (just sky and sea) but blackness, which made me feel sick to my stomach. But Chris had a good dinner.

The next night Chris and I went for a sunset dinner along the Caldera, since it was lighter out I felt a lot better. This was our appetizer, Saganaki. Saganaki ended up being my favorite food on the trip.

For our romantic dinner ,Chris had a chicken dish with a cream and mushroom sauce. Very very yummy.

I had Carbonara- for some reason I craved pasta for pretty much the entire trip.

And for dessert Creme Brulee. My favorite dessert, watching the sunset in beautiful Santorini, with my handsome man… Yepp, pretty good life just then.

Toast- a sandwich which has been toasted, like a griled cheese with extra fillings.

A Super Burger. A really long bun with a hamburger sliced in half and placed along it, regular burger toppings, bacon, and egg. Chris was expecting a fried egg on it (as was I) and when it came it was a hard boiled egg sliced up. Kind of a disapointment, but oh well- apparently it was still enjoyable.

More crepes 🙂

And more….

And another crepe.

 

And Chris and a waffle, instead of a crepe. The reason we went to the crepe place so much was because they had one of the best internet connections of the trip 🙂 and you could go on for as long as you wanted while at the restraunt.

Alright, well, booberella I know, But the picture is supossed to be about the chip bag. Greek Salt and Vinegar.

I told you the Greeks love their Nutella. So do I though, so I loved every second of it.

MCDONALDS! Thank goodness. I really needed some food I knew and loved. In Greece they put the drinks in the bag with the food- SO COOL!

And Finally- a menu in all greek. It wasn’t until we got to Loutsa that we got a menu that was in Greek. There had been greek on all the menus we had, but this one had no English, it was pretty cool… But I had no idea how to order, teehee.

 

Alright, well, that is some of the food from Chris and I’s trip to Greece. We had a great time travelling through Mykonos, Santorini, Ios, and Loutsa/Athens… and I definatly want to go back to Greece, mostly Santorini again in the future, but first I have a bunch of other places to check off before heading back. 🙂

 

 

June Cooking

 

Okay. I suck at blogging. Hopefully now that my trip is out of the way I can catch up and get back to normal. But, this post is not about my trip (which was AWESOME), that will come later.

This post is about all the meals I made in June so that I can catch up a bit.

 

So this ^^ is a low fat Alfredo dish that I got from a Food Network magazine, google it. I didn’t like it very much, it was too thick and pasty in my mouth, but that can be easily fixed… If I make it again I will add some more liquid to make it a bit creamier.

Turkey Quinoa Chili, I think I have posted about this before. It’s SO SO yummy. I hate beans so I eat around them, but other than that, I love this chili- such a rich flavour.

Curry Beef Stir-Fry.. I did NOT like it… at all! I think I might have done something wrong, but I can’t figure out what. It was bland, just gross. I got the recipe from Canadian Living, which usually means it will be delicious, but this one just didn’t work for me.

Darth Taters. Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry. Anything from that book it bound to be good. Chris’s Aunt made these when we went to dinner May long weekend… and we fell in love with them so when we had company we made them.

To go with the Darth Taters, we made Katie Lee’s Logan County Hamburgers: Think grilled cheese making the woo-hoo with hamburgers. Yepp, that good.

These did not work. They were on my list of things to do this summer, and they did not work 😦
They are supossed to be Turtle Feudge Chocolate Chip cookies… but they are smushy mud puddle cookies. As Chris just referred to them: “The Suck Cookies”

Chicken Fajita Lettuce Wraps, from 200 under 200. Love that cookbook. Healthy version of Fajitas, how can you not love them. Cucumber Salad from Canadian Living, restored faith in the fact that Canadian Living does not indeed suck ass.

Teriyaki Pork Chops, I made the sauce myself 🙂 Got the recipe from Healthy College Cookbook.

Yummynummy.

Superby Herby Sauce Exposed Pizza’s from 200 under 200. A light dinner for a hot day 🙂 Served with Raspberry Poppyseed Salad.

Sweet Chili Thai Chicken…. Just chicken breasts covered and cooked in a sweet chili thai sauce. Easy, Quick, Yummy…. nummy.

 

 

Oh thank goodness that is all out of the way. Now, I can go make todays dinner 🙂 ❤

Homemade Burgers

One night Chris decided that he wasnted to make burgers, without a recipe. This makes me a little uncomfortable because I like being the one in the kitchen, but Chris did great! He put some onion, garlic, and bacon in the burgers and used a trick I had shown him from my Food Network Magazine to push his thumbs into the middle of the raw patties in order to avoid bulging.

I love my man, we don’t have a BBQ, we have a TINY George Foreman (I’m talking only big enough for one chicken breast)… And instead of spending years cooking one burger at a time on the foreman, Mr. Man fried the burgers on the stove, which also melts the cheese a lot better!!

Alright so in this picture there are only two cooking at once, but they were the last two- before then he was cooking three at a time.

We had these burgers with McCain frech fries, nice and simple.

Chicken with Cocout-Lime Peanut Sauce

This recipe was on my list of things to do this summer. Mine doesn’t look as good as the photo on the blog I found it on: Family Fresh Cooking: http://www.familyfreshcooking.com/2011/02/03/chicken-with-coconut-lime-peanut-sauce-recipe/

My sauce looks thicker and darker, and I didn’t put Asparagus into it because Chris doesn’t like asparagus.

The flavour of this dish is fantastic! It’s a definate ‘make-again’ my only concern about it is that it had a rather pasty texture to it, next time I would play around to try and fix that.

Chris and I enjoyed this dish while watching Due Date, which is a pretty funny movie I gotta say.

The sauce is easy to make, it’s an upgraded peanut sauce using lime and coconut milk. I used the extra coconut milk to make my rice, which is a nice touch (I usually do this when I make curry’s).

I think the recipe would have been better with the asparagus that it calls for, but it wasn’t bad without it so I can’t complain.

Stuffed Pizza Rolls

This is a recipe that was on my list of things to do this summer. I found it on Foodgawker, and it is from Chaos in the Kitchen

http://chaosinthekitchen.com/2008/10/party-food-pizza-in-a-bite/

They are little pull apart pizza balls: Well, should be pizza balls… I just put cheese in them because it was my first time making them.

Next time I will definately add more than just cheese to them, and I might keep them in the oven for 3 or 4 more minutes to get them a bit more golden on top.

 

I did not do a god job making them the same size either, which I will take more time to do next time, since some of the larger ones had unmelted cheese in the middles.

Chris and I had these on a weekend night, so we had been snacking all day and didn’t need an actual meal, but on a normal day these would be better for a lunch or appetizer for a party. Man, I can’t wait ’til I am old enough to throw dinner parties. At 20 (in 3 days) when I say I want to throw a dinner party I get odd looks from people.

Well, this post finishes May post-worthy meals. Now on to June…

Filet Mignon with Bacon Cream Sauce

 

Yup, it’s as good as it looks! Bacon, Cream, Steak… It explains itself.

I got the recipe from Allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 4 (4 ounce) beef tenderloin filets

• 1 teaspoon olive oil

• 3 slices bacon, chopped

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 4 shallots, diced

• 1/4 cup half-and-half cream

• salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat, and lightly oil the grate.

2. Brush the filets with olive oil, and cook on the preheated grill to desired doneness (about 4 minutes per side for medium rare). An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read 130 degrees F (54 degrees C). Set the steaks aside on a platter tented with aluminum foil to rest.

3. While the steaks are resting, prepare the sauce: cook and stir the chopped bacon in a small saucepan over medium heat until the bacon pieces are crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the butter and shallots, and cook and stir until the shallots are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes more. Stir in the half-and-half, bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 8 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve over the steaks.

That’s copied right from the recipe page on Allrecipes.

It was REALLY REALLY good. I didn’t have actual Filet Mignon, just Beef Tenderloin steaks, but even still- Mmmmm!!!

I couldn’t get enough of the sauce, I cut the recipe in half because there is only Chris and I but next time I will make all of the sauce and put it on everything… EVERYTHING!

It’s that good.

I served the Steak and Bacon Cream Sauce with simple garlic-y mashed potatoes and steamed buttery veggies 🙂
I highly recommend this recipe- It’s easy, relatively quick, and worth every creamy bacony calorie!

 

I am off to Greece in a few days. Actually I turn 20 this Friday and leave for Greece on Sunday, so I am going to try to catch up with posts that way I have a blank slate, and no stock pile of post-worthy dinners.

Tequila Lime Grilled Pork & Mexican Green Rice

This is a recipe that was passed on to me from Chris’s mum. It is a pork tenderloin in a Tequila Lime BBQ sauce that Chris’s mum got at Sobey’s, and rice with cilantro, green onion, and jalepeno peppers. It was easy to make, and the pork was really good.

The rice, however, was not very good because Chris didn’t listen to me when I told him to cut the seeds out of the jalepeno peppers. Eating the rice was like eating fire- that is the closest comparison I can make.

Overall, I was not impressed with the meal because I ate my pork first and then got to the lava rice, which ruined it all for me, and I had no pork left to wash down the spicy jalepeno.

This here ^^ is my breakfast the next morning. I spread nutella and jam onto a wrap, than put a banana with the curved ends bitten off in the middle to wrap up. =D