Pork & Sauerkraut

One of my family's New Year's Day traditions is having pork, hotdogs, and sauerkraut.  My grandparents were always the ones who cooked and brought it to my mom and dad's house for dinner until a few years ago. 

Now let me tell you.  I hate sauerkraut.  I really do.  But, oddly enough, I like the flavoring that it gives to the pork.

I'm a complicated person.

So anyway, Scott does like sauerkraut, and he had about half a jar left it the fridge.  Last Monday, I had a Celebrating Home party to do.  I knew that I needed to get home, eat, and head out for a 45 minute trip to the party location.  Scott was working nights, so the only way this could really happen was to let something cook all day.

Along with that sauerkraut, we had some porkchops in the freezer.  I was struck with the brilliant idea to make pork, hotdogs, and sauerkraut.

Cue my Bean Pot.  (Just so you know, if you click on that link, it will take you to this cute Christmasy Bean Pot that's on sale right now for $23...orignally $46....that's HALF OFF!!!)

This was so easy, it's almost embarrassing to post.

Bean Pot Pork & Sauerkraut
Ingredients:

• 2-4 boneless pork chops (I used 3.)
• sauerkraut
• hotdogs
• salt & pepper (to taste)

1. Place porkchops in the bean pot and empty the sauerkraut on top.  (P.S. My porkchops were frozen.)  Put hot dogs on top.

2. Bake in oven on 170* for 8 hours.

 

3. Serve with mashed potatoes and bread. 

 

No, I didn't eat any of the hot dogs.  While I like pork cooked in sauerkraut, I don't like my hot dogs cooked in it.  I told you.  I'm complex.  ;) 

This was so good, but there were a couple of things that would have made it better: eating it with my family on New Year's Day and the bread that my Pappy always would bring to go with it.  It's store bought, but oh so much better than this stupid stuff on my plate.  :)

Dinner Time Tuesday: Ribs

Dinner Time Tuesday is back!  Today, I'm sharing a yummy meal with you, AND I'm going to tell you how I make it.  :) 

Before I do, please consider linking up!  All you have to do is:
1) Follow me via GFC or BlogLovin'.
2) Put my Dinner Time Tuesday button in  your post.
3) Snap a picture of your dinner and tell us what it is.  You don't HAVE to share the recipe.  I don't always do that.  I created this link-up to be sure I post something food related even when I don't have something new or exciting to share.  If you are in the mood, go ahead and tell us how you made your dinner.
4)  Be sure to link up with the URL to your Dinner Time Tuesday post!

Scott & I love to make ribs.  We've finally got it down to an art....or something like that.  The first thing we do is use a rub on the ribs.  I lay down two layers of foil on the counter and set the ribs on top.  I rub in the rub.  (What a weird sentence....)  Then I cover the top with more foil and place in the fridge over night. 

The next day, I place the ribs, in the foil, on a baking sheet.  I add just a bit of water.  Then I putthem in the oven at 170*.  (That's the lowest our oven will go.  It works perfectly.) 

Then you can go to work, read a book, watch a movie, clean the house...do whatever you want because these are going to cook all day.  Low and slow.  While they will be done enough to eat after probably 7 or 8 hours, I've had days where they've cooked for about 10-12 hours.  At this temperature, you will not over cook them.  About 1-2 hours before you're ready to eat, take them out.

Then brush on some BBQ sauce.  We use Sweet Baby Ray's.

If you can or want to, you can then cook these on the grill for a bit to give the BBQ sauce more of a glaze.  We don't have propane for our grill right now, and we're too cheap/lazy to get more. ;)  SO I just throw them back in the oven until it's time for dinner.

The ribs are so tender and juicy.  They just fall off of the bone, which makes them so much easier to eat.  These are so good, I don't even eat them with ketchup.  And I ALWAYS use ketchup to eat ribs, other kinds of pork, and beef.  Don't need it.  Trust me.  That's good.

When we had these ribs this time, I served them with my potato salad and corn on the cob.  Mmmmm summer time.  :)

Don't forget to link up below!

Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

Today I move over one more Bean Pot recipe from old blog:

 

 

This recipe is from The Pioneer Woman's new cookbook.

 

 

 

I also didn't take any pictures because Scott helped me make it, and I knew he'd make fun of me for taking pictures. :-p If you'd like, you can read her original recipe here. It's actually supposed to be spicy, but I had forgotten to buy the chipotle chiles at the store.

 

Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

• 2 onions, peeled and quartered
• 1 whole pork butt (pork shoulder roast)
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 12 oz Dr. Pepper
• 4 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 300*
2. Put the onion quarters in the bottom of the pot. (I used my trusty bean pot because it needed a pot with a lid, and that's the only one I have!)
3. Put the pork on top of the onions and add salt and pepper to taste. (By the way, Scott and I were kind of unsure about how big a whole pork roast should be. I don't know if the size really matters in terms of how much liquid we put in or not....)
4. Pour in the Dr. Pepper.
5. Add the brown sugar to the liquid and stir it a bit to combine.
6. Cover the pot and cook for 6 hours turning a few times while it's cooking.
7. When it's done, it should be fork tender. You can keep in in the pot or take it out and shred it with a fork (or forks).

I thought this was good. It was a little bland, which I'm sure the chiles would have helped with. I've never actually had pulled pork before, so I really don't have anything to compare it to! I toasted some hamburger buns and ate mine as a sandwich.

Dinner Time Tuesday 4/9

I've been kind of MIA.  I just wasn't feeling the blogging thing this weekend.  AND since I wasn't, I didn't get anything planned for Monday.  So before I share Dinner Time Tuesday, I have to tell you about how we semi-sort of failed at our new diet plan.

Last week, I shared our weekly plan on Menu Planning Monday with Elizabeth & Jane.  The Insanity program gives you meals you can incorporate to eat 5 times a day.  For starters, even though the meals are small (P.S. I also totally failed at taking and posting pictures of the meals to Instagram.  I captured a few, though), we often weren't able to eat all five.  For me, this just has to do with my work schedule.  I can't just stop teaching to go down the hall and warm up Meal 2 or 4.  To me, the more sensible idea here is that I have three main, small meals with actual snacks (i.e. a piece of fruit, some raw veggies, etc.).  We also didn't get everything made when we cooked on Sunday.  This is due to the fact that we spent hours in the kitchen and had barely gotten through Tuesday.  We also kind of jumped all over the place with the menu, and we often didn't eat the scheduled items on the planned days.  There were also a lot of things I didn't like.  :-/  I am nowhere NEAR as picky as I was when I was a kid.  But it was incredibly difficult to force myself to eat fruits and veggies that I don't like. 

Here's what I DID like, though: Whole wheat bagel w/ cream cheese, protein pizza muffin, steak with broccoli (I cheated and had a small baked potato here.  I just CAN'T eat steak without some kind of potato), cereal bowl w/ banana (I LOVE this Kashi Go Lean cereal we got!), Turkey BLT, Peanut Butter 1/2 sandwich w/ banana, pasta w/ seafood marinara, Berry Protein Smoothie, chicken meatballs, whole wheat pasta w/ mixed veggies & feta cheese, turkey burger, and chicken stir fry. 

That sounds like a lot, but if you look back at how much food was on that list, you'll find that it isn't.  BUT also, don't forget there's a lot we didn't even try.

SO now that I've summed that up for you, here's what's for Dinner this Tuesday:

This is a porkchop with corn and mashed potatoes (of course).  Scott put some olive oil in a frying pan and added some garlic & onion powder, salt & pepper, and basil.  Then he fried both sides for about 5 minutes.  It was SO good.  :)  I don't think I've ever liked a porkchop that wasn't baked with Shake 'n' Bake.  So this was a big step for me.  haha

What did you have this week?