Brown Sugar and Balsalmic Glazed Pork Loin - Review

This recipe was pretty good. It looks pretty in the picture. See?

from candcmarriagefactory.com

It was easy to make, and tasty. Not my absolute favorite ever, but pretty good. The pork loin was tender and good, everyone ate it pretty well, but none of us were wild about the sauce. The flavor combination seemed a little off. Here is how ours turned out:

I put the glaze over the top twice during the last hour, but thought I would hold off on drizzling it all over the final product in case the kids weren't happy with the sauce. The kids ate the "non sauce" meat great, but didn't really eat well when the sauce was on. Again, the meat flavor was very, very good. I would recommend this recipe to try, but it won't probably make it on a normal rotation here since we have a couple of other pork recipes that I like better.

Family Rating: ****
My Rating: ***
Cost: $ (depending on your price of pork)
Difficulty: Easy - we love crock pot meals! :)

Sage Pork Chops - Review

We had some pork chops in the fridge, and luckily I remembered this recipe that we had tried a few months ago. I remembered that we had all liked it, but it had been awhile so I hoped that I had remembered correctly. Oh yes. These are AMAZING. Seriously. And easy. Especially considering how delicious they turn out.

from allrecipes.com

I'm not sure that the picture does it justice. The recipe originally calls for salt, but I think you would probably have a heart attack if you actually put salt on them. Seriously. I had read reviews of people putting in the 1 tsp. garlic powder instead of the salt, and I think that is a good change. They have PLENTY of flavor from the other spices. Also, I subbed chicken bouillon for the beef bouillon since that is what we usually have on hand. And I had three good-sized boneless pork chops on hand instead of the six bone-in chops called for and the recipe worked perfectly.

One reviewer had suggested to make a gravy to go with the pork chops. This sounds scary, but it really isn't. Step 1: mix 2 T. corn starch with 2 T. water in a small cup. Step 2: after you take the pork chops out of your skillet, you just pour the corn starch mixture into the fluid that is left in the skillet, turn the heat on a bit, and stir until it is thickened. Easy, AWESOME gravy.

And thankfully I remembered right - my family loved this one. Everyone kept talking about it all dinner long. Except for the youngest, who is selectively picky. I had written down that SHE actually ate this last time. Not this time, though. The older two were gushing about it, though.

Family Rating: ****
My Rating: *****
Cost: $ (which is shocking for how good they are)
Difficulty: Easy. Nothing to cut up, and the only tricky thing is making sure you flip the pork chops over when your timer goes off so you don't burn anything, but that's not bad.

Sausage-Rice Creole - Review

I had found a bunch of rolls of sausage on a great deal, and decided I needed to start finding ways to use some of it. So I found this recipe for dinner. It was really, really good. And not hard at all. One skillet cooking - that's my style. And it was on the Jimmy Dean website. I've learned from my mother that recipes on the sides of boxes or backs of bags or on company websites are fairly reliable. It's part of their sales pitch - why would they tell you to do something disgusting with their product?

from jimmydean.com

The modifications I made to this recipe: it calls for 1 tsp. of black pepper. I stared at that for a second and thought, "That is a LOT of pepper". So I cut it down to 1/2 tsp. I was right - even with it cut in half, it still had plenty of kick. I left the Cajun seasoning at 1 tsp. and thought it was fine. Both of my boys shoveled it down, but didn't have seconds due to spiciness. I also only had a 14oz. can of tomatoes, so I just diced some Roma tomatoes to make up the 14oz. difference (about 3.5 cups) and threw in a little extra chicken broth and water to make up for whatever bit of water may have been in the can. I love the internet - you can look up "substitutions" and work your way around a lot of problems. We also didn't have green onions on hand, but I'm sure they would have been delicious.

I LOVED chopping the onion and pepper for the recipe, and thinking about how my family would actually eat them because they were sneaky vegetables. And they did. And that is awesome. This also did not use any extra fats (like cream of whatever soups), other than what did not drain from the sausage, so that is a plus.

Family Rating: ****
My Rating: ****
Cost: $
Difficulty: Easy, only cooking up sausage & cutting up two vegetables.

Split Pea Soup with Ham - Review

Today we tried Our Best Bites "Split Pea Soup with Ham". My kids have been wanted to have pea soup since they saw "Rescuers Down Under" a couple of years back. So, we're trying it.

from ourbestbites.com

Modifications:
1) couldn't find smoked paprika = used normal paprika w/ pinch of chili powder
2) didn't have malt vinegar (and didn't see a huge need to buy some for 1 tsp.) = used apple cider vinegar
3) reduced garlic from 4 or 5 cloves down to 3 cloves-ish....my husband is very garlic sensitive and I thought even the 3 cloves might be pushing it.

Review:

My husband LOVED the soup. One of my sons ate it and didn't ask for seconds (which he typically does), the other son didn't eat much of it. I thought it was okay. It seemed to be lacking in flavor, and the texture was a little strange to me since it is based on dissolved peas. And yet, I still had two bowls of it. I am eating some more now for lunch, but added some garlic powder to it and it is much better. I would try making this again in awhile, but stick to the garlic amount in the recipe and try to find some smoked paprika.

Family Rating: ***
My Rating: ***1/2 (with potential)
Cost: $$ (again, probably closer to the $5 end of things, just depending on what you have on hand, and the price you get your ham)
Difficulty: Easy. You literally throw things in a crockpot and wait. Only a couple of things to cut up.