Asian Pork with Mushrooms

I saw this recipe on Pinterest (of course) and have been itching to try it. We have really expanded our tastes in recent years. When we first got married, adventure might be trying a different type of Hamburger Helper. These days, we eat sushi, Thai, Chinese, etc. I also am using a lot more fresh herbs, fresh cheeses, etc.

Anyway, Friday I ran home for lunch. (Okay, drove, not ran) I had enough time to prepare this and still eat a quick lunch.

As soon as I got home from school on Friday afternoon and stepped out of my car, I could SMELL this. Even in our garage. And it smelled WONDERFUL.

For the next couple of hours, my stomach growled as the aroma continued to drift through our house.

I posted on Facebook that I hoped dinner tasted as good as it smelled because I would be quite disappointed otherwise.

Thankfully it was.

I followed most of the recipe, making a couple changes mainly based upon what kinds of ingredients I had on hand.

Ingredients:
2 lb pork center loin roast

salt and pepper (I just used freshly ground sea salt and peppercorn)

Non-stick spray

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar (I was out of balsamic so I used red wine vinegar)

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp Chinese five spice (found in the "ethnic foods" section by the Chinese food)

3 cloves garlic (it was supposed to be crushed, but I minced it)

1 tbsp fresh grated ginger root (I had trouble grating it so I minced it)

8 oz sliced mushrooms (I used Baby Bella)

Chopped cilantro

Directions:
Salt and pepper the pork.

Spray a skillet and brown the pork on medium high heat for about 7-8 minutes.

In the crockpot, add the broth, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, Chinese five spice, garlic, and ginger.

Put the pork in the crockpot, cover, and cook on low for about 8 hours.

At about the 7:30 mark, remove the pork from the crockpot to rest. Add mushrooms to the sauce and continue to cook on low for the remaining 30 minutes.

Shred the pork with two forks then return to the crockpot.

Add cilantro if desired. (I LOVE cilantro)

Serve over rice or noodles.

We ate it over egg noodles.

The pork was very low calorie. The noodles not so much. :)

All of it was good though.

All of it.

Yum.

Enjoy!

Reba

Oriental Salad

Almost every time we have a potluck at school, someone brings this salad and it is done in no time. I kept meaning to ask around at school how to make it but never thought about that when I was actually AT school. :) So one day I was in the mood for it, I pulled out my handy dandy family cookbook, opened it up, and...ta-da...there it was. Actually, not once but twice. I ended up using my grandmother's recipe which was just like one of my co-worker's recipe with one minor change via the co-worker...

Ingredients:
1 bag of coleslaw (my recipe says tri-color, I just used the most colorful coleslaw mix I could find...
2 packages of Ramen noodles, Oriental or beef (my co-worker uses beef)
1 package of sunflower seeds...already shelled of course :)
1 package of slivered almonds
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vinegar

Crush the Ramen noodles. I put them in a plastic bag and used a meat tenderizer. Do NOT use the seasoning packets yet.

Mix the slaw, Ramen noodles, almonds, and sunflower seeds in a large bowl.

Mix the oil, vinegar, sugar, and Ramen flavor packets in a large measuring cup or a bowl. Refrigerate overnight.

Pour the dressing over the slaw mixture just before serving.

Forgive the picture above. I didn't take the picture right away. No matter how it looks, I will say, it was good stuff!

Reba