Five Spice BBQ Pork with Asian Style Succotash

This is another recipe from the Rachael Ray cookbook, it is for a tasty Asian influenced Pork and Veggie dish.












I cut this recipe in half, because having leftover pork is never a bad thing in my book. You need boneless pork chops, Chinese five spice seasoning, grill seasoning, vegetable oil, Hoisin sauce, garlic, red bell pepper, snow peas, frozen corn, green onion, some lime juice and some hot sauce.




Chop up your red pepper, garlic, peas, onion and slice your lime.




After you chop those guys up, get some oil into a frying pan over medium-high heat.




While the oil heats, season the pork with the Five Spice powder and the grill seasoning.




Once the oil is heated drop the chops in and leave it alone for 6 minutes. Don't fuss with it, just let it cook so you get a nice browned chop.

While those cook, get some oil in another pan and cook the garlic and pepper for 2 minutes.




Add the peas, corn and green onions and cook for 3 more minutes. Flip the chop and leave it alone for 6 more minutes.




Add in the lime juice and hot sauce to the veggies and season with salt and pepper.




When your chops are cooked, stir in the hoisin sauce and heat it through. Plate it all up and you are ready to eat!




The hoisin pork is well flavored and sweet and balances well with the spicy and tangy vegetables. It looks great with all of the bright colors. The next day I chopped the leftover pork up and stir fried it with the veggies and some cooked somen noodles for a tasty stir fry.

Tuna, Tomato and Bread Stew

My brother picked me up a new Rachael Ray cookbook recently and I found quite a few good recipes in it. I really can't stand to watch her TV shows, but I do like her magazines and some of her cookbooks. This 'stoup' as she calls it, is easy and can be made with stuff you probably have in your pantry already. It is also very inexpensive to make, and everyone is thinking about that these days.












You will need some canned tomato, onion, garlic, red pepper flake, bay leaf, tomato sauce, canned tuna, chicken stock, bread, parsley and some parmesan cheese. That is a lot of stuff for sure, but this will take you no time at all!




Chop up the shallots/onions and garlic.




Chop up your bread into cubes. I just used a roll, nothing fancy. Get your cans opened up and we are ready to start cooking.




Get some oil going in a heavy pan and cook the onions or shallots for about 2 minutes.




Stir in the bay leaf, red pepper flakes and the garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.




Add in the tuna, tomatoes, broth and tomato sauce and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat, season with salt and pepper, and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes.




Fish out the bay leaf and remove it from the heat.




Stir in the bread and use the spoon to break it up and get it all incorporated.




Garnish with the fresh parsley and parmesan cheese and you are ready to eat. This stew is thick, tasty and totally different from anything I have had. It may seem kind of strange to stir bread right into the soup but it really was delicious!

Black Bean and Corn Chili

I love my slow cooker. I especially love the fact that I can go to a Spring Training baseball game and while I am there enjoying the AZ weather, a delicious meal is cooking at home.








The best thing about the slow cooker is you just gather your ingredients, toss them in the pot and throw on the lid. You need some black beans, tomatoes, bell pepper, onions, corn, chili powder, a chili pepper, garlic, cumin, oregano and some salt and pepper.

You may notice my cute new can opener my brother got me, it is the Toucan can opener made by Animal House. You may also notice my cute Pink chef's knife I picked up at Tuesday Morning recently. I love cute kitchen accessories that make cooking more fun.

Ok back to the cooking, chop up the onion and pepper and then just throw all of the ingredients in the slow cooker.




This is a LOT of onion so if you are not an onion fan I would cut it in half and only add one. I happen to love onions, so this was perfect for me. Get it all combined, throw on the lid and set it to cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.




When the time is up, take off the lid, give it a stir and you are ready to eat.




This is a delicious vegetarian chili and I am so glad I recently discovered how wonderful black beans are. I always thought I didn't like them, but I have found that I really do! I like to try to incorporate at least one vegetarian meal a week into my diet so this is a great one to add to my usual list.