BBQ Pork Burgers with Slaw

BBQ Pork Burgers

I found this recipe on Epicurious.com a couple of years back and it's tasty. The recipe calls for bottled BBQ sauce, which goes against the Clean Eating philosophy but I found one with somewhat okay ingredients. What I need to do is make a batch myself and keep it handy. Alas….

Water, Tomato Paste, Sugar, Distilled Vinegar, Molasses, Tapioca Dextrin, Salt, Brown Sugar, Spices, Corn Starch, Contains Less than 0.5% of: *Onion, Paprika, *Garlic, Chili Powder, Natural Smoke Flavor, Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum, Citric Acid, Corn Syrup, Tamarind, Natural Flavors.

*Dried

I changed the recipe slightly to meet my needs. 

• 1 bag pre-made slaw mix

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise

• 1 tablespoon milk

• 1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons white-wine vinegar, divided

• 1/2 cup bottled tomato-based barbecue sauce

• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder

• 1 1/2 pounds ground pork

• 4 whole wheat kaiser or soft rolls
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• Mix the mayonnaise, milk, vinegar together and mix into slaw mix. Set aside.
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• Mix ground pork with sauce and chili powder.  Make into patties and grill or cook stove top.  Baste burgers with more BBQ sauce once cooked.
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• As you can see, I didn't make my patties big enough for the giant buns! And I should have toasted the buns but my child was fussy and the dogs were carrying on so I had to make due. I like these but I had forgotten that the meat can be a little bit dry. I think I'll try it again with ground beef.
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Smoked Paprika Pork Tenderloin with Succotash

Is there any meat better than a pork tenderloin?  This meal was done in 30 minutes. It would have taken less time if I had chopped my vegetables when I brought them home. The recipe calls for cumin and smoked paprika, two spices I go through pretty fast. However, in this case, I think next time I would omit the cumin. It overpowered the paprika. Of course that could be because I don't so much measure as guess. And my hand slipped a little when adding the cumin. But look how pretty:

From The Best of Clean Eating 2 cookbook.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil 

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp cumin

salt and pepper

1 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat and silver skin, cut into medallions (I cut mine into chunks)

1/2 a medium sized white (I used yellow) onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

1 cup frozen baby lima beans, thawed

2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

In a small bowl, add 1 tsp oil and the pork. Coat with the oil, season with cumin, paprika and a little salt. Coat the pieces well and set aside.  

Place 1 tsp oil in sauté pan and add onions and peppers. Sauté until a little soft.  Add the corn and lima beans and season with salt and pepper. Heat through, remove from the pan and keep warm.

Heat the last tsp of oil in the pan on med-high and cook the pork until browned and no longer pink in the middle. The time it takes will depend on how thick your pieces are. 

Add the cilantro to the succotash and stir. Serve the vegetables with the pork. 

This was a very fulfilling and good meal. I would make it again with some adjustments. Like I said, I don't think I'd use cumin. 

According to the cookbook, lima beans contain about 24% of the recommended daily protein intake and 40% of the day's fiber.  

Sausage and Roasted Red Pepper Quiche

Quiche Original Recipe

I wanted something I could make for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day and it looked so good I made two.

Ingredients

• 2 Store-bought pie crusts
• 1 cup roughly chopped jarred roasted peppers
• 1/2 cup chopped scallions
• 1 cup cooked and crumbled sausage
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 6 large eggs
• 2 cups heavy cream, half-and-half or milk (I used fat-free half and half)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon paprika or chile powder, or some grated lemon zest (optional) (I used paprika only)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 9-inch pie plate with pie dough and crimp as desired; chill 30 minutes. Line with foil, then fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until the crust is set, about 20 minutes. Remove the foil and weights and continue baking until lightly golden, 5 to 10 more minutes. Let cool while you prepare the filling.

Or do what I did and buy frozen pie crusts. Follow the directions for pre-baking. 

Make the filling: Brown the sausage. Put the roasted peppers and scallions in a large bowl. Add the sausage and cheddar and toss to combine.

Whisk the eggs, heavy cream, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Stir in the parsley. Add the paprika, chile powder or lemon zest, if desired. Spread the vegetable-cheese mixture in the crust, then pour the egg mixture on top. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake until the filling is set, 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool at least 30 minutes before slicing.


I really liked the flavor of this. Obviously you could use any kind of vegetables you wanted. I can see myself making this again and again. A great brunch item. 

Spanish Pork with Redskin Potatoes

Original Recipe


First off let me apologize for the poor photographs. I need better lighting. Next time I hope to do better. Might help if I don't use my iPhone to take the pictures. But I was in a hurry to eat because this looked so good. And it didn't disappoint. This was amazing. I didn't time myself but I don't think it was more than 30 minutes in all. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 redskin potatoes, cut into small pieces
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 tsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 lb extra-lean ground pork
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 tbsp paprika (divided)
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• Juice 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 tsp dried sage
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 oz goat cheese

The recipe said to boil the potatoes but I prefer mine roasted. So I tossed them with a little olive oil, salt, dried sage and dried thyme. I roasted them on 425 for about 20 minutes.  

While the potatoes were roasting, I set the pork (seasoned with salt and 1 tbl Paprika) to cook in a dutch oven. The original recipe says to add the pork later, after sautéing vegetables, and cooking it for 5 minutes. I want to know who has a stove that will cook ground meat thoroughly in 5 minutes.... Not mine.  So while it began to brown I chopped my zucchini, bell pepper, and tomato. I had already chopped an onion over the weekend and had it ready to go. I try to keep chopped onions on hand because I use them so much.  I added the zucchini, onions and garlic to the pork. A few minutes later I added the bell pepper, tomato, frozen corn and peas and lemon juice. One more tbl of paprika and it was ready for the best part. Goat cheese!  

My goat cheese "crumbles" turned out more like goat cheese powder. I decided to add it to the meat mixture as well as the potatoes. And I'm so glad I did. It really made the dish.  A little goes a long way.

Now I know the serving in the pictures looks huge but keep in mind I was also plating for Willa. She of course didn't even try it. All my years of picky eating are coming back to haunt me!