For some people, the crockpot or slow cooker is a winter time cooking tool. For me, it is useful all year long. You can cook other things besides soups and stews in them, they are easy to use and they require very little energy. On Monday, we grilled pork steaks at my brother Mike's. We had a large pack and at the end was a small roast. It seemed like the butcher got tired of cutting the steaks. It wasn't a problem because I knew I'd be able to make a What's for Leftovers recipe with it. So after we were finished grilling all of the pork steaks, we threw the little roast on the bbq and let it cook while we ate. On Tuesday, when I was planning our dinner, I realized I still had a carton of white rice left from Chinese takeout over the weekend. Presto, Apple Butter Pork and Rice was born.
Apple Butter Pork and Rice
Ingredients:
1 to 2 Lbs of Cooked Pork*
1/4 Cup White Wine
4 Packs Soy Sauce
1 TBSP Apple Butter
1 Cup Apple Juice
1 TBSP Garlic
2 Packs Sweet n' Sour Sauce
1 TBSP BBQ Sauce
1 1/2 Cups White Rice, Cooked or 1 Small Take-Out Carton
*You can use any kind of pork. I used the little pork butt roast and a pork steak. Feel free to use roast, steaks, or chops; whatever you have leftover.
1. Cut pork into thin slices and place on the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. In a separate bowl combine wine, soy sauce, apple butter, apple juice, garlic, sweet n' sour sauce, and bbq sauce. Pour over pork.
3. Cook on high for 1 hour, stirring occasionaly
4. Pour rice into slow cooker, mixing into liquid. Cook on low for another 20 to 30 minutes. It's finished when your rice is completely heated.
We love to order Chinese! This Friday, Andy had a guys' night out, so my friend Leigh Anne and her daughter came over to hang with me and my kiddos. We had a smasing time catching up and our children played nicely the whole night! We ordered Chinese delivery for dinner. I have found that when I order Chinese, I am always really hungry, so I order around two times as much as we really need. This incidence was no exception. We had enough Chinese for 2 meals plus some. This is great news for What's for Leftovers readers. Leftover Chinese, warmed up is adequate at best, but leftover Chinese re-worked is like a whole new, delicious meal. My family loves it everytime! This is a loosey goosey recipe as my mother would say. Meaning, everybody's leftover Chinese will be a little bit different, as will be your quantities, but if you follow the general guidelines, it will turn out great every time!
Chinese Take-Out Fried Rice
Ingredients:
*Olive Oil
*Frozen Vegetables- Use 1/2 of a Bag to a Full Bag of Peas or Peas and Carrots
*1/2 Yellow Onion
*Meat- I had 1 and 1/2 Cups of 2 different kinds of Chicken
*Rice- I had 3 Cups of Fried. It doesn't matter if it's Fried or White
*Any juices left at the bottom of your take-out boxes
*1/2 Cup Apple Juice
*1/8 Cup BBQ Sauce
*3 Packets Soy Sauce
*3 Packets Sweet n' Sour Sauce
* 1 Jumbo Egg or 2 Medium Eggs
1. Pour a thin layer of oil in a large frying pan. Chop up Onion and Meat into bite-sized pieces.
2. Heat oil. When oil is hot, put onion and frozen veggies in frying pan.
3. After 5 minutes, add meat, rice, juice left on the bottom of container and apple juice. If you do not have any juice left on the bottom of the containers, add 1 cup of apple juice instead of 1/2 cup. It's important for your rice to stay moist so it won't burn on the bottom of your frying pan.
4. Add BBQ Sauce, Soy Sauce, and Sweet n' Sour Sauce. Mix all together. Continue Cooking until everything is hot and onions are cooked. Make sure your rice stays moist. If is starts to dry out, add a little bit more apple juice or honey.
5. After everything is cooked, make a well in the middle of your pan. Crack your eggs into the well and scramble them. Cook them completely, then mix in with your rice. Enjoy, Chinese- part 2 with your family. They'll never even know it's leftover!
Who would have thought? This is what I asked myself when our ham and chicken kabobs turned out absolutely delicious tonight! I love ham, but I've never bar-b-qued it. However, we have a lot of ham. A couple of weeks ago, hams were on sale at our local grocery store and I bought a huge one! It was so big that I cut it in half and froze half of it. Earlier today, I took out some chicken to cook tonight, but my thighs didn't thaw out, only the two boneless breasts did. Needless to say, when I went to make these Asian Kabobs for dinner tonight, I had to improvise. Lucky for us and all our What's for Leftovers' readers, they turned out to be some of the best kabobs I have ever made! Feel free to use whatever veggies you have on hand. I used our last turnip, which actually turned out to be really good as a kabob veggie. I hope you can get out and enjoy the nice Spring weather and bbq these kabobs some time soon!
Asian Kabobs
Ingredients for the Kabobs:
1/2 Large Red Onion
1 Medium Yellow Onion
2 Green Peppers
2 Colored Peppers (I used red and yellow)
1 Turnip
2 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Cut into Chunks
15 Large Chunks of Ham
1. Soak your kabob sticks in water so they won't catch on fire on the bbq pit.
2. Cut up vegetables and meat into large chunks.
3. Load up six kabobs sticks with the vegetables. Load up four more with the meat, rotating ham and chicken.
Ingredients for the Sauce:
1 Cup Red Sweet n' Sour Sauce
1 Cup BBQ Sauce
1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1 TBSP Minced, Refrigerated Garlic
1. Mix all ingredients together and divide into two bowls.
2. Baste both sides of veggies kabobs with sauce in one bowl. If there is sauce left, pour over veggies. Then baste both sides of meat kabobs with sauce in the other bowl. If there is sauce left, pour over meat.
3. Cook kabobs on bbq grill over medium-low heat. Make sure chicken is finished cooking before removing from heat.
Aaahhh, for the first time in a very long time, we have a calm, uneventful weekend planned. I am so excited! I can't wait for Andy, Celia, Charlie and I to hang out and do laundry. You know you're getting older when doing laundry excites you more than going out on a weekend! We started our weekend off with a family dinner of pork loin leftovers. I am happy to say that after making my Pecan Pork Cakes and adding some pork to our baked beans, we are finished with the leftover pork and will be on to new leftover recipes. But first, the recipe for Pecan Pork Cakes. They are delicious! These are very similar to Crab Cakes, but with a sweeter taste and a smoother texture. I topped them with a tangy sauce; the recipe for it will follow the Pecan Pork Cakes' recipe. Hopefully your weekend will be as relaxing and productive as I'm planning on ours being!
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Pecan Pork Cakes
Ingredients:
2 1/2 Cups Chopped Pork
1/4 Cup Cream Cheese
1/2 Cup Pecan Meal*
1/8 Cup Bread Crumbs
2 Eggs
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Onion Powder
1/4 Tsp Ground Mustard
1/4 Tsp Pepper
1 Pinch of Sugar
Grind chopped pork loin and cream cheese in food processor until smooth. Pour into a separate bowl. Add pecan meal, bread crumbs, and eggs. Mix thoroughly. Add spices and mix again. Heat oil in a frying pan. Form pork into 2" to 2 1/2" patties. Drop patties into oil and fry until golden brown. Flip and fry the other side until both sides are golden brown. Place on a plate with a paper towel, so the oil can drain off. This recipe makes roughly 7 cakes.
*If you do not have pecan meal, simply grind pecans up in your food processor until finely chopped.
Dipping Sauce
Ingedients:
1/8 Cup BBQ Sauce
1/8 Cups Sweet n' Sour Sauce
2 Packs of Soy Sauce (the kind you get with Chinese take-out)
1/2 TBSP Honey
Whisk all ingredients together. Serve with your Pecan Pork Cakes.
