Hard Times bearded pork chop

So like I said......kinda struggling with my finances. But I had a pork chop that had been thawing in my fridge. I wanted to do something different, like bread it. Of course I didn't have any breading, and I didn't want to use flour, nor did I want to fry in my cast iron, shocker!!! I did have ritz crackers, but no eggs....again, but thanks to Pinterest, (don't have one get one, lots of ideas there.) found a recipe that called for butter to help adhere the crackers to the chop. Tried it and here is my version!

1 4-5oz boneless pork chop
1tbsp unsalted butter
the 5 spices (salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder)
6 butter crackers (ritz)

Preheat oven to 350, and coat aluminum onto baking sheet. Place pork chop into a ziploc bag and beat as flat as you can, I used a rolling pin to try and flatten it as much as possible. In another baggie, place crackers, and smash into small fine powder substance. In a small microwave dish, melt butter. Season one side of the pork chop, spread butter onto pork chop then sprinkle cracker on top. Lightly pat to adhere most of the crackers to the pork. Repeat process on other side. I flip mine back and forth, just a little to coat the entire pork chop, including sides. Bake 20-30 mins until nice and brown.

Egg-less Turkey Meatballs

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but struggling just to pay my bills, and feed my animals, leaves little money to buy food for me. But as I struggle I will make food and post them for your view and attempting pleasure.

Annnnnnyyyyyyywaaaaaaaays.................In my struggle I had ground turkey meat and wanted to make something with it. Lucky I had tomato sauce and parmesan cheese......spaghetti and meatballs!! Hold up! Wait a minute!! Meatballs are made with eggs.......I don't have eggs. :(

Looked up an eggless turkey meatballs, and it seemed simple......like real simple; turkey meat, oregano and parsley. But I didn't feel like this was enough for me, and I know poultry can get dry when cooking. So I added a little more and they ended up delicious!!

So whats the secret?.....I used olive oil to keep the moisture in, especially since I decided to bake the meatballs. I also tried making meatballs without olive oil, they were good but dry.....so I know!!!

Spices : Salt, Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Dried Rosemary, Dried Thyme, Dried Onions, Garlic Powder, Parsley and Oregano.

1 lb ground turkey
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together, including spices. Spices roughly are about 1tsp each.

Take a aluminum foil lined cookie sheet (the foil helps with clean up) and scoop and roll small handfuls of meat into balls.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Half way through, take meatballs out and turn over. Resume cooking.

Enjoy as an appetizer, or add to pasta dish with tomato sauce for a classic dinner.
ENJOY!!!!!

Swiss and Mushroom crazy!!!

So coming off the heels of the turkey swiss and mushroom grilled cheese, comes the swiss and mushroom omelet! A nice hardy breakfast with a tangy taste. Best way I can describe it....LOL

2 eggs
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 slices swiss cheese
salt
pepper
1 tbsp milk

Place skillet on stove top and place on medium heat. I add a little bit of bacon grease that I keep stored in the fridge to help keep the eggs from sticking to much to the pan. Crack 2 eggs into bowl and whisk, and then add milk. The milk makes the omelet just a little more fluffy. Once pan is nice and hot, grease melted, add egg and coat evenly onto skillet. Taking sliced mushrooms, layer onto one side of egg. Turn the skillet a little to lightly coat the mushrooms with some egg, this allows the mushrooms to "stick" to omelet. Place cheese on top of mushrooms. Season other half of eggs with salt and pepper. Gently lift empty side to cover mushroom side (make sure that you've left enough room to fold the egg over) Flip entire omelet and cook for 30 secs. Then enjoy.

*Even if you're omelet doesn't look perfect, it'll taste perfect!*

I think I used to many mushrooms, and they weren't completely on one side. Oh well :)

Quick and simple plus delicious

Need to come up with something quick? Want grilled cheese, but tried of the same old grilled cheese? Well its time to pump it up!!

Introducing the Turkey, mushroom swiss grilled cheese!!!!

2 slices of bread
2 slices of swiss cheese
4 slices of turkey lunch meat
about 2 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tbsp butter

Use half of the 1/2 tbsp of butter to sautee the mushrooms a little. Assemble the sandwich half way; a piece of bread, 2 slices of turkey and 1 slice of swiss, repeat with rest. When the mushrooms have sauteed a little, place the mushrooms on one half of the sandwich. Put together sandwich. using the other half of butter, place in pan and cook sandwich on either side for about a minute. Enjoy!!

More brownies!!!

So I'm kinda poor........like I can't afford eggs. Makes me super sad :\  So I started looking up stuff I can do without eggs. This included turkey meatballs and brownies. One I had ground turkey, so I wanted to make something, had stuff for spaghetti so.......wala! Meatballs! I will have to revamp the recipe, they turned out a little dry, but still good. So when I get that down to delicious I will blog it! And then of course since I made brownies a few weeks ago, I started craving brownies again. But no eggs.....what was I going to do!!! Look up a way to make brownies without eggs, found it!!! Tweaked the recipe a little and this what I came out with. And its nice and gooey! FYI this recipe includes coffee, its not POW coffee, but its subtle. And includes pecans, which can be optional.


1 cup all propose flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp instant coffee* with 1 tbsp water
4 tbsp chocolate chips
2 tbsp pecans, chopped


Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 8x8 pan. In a large bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients. (I placed all the dry ingredients together in one bowl then took 1/2 a cup at a time to the sifter into another bowl.) Then add melted butter, instant coffee mixture and buttermilk. Taking a mixer, hand or stand, a mix on low, scrapping sides to make sure all ingredients get mixed. Fold in pecans and chocolate chips. Pour batter into pan, place in oven for 45mins or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy!

*So I don't use instant coffee, but luck be my lady, I found a starbucks instant coffee mix in my cupboard. It was caramel flavored, but it still worked. Made my brownies delicious.*

Roasted Vegetables

So at my moms house, and started talking about roasting some zucchini. And then also mentioned she had potatoes, so I said maybe roast those too. I mentioned roasting garlic, but that didn't happen. So we just roasted the potatoes and zucchini, zucchini my mother grew!

5 small red potatoes

2 medium zucchinis 

Olive oil 

Salt

Pepper

Parsley

Rosemary

Thyme

Garlic powder

Take two cookie sheets and line with aluminum foil. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. With the two sheets, drizzle and spread a little bit off oil. After washing and rinsing potatoes and zucchini, slice. 

In a small bowl mix spices. In another small bowl, pour a little olive oil. When you are done slicing, place potatoes on one sheet and zucchini and the other. Brushing the olive oil onto the potatoes and zucchini. Then sprinkle spices on top. Place sheets into oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!!

Brownies!!!!

I found a brownie recipe that my mom wrote some years back. But I don't recall her ever making them. So I decided last year around Christmas time to make them, and add a few goody surprises along the way!


1 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, well beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour, sifted
1 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
*1/2-1 package chocolate chips
*1/2 package peppermint chips
*2 tsp peppermint extract
*2 tsp mint extract


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In one large bowl combine all dry ingredient; sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt, then fold in sifted flour. In a microwavable bowl, place butter and melt. In another large bowl, break eggs and beat well, add butter and vanilla. With a electric mixer, on the lowest setting, mix wet ingredients. Then once all is combine, add remaining dry ingredients until smooth and creamy. In a greased 9.5x13 pan, pour batter. Place in oven for 50 mins and enjoy!!

*For peppermint brownies, when all ingredients are combined add peppermint extract and stir. Fold in chocolate chips and peppermint chips. Bake for same time.

*Mint brownies, same as above. Once you add the mint extract you can either add 1/2 package or whole package.

*Chocolaty brownies. Once all ingredients are mixed, fold in 1 package of chocolate chips. Ooh wee gooey chocolaty brownies!!!

yields 35 brownies, or the least the way I had cut them :)