Meal Prep Day 2.26.12

Every good meal prep day starts with a breakfast.  Today it was buttermilk pancakes and turkey bacon.  I always try to make a bigger batch of pancakes and cook off the entire package of bacon when possible.  The reason I do that is because I typically portion out the uneaten pancakes and throw them in the refrigerator or freezer depending on the schedule.  That way some sleepy Saturday we can just reheat the pancakes and just like that it's hot breakfast time.  The bacon I will reheat during the week if I need a little something more than my coffee, cereal and smoothies.

Some for next weekend and some for the freezer

Then it's sitting down with the meal plan and making a plan and any adjustments.  For example, my chicken breasts that I had planned to make last night would have to be made today.  They didn't defrost enough and we just made a pork tenderloin for dinner.  This put us in the spot of having a couple days of lunches and chicken that would have to be cooked up today.

The first thing on the prep plan was to get our Apple Cider Braised Pork in the slow cooker, it had been sitting in an Apple Cider brine for nearly 12 hours when we got it going.  

During the prep, Hubs (my sous chef) was cutting up celery so I had him break down the rest of the celery in the package into celery sticks for snacks. 

I portioned out some peanut butter to go along with these snacks.  This way we don't have celery sitting around in the fridge most likely going bad and getting wasted.

After that we cleaned up the dishes and started on lunch.  I had some frozen pork buns from our trip the the HMart awhile back and we steamed those up and made a delicious asian inspired rice with snow peas for a delightful lunch, which gave me an opportunity to use my Chimp Sticks, which are monkey chopsticks.  I gave my sister some for christmas and I got them as a return gift within a week.  They are fantastic for folks that don't take themselves too seriously.  Which I don't.

If only Meg was here to help me eat this meal

After that Hubs helped me trim down some split chicken breasts and I roasted them with some garlic dijon thyme compound butter I'd made the night before.  

We took a break so I could get my ass kicked at Monopoly and then pulled out the chicken, which was smelling up the whole house with delightfulness.  It was packaged up and put away for Wednesday nights dinner.

After this I broke down a boneless pork butt that I plan to use for a pork filling similar to the Shredded Chicken Filling that was made a couple months ago.  Since we hit Chipotle yesterday for lunch I could tell the urge for burritos was kicking back in.

Then I whipped up a pizza sauce that will make enough for three pizzas, we try to make Friday nights as easy meal that either of us can throw together based on who has better luck with traffic coming from work.  Pizza shells & shredded cheese are always in stock in our kitchen.  I always put pizza sauce on the prep list when I run out.  I will post the recipe later in the week as we're planning to make a Chicken Chorizo Pizza for Friday night.

After the pizza sauce was portioned for three pizzas, it was running a little later than I had hoped, so instead of making Ginger Carrot Soup for Monday, I reviewed the recipe as being pretty straightforward and easy and decided to just chop the carrots up and asked Hubs to peel the yukon gold potatoes for dinner tonight

After the carrots were broken down I cut up the rest of the carrots into carrot sticks for snacks for the week.  Again not wanting the carrots to go bad, makes more sense to utilize all of the produce in some way to avoid waste.

I also put together some cookie dough for my new cooke recipe for Red Velvet Cookies. That went into the fridge so we could make dinner.

Dinner was great and then we packaged it up for lunches and Hubs did the dishes so I could come blog it all out.

Have a great week folks!

Cider Braised Pork Roast

Cider Braised Pork Roast Ingredients

So a few weeks back I got a great deal on Bone in Pork Shoulder and had a bunch of apple cider leftover from holiday cooking and baking.  Cider Braised Pork Shoulder sounded like it would be delightful.  I was excited to try it.  It went all day in the crockpot giving off great aroma, but it didn't really measure up.  I can't lie, I didn't love carving it and anything with bones and skin is not so much for me.

So this time I took advantage of a boneless pork loin roast on sale when we were at the Hilltop and tried again.  Let's see how this attempt came out.


Cider Braised Pork Roast

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 1/2- 4 lb boneless pork loin roast
• 3 1/2 cups apple cider (divided)
• 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground sage (divided)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder (divided)
• 1 teaspoon cayenne (divided)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1/2 apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 peeled garlic cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 Tablespoon cold butter
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix 1 1/2 cups apple cider, water, 1 teaspoon each of ground sage & garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne.  Place pork in brine overnight and refrigerate .  This will fit in a gallon freezer bag.

Briney Goodness 

Remove pork from brine and discard brining liquid.  Pat pork roast dry and tie with kitchen twine at one inch intervals.  Season pork with salt & pepper.  

I need to work on my tying skills

Heat 1 Tablespoon olive oil in saute pan till shimmering.  Sear pork on all sides to create dark crust. 

Mmm Crusty

Place pork roast in slow cooker.

Into the slow cooker

Heat remaining oil in saute pan and add shallots and celery to saute pan.  Cook for about two minutes.  Add remaining ground sage, garlic powder, cayenne, ground cinnamon and ground cloves.  Deglaze pan with apple cider vinegar and cook until vinegar has evaporated.  

Developing Flavors

Transfer mixture to slow cooker.  Pour remaining apple cider into crock pot. Place bay leaf, peeled garlic clove & cinnamon stick into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.  Halfway through cooking, give the roast a turn as the braising liquid is only about halfway up the pork.

Apple Cider Braise

Remove pork roast from slow cooker to a carving board and tent with foil.

Almost Finished Pork

 Strain braising liquid into sauce pan over high heat (skim excess fat as possible)  and reduce to about 25%and remove from heat.  Off heat whisk in Dijon mustard until combined and whisk in cold butter to finish the sauce.

This sauce is very flavorful and concentrated - a lot goes along way

Slice pork and serve with sauce.  

Pork Deliciousness

Happy Hubs/Sous Chef

Pack up four lunches for later in the week

The results are in, this was fantastic.  Really very delicious.  The brine really made the difference in this attempt.  I am in sweet love with this recipe and next time boneless pork loin roasts are at my buy price (2.99/lb) I will be making this again and likely for company!   I do recommend doing something easier for a side.  I did the buttermilk mashed potatoes which I highly recommend and will have to share in the future.  Just finishing the sauce, taking care of potatoes and sautéing green beans proved to be a little too much right before serving.  But then again, I'm not a professional chef.

Coupon Match Ups 2/26/12

The last couple weeks have been somewhat lame for sales & coupons (in my opinion) but this week's we have two inserts one from Smartsource and one that is put out by Pepsi which is full of snacks and drinks.   So let's see how it matches up with this week's sales!

As usual, my match ups are Stop & Shop, Shaws (or Stahhh Mahket), Roche Bros, CVS &Walgreens

Pepsi Insert:

Ruffles $1.00 off 2 - Stop & Shop has these 2/$6.00 - So it would be 2/$5.00
Pepsi  (18,20 or 24 cans) $2.00 off 2 - Shaw's has these on sale $4.99/each - 2/$7.98*
Doritos .75 off 2 - Shaw's has these on sale 2/$6.00 - Shaw's doubles coupons under up to .99 cents, so it would be 2/4.50, which would be the same as CVS's price of 2/$5.25 with a non doubling coupon.
Fritos/Cheetos $1.50 off 3 - Shaw's has these on sale 2/$6.00 - so it would be 3/$7.50
Starbucks Frappuccino or Double Shot 4 packs $2.00 off 2 - Shop & Shop has these on sale for 4.99/each - $2/$7.98
Rold Gold Pretzels .75 off 2 - Stop & Shop, Shaw's & Walgreens all have the same 2/$6.00 pricing - Shaw's & Shop & Shop would be 2/$4.50 because they double coupons.  Not sure of Walgreens coupon policy
Quaker  Cereal - $1.00 off 3 - Stop & Shop & Roche Bros both have the same 2/$5.00 pricing - so it would be 3/$6.50
Tropicana Pure Premium (59oz) - $1.00 off 2 - Shaw's has these on sale 2/$6.00 - so it would be 2/$5.00


Smartsource:
Fiber One Bars - $1.00 off 2 - Stop & Shop has these 2/$5.00 - so it would be 2/$4.00
Progresso Soup - $1.00 off 4 - Roche Bros has these for $1.79/each - so it would be 4/$6.16
Kraft Fresh Take (cheese & breadcrumb mix) - $1.00 off -Shaw's has this on sale for $2.99 - so it would be $1.99
Philadelphia Cooking Creme - $1.00 off 2 - Shaw's has this on sale 2/$5.00 - so it would be 2/$4.00
Phildelphia Indulgence $1.00 off -Shaw's has this on sale $2.99 - So it would be $1.99
Kraft Milk Bite Bars - $1.00 off - Shaw's has this on sale  $2.99 - So it would be $1.99
Mio $1.00 off - Stop & Shop has this for 3.99 with a $2.00 savings with purchase 24 ct Poland spring water - So it would be .99 cents + Poland Springs water (3.99 on sale)
Gevalia Coffee $2.00 off - Shaw's & Stop & Shop both has this on sale for $6.99 -so it would be $4.99
Splenda $1.00 off - Stop and Stop has the larger bags (9.70 oz) on sale for $5.99 - so it would be $4.99
Barber Foods $1.00 off - Shaw's has these on sale for $2.99 - so it would be $1.99
Planters Peanut Butter - $1.00 off 2 - Stop & Shop has these on sale for 2/$5.00 - so it would be 2/$4.00


Clip them anyway -
pick one of these games up next time you hit Target/Walmart - easy birthday gift or donate to Toys for Tots at the holidays or donate it to a local youth center.

$5.00 off Monopoly Electronic Banking )
$5.00 off Scrabble Flash, Simon Flash or Yahtzee Flash