Roasted Green Beans and Tomatoes Ingredients
About 1/2 lb fresh washed green beans with ends trimmed off
Grape tomatoes halved or quartered
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper (I used a garlic and red pepper grinder mix)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375*F or 400*F (I was worried about my pans on 400 so I did 375)
2. Coat baking sheet with olive oil
3. Toss green beans and tomatoes together on pan with additional spray or two (about 1-2 T) olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste
4. Bake, shaking pan occasionally to shift veggies for about 15-20 mins until starting to brown and sizzle.
Ignore the little piece of beef from the stroganoff that snuck its way into this pic!
Toss ingredients together and enjoy! I love salads this way... super easy and delicious. If you haven't tried the fresh lemon/lime juice, olive oil, S&P dressing that way you should.
Note: this post is unnecessarily long and boring... I'm thinking way too many details... but I don't feel like editing it down so feel free to skip whatever parts you want!
Okay so this first recipe post is not all that "whole" but I did hide one cut up crimini mushroom amongst the 6 pockets I made... I said we don't really like mushrooms right? Trying not to be wasteful, I figured if I could hide a mushroom in the BBQ then at least we'd be eating some extra veggies...
1 even coat of vegetable/canola/olive oil in crock pot (about 1T)
2 lbs boneless pork tenderloin
3/4 cup barbeque sauce (I used a hickory/brown sugar sauce out of the bottle)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 extra large onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, crushed (I used a heaping teaspoon of the jarred chopped stuff)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
Can be served on buns or toast, or put into "hot pockets" (recipe to follow)
Directions
1. Spray crockpot with even layer of oil
2. Add pork tenderloin(s) and dump in remainder of ingredients. You can mix them up a little if it makes you feel better and make sure they get under/around the pork and that there is at least enough chicken stock to almost cover them- moisture is key to successful crock pot cooking.
3. Cook on high 5-6 hours or low 6-8 hours (until pork can be easily shredded with two forks)
4. Shred pork and mix with excess sauce that surrounds it and remove from crock pot so sauce does not burn. (Ours burned a little but it still tasted good... almost a little bit "smoky?")
2 c. AP flour
1 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp honey (I just eyeball this- a little squeeze through the food processor chute)
3/4 c. water, 105-110 degrees (basically very hot tap water)
scant 1/4 c. good quality olive oil (I used good ol' cheap HEB brand and it still tasted great!)
Directions
1. Add flour, yeast, and salt to food processor and turn on (low? mine only has one speed).
2. Add the honey, water, and oil slowly through the chute in the lid until all ingredients are well combined.
3. Dump dough onto floured surface and gather into ball with floured hands.
4. Place in sealed gallon sized ziploc bag and put in fridge overnight or let rise in covered bowl for an hour or so until ready to use.
To assemble "hot pockets"
Ingredients
Left over BBQ pork (or any filling of your choice)
Any veggies you might want to disguise with sauce/filling
Shredded cheese
Olive oil and seasoning to sprinkle on crust (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 375* F
2. After dough rises or after you pull it out of the fridge (and let it come to room temp for about 20 mins) divide dough into eight pieces.
3. Roll pieces into round a few at a time and place on silipat (or parchment) lined baking sheet (I fit four on each sheet)
4. Place about 2T leftover Slow Cooker Texas Pulled Pork (mixed with a few mushrooms if you are trying to use up your unwanted co-op purchase...) and some shredded cheese if you have it on hand on one side of a rolled dough round
5. Fold dough over to cover and press edges with a fork to seal
6. Repeat with remaining dough and filling
7. Stab pockets with fork in 2-3 places to allow steam to escape
8. You can spray pockets with a little olive oil and sprinkle on some Italian seasoning or any other herbs you might like if you want to add a little extra flavor to the crust
9. Bake at 375*F for about 15 minutes or until dough is golden brown/baked through
Drew reheated one of these babies for lunch the next day in the microwave and said they tasted fine that way. We also froze several of them to have an easy "quick" dinner option on late work nights.
So I ventured into this beautiful little church in the heart of Montrose to pick up our first co-op order from Central City Co-op. I felt like I was stepping into a little hippie food cult as the check-in lady "welcomed me aboard" their little operation. She walked me through reading the signs tagged to coolers and boxes which laid out how many of each item you could bag in your small, medium, or large order. I had ordered a "small" because I had no idea what to expect and Drew and I typically don't go through too much produce in a week... After making my way through the line and loading up my veggies and (1) fruit in my reusable bag I had thought to bring from home, I made my way to the check out with the sweet rocker looking chick with blue hair...
So here is what we got!
1 Granny Smith apple, 1 lb of green beans, 5 crimini mushrooms, one head of red romaine lettuce, one bunch of green onions, 1 cucumber, 1 box of cherry tomatoes, 1 avocado, and 1 red potato
I was a little terrified of the mushrooms but seeing as how the "reciprocal item" that I could have "swapped" it out for was a huge portabello mushroom, I decided to stick it out with the little guys and figured worst case scenario I could send them up to my mushroom loving sister with my mom this weekend... Besides, the lady described them as "absolutely gorgeous" when I told her I might like to swap them out...
This co-op also has an "open market" area so you can add on any extra organic fruits/veggies that you'd like. They have all of the stuff that they sell in their "shares" plus some extras that are only available for individual purchase. Next time I think I will definitely plan to bring some cash so I can load up on a few extra fruits because 1 (beautiful, shiny, crisp) green apple just isn't going to cut it for this fruit lovin' gal.
Also, on a side note, I bought some free range, hormone free, organic, air-chilled, walking, talking, marathon running, chicken breasts from my favorite Buffalo Market HEB earlier this week and also made a pit stop at Georgia's Farm to Market store for some grass-fed, hormone free beef so I'll let you know how I've incorporated those and tried to stretch them to make them go a lot further than typical chicken/beef b/c of how much more expensive they are!
Stay tuned for what I've made so far with our first co-op share goodies (and our beef/chicken).
