A Bakery Stop

Two or three years ago we discovered a small cafe in Ramona, CA with the most delicious cinnamon rolls ever. Since then we've gone up to the cafe once a year to have our treat. We were disappointed to see that they've shrunken the size and still charge the same amount. It still taste good.

Baking

Baking is a passion of mine. I have't done a lot of it since I got sick four years ago. It's been a challenge to bake anything since I am not supposed to eat them. As my health have gotten better, I started baking hear and there. I have my daughter who loves desserts. She loves trying out new sweet treats and perusing cookbooks. 

Whole 30 Part 3

Day 11 May 9: It's Saturday, the day before Mother's Day. I really need to try out some new recipes.  Plain old eggs, avocado and sweet potatoes are getting old. I woke up and had sweet potato again. I do feel like my energy level is up because I'm not as tired as I was before I started the challenge. Dinner is balsamic chicken, portobello mushrooms and vegetables. I also snuck in a snack, just a handful of jicama.
Day 12 May 10: Mother's Day I got up to breakfast in bed. The fritatta was made with mushrooms, spinach and onions and a side of sweet potatoes and avocado. It was pretty good and filling. I only snacked on jicama and cucumbers. Dinner was a yummy steak on the grill. I feel pretty good today.
Day 13 May 11: Today is also another good day. I am feeling like my body is healing and I hope I've lost some weight because my clothes feel like they fit better. I sautéed some carrots, cabbage and chicken for dinner. I just needed a change with food because at this point food is getting really boring. Maybe tomorrow I will try some soup.

Recipe Wednesday...Crockpot Roast Pork

Happy Hump Day! Our local grocery store had a huge sale on pork shoulder picnic roast so I grabbed a few to store in our freezer. This is something that I put together for dinner. I did make a burrito of sorts out of this meat, but it tastes great as is or you can put store bought bbq on it and make a bbq sandwich out of it. This is one recipe that you will just throw caution to the wind and sprinkle the seasonings onto the meat. 

Here goes:

Crockpot Roast Pork

Ingredients:

4-lbs. boneless pork shoulder roast, leave the fat on

2 c. warm water

2 tsp. chicken base ( I use Better Than Bouillon)

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Dried oregano

2 Bay leaves

1. Turn the crockpot on high setting while prepping the ingredients. Add the chicken base to the warm water,

    stir until the chicken base dissolves. It doesn't have to dissolve all the way. Add to the crockpot.

2. Sprinkle the onion powder, garlic powder and oregano to lightly coat the pork all over. Place the 

    pork in the crockpot, skin side up.

3. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes. If you don't have time, leave on low setting. Cook the pork 

    on low 7-8 hours. Check at 7 hours to see if the pork is tender. When it shreds easily, then it's done.

    Turn the heat off.

4. Carefully remove the pork and place on a large cutting board or plate large enough to shred. 

    Do not discard the cooking liquid in the crockpot. Remove 

    all the excess fat and skin, discard. Place the shredded meat back into the crockpot after removing 

    any impurities. Mix the meat into the liquid then place everything into a serving dish. 

    

Since I used the meat for burritos, I made some salsa to go along with it. Here's my salsa recipe. I did not put bell peppers or jalapeños in here because I cannot have the salsa with bell peppers or spicy jalapeños. You can add the peppers if your family likes these two ingredients. 

Kim's Super Easy Salsa

Makes  2 1/2 cups 

Ingredients:

1 large tomato, quartered, seeds removed

1 (28 oz.) can whole tomatoes, remove all liquid

1/2 a bunch of cilantro, rough chop

1/2 small onion, cut into large pieces

Juice of one lime

1/2 tsp. salt

Pepper to taste (optional)

Note: If adding bell pepper and jalapeño, use half of the bell pepper, cut into large pieces and seed the jalapeño or cut in half and leave the seeds in. Depending on how spicy you would like your salsa.

Add all the ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. A couple of minutes should do, but this varies according to the blender used. Add more lime juice and salt if it's not to your taste. I find it's just the right amount for our family.

We made burritos with these two recipes. 

Enjoy! Let me know how it turns out.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving! It is a time of  year to be with family and reflect on all the many blessings that we have been blessed with. 

Recipe Wednesday…Chicken Lentil Soup

Happy Hump Day! I have a really easy soup recipe that I threw together to share with you today. If you don't have the vegetables I used, you can pretty much use any vegetables you have in the fridge. It will come out great. This is a pretty large batch so if you have a small family, there will be plenty of leftovers. I am not really great at counting the servings, so I'm just going to warn you that this is a large pot of soup.

Chicken Lentil Soup