Scrumptious Sunday #20 - Features

I've had a fantastic week off, though all of you have been on my mind!  I've been reading all the submissions to Scrumptious Sunday (even while on holiday!)...everyone is so talented.  Thank you for taking the time to link up here at my party, I do appreciate it!

If you are featured, I sure would love for you to grab a BUTTON (and help promote my blog), thank you so much!

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Congratulations to this week's features!

We love smoothies in our house, and here are some great ideas!
7 Days of Green Monster Smoothies from Don't Waste the Crumbs

Summer and salads go hand in hand.  This one sounds delicious!
Lime Shrimp Salad from Dishing with Leslie

I love thai flavours.  I love pizza. This just makes sense :-)
Thai Chicken Pizza from Flavors by Four

These cookies and the how-to are too cute not to share!
Frog Cookies from Sugarkissed

These sound sinfully tasty!
Strawberry Jam Doughnut Muffins from The Pasture Times

All of these recipes will be pinned to my Pinterest account, posted on Twitter, and shared on Facebook!

Just a reminder, this week's Scrumptious Sunday Link Party goes live Saturday - at 8 pm PST. Can't wait to see what you bring to the party!

Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Sandwiches

A while back, Live Gorgeously shared her recipe for Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Sandwiches.  I KNEW that my husband would LOVE LOVE LOVE these, and I featured her recipe that week from my Scrumptious Sunday link party.  I've now made this recipe twice, once for my hubby and then recently for our baby's first birthday (for around 25 guests).  Verdict is below...here is the recipe:

Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Sandwiches

3 pound pork roast - not frozen (I used pork tenderloin)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Montreal Steak Spice

3-4 cups of Dr. Pepper (Coke can also be used, I only tried Dr. Pepper)
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoons liquid smoke

1/2 onion , minced

1/2 green pepper, minced

1 1/2 - 2 cups BBQ Sauce

Heat oil in large skillet.

Generously season the pork with the Montreal Steak Spice.  Rub the seasoning into the roast using your fingers.

Brown the pork on all sides.

Poke the pork on all sides several times, and place into a large crock pot.

Pour the Dr. Pepper over top of the meat.  Add in the minced onion, minced green pepper, worcestershire sauce and the liquid smoke.  Cover and cook on LOW for 6-7 hours.

Once the meat is cooked, remove from the crock pot and shred with a fork.  The meat should shred quite easily at this point.

Drain all the juices from the crock pot, but keep the onion and green pepper.  Place the shredded pork back into the crock pot and add the BBQ sauce over top.  Cover and cook on LOW for another hour.

Serve the pulled pork on toasted buns (we fired up the grill, buttered the buns and grilled them).  Serve with coleslaw, either on top or on the side.  On top adds an extra tasty crunch to the sandwich, and really does kick it up a notch.

VERDICT:

So, the first time I made the pulled pork, it was just as I suspected, my husband LOVE LOVE LOVED it.  Like seriously...he said it may be one of his new favourite meals.  If you have read my blog for a while, you may be sensing a trend here...many of my new recipes become his new favourites!  I decided to serve it again at our son's birthday party - changed it up slightly as I was cooking for 25 people - more pork, two crock pots, cooked and shredded the meat on Saturday and then did the BBQ sauce portion and served on Sunday.  And it was a HIT at the birthday party too!  It made for an EASY meal to prepare (crock pot = LOVE!) and we had nice leftovers for the next day!  This one will get made again...and maybe next time I will try with Coke, just to see the difference.

Homemade Hamburger Helper

Last month I wrote a guest post over at Everyday Mom's Meals.  Krista was so kind to host me as part of her Weekend Company series.  If you happened to miss my post, I wanted to share it with you here today!  Here it is:

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Today I had my LAST duty day of the school year at preschool.  I cannot believe that the school year is nearly OVER.  Where did that year go?  Our oldest will be starting KINDERGARTEN in September!  Didn't I just have him?  Seems like yesterday, not 5 years ago!

Today also happened to be a dreadfully dreary day.  We're caught in some wicked weather system that is dumping rain, rain, rain on us.  It was a homemade chicken noodle soup kind of day, but with my necessity to be at school, I didn't have the time to put it together.  So it became spaghetti night, or so I thought.

Once school was over, I had NO DESIRE to make spaghetti.  But what could I do with the ground beef that I had laid out?  Meatloaf? My boys would LOVE that...me, not so much.  What to do, what to do.  I thought about my Dad's "Hash" recipe (which essentially is a whole bunch of stuff hashed together...with a ground beef base and add in all the leftovers from the fridge) - but we are all out of leftovers.  So then I thought about Hamburger Helper.  I've seen it on TV many times, never tried making it on my own.  A quick little google search, read through some recipes, and found one to base dinner on.  The recipe I used was found at Food.com, and modified to include more vegetables.  Here is the recipe:

Homemade Hamburger Helper

1/2 lb ground beef
1 lb macaroni
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup green pepper, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 cups tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cook the pasta according to the box directions.  Drain and set aside.

While the pasta is cooking, cook the ground beef over medium in a large skillet.  Cook until the meat is browned.  Add in all the dry seasonings (including the flour) and stir until combined.

Add in the milk, tomato sauce and peas.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 minutes.

Add in the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, stir until melted.  Add in the macaroni, stir to combine.  Serve immediately.

VERDICT:
This was an absolute HIT.  Our five year old had THREE helpings.  And my husband loved it too.  he didn't want to share the leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, he wanted them all to himself. This could easily be a new go-to recpe for us in place of spaghetti!  Yay!!

Would love for you to follow me on Facebook too!

Scrumptious Sunday #20

Hello everyone! Happy Sunday! It's time to PARTY! (For some reason, the song "Red Solo Cup" is stuck in my head...maybe because we are in Calgary visiting family and for the Stampede, LOL).

Scrumptious Sunday Link Party #20 is now open. I am looking forward to reading all your recipes this week!

Don't forget, all featured recipes will be shared on my blog, and on my Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages!

Scrumptious Sunday #19 - Features

Another week, another great party! Thanks for taking the time to link up, I love looking at all of your recipes!

If you are featured, I sure would love for you to grab a BUTTON (and help promote my blog), thank you so much!

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Congratulations to this week's features!

I'm all about the summer drinks right now, and Julie's mojito looks so good!
Blackberry Lemonade Mojito from White Lights on Wednesday

I love my breads! This looks like something I could pull off :-)
Italian Bubble Loaf from All is Amazing

We eat a lot of potatoes in our house...this is a great new way to make them!
Baked Potato Stacks from The Rickett Chronicles

I love almond chicken, sadly, my hubby has an almond allergy.  But a girl can dream! (and maybe make this when he is away)
Almond Chicken from Aunt B on a Budget

This just sounds like a perfect dessert to me!
Cinnamon Blueberry Crumble from Lady Behind the Curtain

All of these recipes will be pinned to my Pinterest account, posted on Twitter, and shared on Facebook!

Just a reminder, this week's Scrumptious Sunday Link Party goes live Saturday - at 8 pm PST. Can't wait to see what you bring to the party!

Blueberry Maple Muffins

You've heard me say this before, but I love muffins.  They are such an easy thing to eat when you've got a baby attached to your hip (and only one hand free!).  I am always searching for new muffin recipes, especially muffins of the blueberry variety.  On my Facebook newsfeed this week was a link via the YummyMummy Club for Blueberry Maple Muffins.  Oh...these sound so interesting!  So much so that I made them as soon as the baby went for his nap (and I had two hands free! LOL).  Here is the recipe:

Muffins:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup fresh blueberries (coated with about a tablespoon of flour)


Topping:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
 (The original recipe called for slivered almonds, but because DH has an almond allergy, I replaced the almonds with a few chopped pecans)
Preheat oven to 375.

In a large bowl, mix together egg, maple syrup, milk and mleted butter. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Mix the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients, until just moistened (do not overmix).  Fold in the blueberries.  Spoon into lined muffin tops.

Mix together the topping ingredients, sprinkle topping over the muffins.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until done to your preference.  Makes 12-14 muffins.

VERDICT:

These are a HIT.  I love the maple flavour.  Our oldest son is inhaling these muffins.  Hubby likes them too! (he took 2 for lunch today).  I will most certainly be making these again!

Asian Noodle Salad

Last week, I told you about the Spicy Charred Calamari that I made....this is the accompanying salad!

Asian Noodle Salad (Source: Chatelaine, June 2012)


Fine rice-vermicelli noodles
2 teaspoons lemon zest
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

In a large bowl, cover noodles completely with boiling water.  Let stand, stirring regularly until the noodles are your desired tenderness, approximately 5-7 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, fish sauce and sugar.  This will be your dressing.

Drain your noodles and rinse in cold water (very important to do this!).  Squeeze the excess water from the noodles (also very important!).  Put the noodles back in the bowl, and add your dressing and cilantro.  Mix well.

Serve the noodles, top with the Spicy Charred Calamari, and enjoy!

VERDICT:
I really enjoyed the noodles, so nice, light and FRESH tasting.  We love cilantro (which is a GOOD thing since it is growing wild in our back yard this year!) so I am always happy to find recipes that call for cilantro (hint...when you make tacos, if you mix onion, lime and cilantro together, it makes the onions OH so so so good, we always have to have our taco onions prepared that way!).