Honey Lime Roasted Pork Loin (for tacos)

Pork Loin

Smoked paprika

Ground cumin

Ground coriander

Salt

Pepper

4 limes zested and halved

Onions

3 cloves of garlic

1 cup chicken or beef stock

Honey

Heat oven to 250F. Coat pork loin in dry spices and sear on all sides in a hot deep skillet with butter and olive oil, careful not to burn. De-glaze pan with chicken/beef stock scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan.

Turn heat off, add the zest and juice of four limes. Add lime halves, onions and garlic to the pan. Place oven safe skillet in the oven (or transfer everything to an oven safe dish/pan). Let cook for several hours making sure the juices in the pan don't evaporate fully. Meat should come out when you can pull meat easily with fork. My 2 pound loin took 5 hours. You can also do all of this in a crock pot after the searing. You would cook it on low for 7-8 hours. Let meat rest for 20 mins then shred with a fork. Remove limes, squeezing out the remainder of the juice with tongs then mix it all together with juices and onions left in the pan and add honey to desired sweetness.

Not your momma's chicken and biscuits

My mom used to spend hours making chicken and dumplings and boy did we really enjoy them, but you can have the home cooked experience of that meal without all of the fuss. It's even easier if you are using left over chicken or buy a rotisserie chicken at the store. Here's what you do.

Two cups of cubed or shredded chicken
Two cups of picsweet frozen mixed veggies
One box of chicken stock
Half a stick of butter
Half a cup of flour
One large white onion chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Garlic powder to taste
One teaspoon each of dried basil and dried oregano
One cup of water
One refrigerated tube of Pilsbury Southern Style Biscuits

Start out making your rue. This is adding the butter to a stock pot until melted on medium heat, then adding the onions. Let saute' until onions are translucent. Add in the salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil and oregano and simmer for 2 mins. Add half of the flour. This should produce a paste in the pan. If not, add a bit more of the flower until a paste is formed the consistency of peanut butter. Add chicken stock, stirring constantly, then add water. Raise heat to medium high and this should form a gravy-like consistency in about 7 minutes. If it's thicker, add more water, if it's too thin, add some water to the remainder of your flour and stir out the lumps...then add to the rue. Now, add the veggies and the chicken and let cook together for five minutes. Using the temp on the biscuit dough package, set the oven. This should be 350 degrees. Pour your "soup" into a baking dish and top with biscuit dough. I like to cut these in half and leave little breaks between them so the sauce can bubble up between them...mmm mmmm good! Place uncovered in the oven until biscuits are golden brown on top. Serve piping hot in a shallow bowl and sop up the extra juice with the biscuits. This is an easy, quick and delicious meal. Even my picky eaters suck all of this dish down! Enjoy!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

This makes plenty for seconds or to put in the freezer for a night you dont want to cook.  I like to put this in a freezer bag because you can boil the bag of soup when you take it out of the freezer.  Great for new moms who need ready made meals or those meal prepping

1/2 stick of butter

1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic

2 large carrots chopped tiny (i use my electric chopper and pulse it a few times)

Onions powder, garlic powder and chives or parsley to taste
2 boxes chicken broth
1.5 Cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 lg brick Velveeta - cubed
8  to 10 gold potatoes peeled and cubed
6 strips of bacon (or I cheat and buy the REAL bacon, bacon pieces)

pepper to taste
1/2 cup chopped green onions

Add onion, garlic, and carrots to the melted butter and cook until onions are translucent. Add pepper, parsley, onion powder and garlic powder. Do not add salt, the broth, cheese and bacon will salt it, you can taste it at the end to add more if needed. Add chicken broth, and potatoes and bring to a boil. If the broth doesnt cover the potatoes add water. Boil until potatoes are fork tender but not over soft.  Add a cup and a half of heavy cream and velveeta cubes and move the pan off the heat.  Stir until the cheese is incorporated into the soup.  If its too thin add more cheese or if you have instant potatoes you can add a little at a time until it reaches the desired consistency. Add bacon and green onions at the end and save a bit to garnish the top.

YumTum Cheese Biscuits

These biscuits lit up my tongue when I ate them a short time out of the oven but the next day I had one at room temp and it was still delish.

2pkg Martha White Sweet Cornbread Mix
1 1/2 C Shredded Mexican Cheese
2 Tbs minced green onion
2 Tbs. mild green chillies
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C milk.

Grease muffin pan. Mix all ingredients together and cook on 450 for 8-10 mins. until golden. These biscuits got 10 out of 5 DELISH points from Les...Happy baking

Marinade for asian style chicken/beef

It's so hard for me to give measurements, I cook to taste but here is a good recipe to spice up the meat for my quesadillas or fajitas. It's a hit in my house and I'm sure it will be in yours.

1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup honey
1Tbs crushed red pepper (more or less to taste)
1/4 to 1/2 cup soy sauce
3 cloves minced garlic

2 Tbsp ginger paste

mix ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat until honey is worked through the marinade. Cool and then marinate meat for at least a half hour. When cooking meat, pour marinade in the pan with the meat. It will render and soak into the meat for a very flavorful start to any Asian dish.

Fajita Quesadillas

This recipe is an original from my house so I thought it fitting that it would be the first recipe posted. It is gobbled up so fast, you'll wonder why you didn't think of it yourself!

8 burrito size tortillas (the thicker the better)
4 boneless skinless marinated chicken breasts cubed cooked and then shredded (recipe follows)

Sautéed peppers and onions
1 container of onion and chive cream cheese
1 bag of Mexican style shredded cheese
1 stick of butter

****chop chicken into small thin strips/pieces. In a large bowl add equal parts honey and orange juice, 1/4 C soy sauce and crushed red pepper, onion ppwder, garlic powder, oregano, chipotle pepper powder and cilantro to taste. Place raw chicken in the bowl and cover for 30 minutes to overnight. In a skillet add olive oil and strin the marinade out of the chicken then add to the skillet on medium high heat. Cook uncovered until chicken is cooked through and golden.  

Place pat of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Spread cream cheese over half of a tortilla and place cheese side UP in the skillet. Sprinkle shredded chicken over cream cheese. Top chicken with peppers and onions and shredded cheese and fold over the "bald" side of the tortilla and let sizzle a bit. Flip over to cook other side and let cheese melt. Place on a paper towel and cut with a pizza cutter into four even triangles. Serve with salsa and sour cream!