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As the cold weather drags on, all we want is something warm and easy. Cue the mushroom pork!
This dish is designed to be served over potatoes or rice, and is super simple! Pair with a steamed veggie for a complete meal that takes almost no effort to throw together! You only need three ingredients! The pork is super tender with plenty of flavor from the soup, this dump and go recipe can’t be beat!
Slow Cooker Mushroom Pork
Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Pork, Slow Cooker
Ingredients
6 lbs boneless pork
3- 10.5 oz cans of cream of mushroom soup
About 14 oz milk
Instructions
Place pork and canned soup into slow cooker.
Fill two of the cans about 2/3 of the way with milk to rinse extra soup out of cans. Pour milk into slow cooker.
Cook on high for 9 hours, stirring every few hours.
Using forks or a pair of tongs, shred the pork into the soup mixture. Serve hot over potatoes or rice.
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What’s your favorite dump and go slow cooker recipe? Share with us in the comments!
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The holidays are over. We apologize for our brief hiatus… between spending lots of time with family, catching up with sleep, and some technical difficulties, we haven’t managed to post for a bit. But you can bet now that the new year has officially started, you can expect two posts a week again!
During the holidays, I’m sure you’ve had your fill of ham. If you need something to use up the last of those leftovers, we have got the soup for you!
With plenty of hearty veggies and salty ham, this soup is a crowd pleaser for sure! And you can stretch your leftovers for another week while still mixing it up!
What is your favorite way to use holiday leftovers? Let us know in the comments!
Creamy Ham and Potato Soup
Comfort Foods, Dinner, Holiday, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Pork, Potatoes, Soup, Vegetable
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 bunch celery, sliced
8 potatoes, diced
1 onion, diced
8 cups ham, diced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup flour
6-7 cups water
3 TBS chicken base
6 cups milk
Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
In a large stock pot, combine carrots, celery, onion and butter. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted and onions become mostly translucent.
Add in potatoes and ham. Cook stirring often, until potatoes are just fork tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Gradually stir in flour until veggies and ham are coated.
In a small bowl, combine 6 cups of water and chicken base. Pour mixture into pot. Bring soup to a boil. Lower heat and add milk, stirring to combine. Add additional cup of water if you would like to thin down the soup.
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Thanksgiving is great, but if you’re anything like me you can get sick of turkey leftovers pretty quickly.
Here to save the day is this twist on the classic chicken strips…made from pork!
Crispy and tender just like their poultry counterparts, these pork strips are great for dipping or on their own!
We made a bunch and are keeping them on hand in our freezer. They make for a quick dinner paired with mashed potatoes and a side of veggies!
These have a very subtle barbecue flavor, but are so simple to make! With a little planning on your part, you’ll give your family a meal they’ll beg for over and over!
Pork Strips
Comfort Foods, Dinner, Fried, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Non-Traditional, Pork, Uncategorized
Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs pork shoulder
1 cup and 1 splash whole milk, divided
2 tablespoons western BBQ seasoning, divided
4 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
Instructions
Slice pork shoulder into 1 inch wide by 1/2 inch pieces. Tenderize meat strips and place in a container for marinating. Marinate meat in 1 cup milk and 1 tablespoon western BBQ seasoning for a minimum of 2 hours. For best results, marinate for 6 hours.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs and a splash of whole milk, mixing until eggs are beaten and milk is completely mixed in. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1 tablespoon western BBQ seasoning, and black pepper until fully combined. Prepare a pan with parchment paper.
Remove slices from marinade and shake off excess liquid. Dredge in flour mixture, then eggs, then flour again. Place breaded strips onto prepared pan, layering more parchment paper as needed.
Place pan into freezer to solidify breading for at least one hour. *
When ready to fry, preheat deep fryer to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a maximum of 4 strips into the fryer at a time, frying for 5-7 minutes or until golden brown. Place on paper towels to drain excess oil.
Notes
* To store in freezer, remove strips from pan and place in a freezer safe bag. Good for up to 3 months. Follow frying instructions above when ready to eat.
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Crisp leaves falling outside, temperatures dropping, sweaters being pulled out of the closet… Fall is absolutely the best!
One of the best parts of when the weather gets colder is you can finally pull out your favorite soup recipes! Sure, you can make soup during the summer, but you’ll heat up the house like crazy! And the best part of soup is eating it to warm up!
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This split pea soup is made in the slow cooker, so you can easily start it in the morning and come back to it after a fun romp in the brisk outdoors! So hearty and good, your family will beg to have it again and again!
Now you’re going to need a ham bone or something similar to make this recipe! We save our bones from when we buy pork shoulders to make pulled pork. I’ve seen others save the bones from their spiral hams or use smoked ham hocks. If you don’t have one saved in your freezer, you can likely find something at your local butcher’s.
This dump-and-go soup is one you’ll want to keep on hand all season long!
Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup
Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Pork, Soup
Ingredients
1 ham bone
2 lbs cooked ham, chopped
16 oz bag dried green split peas
1 lb carrots, sliced
2 ribs of celery, sliced
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 tbs minced garlic
3 tbs dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Instructions
Place the ham bone in the slow cooker.
Layer in the rest of the ingredients in listed order above, spreading through the entire crock pot. Pour over the chicken broth last, making sure broth covers everything in the pot.
Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Stir occasionally during cooking.
Once peas are tender, remove ham bone from the soup, allowing to cool for a few minutes. Tear off any ham on the bone and return to the soup.
Discard bone and bay leaf. Using a spoon, smash some of the peas against the side of the slow cooker and stir until desired consistency is reached.
Disclosure: Some links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
Summer is in full swing, and barbecues are being pulled out every day by families all over the country.
If you don’t feel like the classics like ribs, burgers, or chicken, you can always grill up these juicy pork chops! They’re healthier than beef, not to mention a whole lot cheaper, but heartier than chicken.
We use mesquite barbecue sauce for ours, but you could slather yours in whatever you’d like!
Grilled Mesquite Pork Chops
Barbecue, Comfort, Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Pork, Spicy
Ingredients
1 package of bone in pork chops
1 TBS onion powder
1 TBS black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp curry powder
1 bottle mesquite barbecue sauce
Instructions
Place pork chops on a baking sheet to prepare.
In a medium bowl, combine onion powder, black pepper, paprika, and curry powder.
Sprinkle half of the seasonings over the pork chops. Flip and repeat on the other side. Rub seasonings in to adhere to meat.
Heat grill to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Place chops on grill for 5 minutes, then lower heat to 425 degrees. Cook for 10 minutes.
Flip pork chops and spread sauce on up side. Cook for 5 minutes, then flip again, covering the other side with sauce.
Cook for an additional 5 minutes before flipping and covering in sauce again.
Remove from grill and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
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Pair these with a salad and maybe a side of corn or potatoes for the ultimate summer meal!
Getting bored with all this barbecue talk? Let us know what you want to see next!
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Grilling is one of my favorite things – being out in the open air with the smell of food wafting around you while your family hangs out in the shade nearby (I live with a couple of vampires). There are not many things better.
What is not great is when you have to pay high hamburger prices to make up delicious juicy burgers – not to mention red meat is not exactly the best for you. Our family usually doesn’t buy hamburger, and have actually lost a lot of our taste for it. (Don’t get me wrong, we still love a good burger!) So when I grill, I mix it up by grinding our own burger and making it out of a combination of pork and chicken.
These burgers come with all the hearty, juicy flavor you expect from a burger without making you feel heavy. Not to mention its much easier on the wallet.
We recently made this for a family party and everyone loved them! Even though they are half poundburgers(!), almost everyone had a second one.
We grind our own meat, but you can always get ground meat from the grocery store. We do highly recommend grinding your own meat. You can save a lot of money and the grind is always fresh!
White Meat Burgers
Barbecue, Chicken, Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Non-Traditional, Pork, Summer
Ingredients
4 pounds ground pork
2 pounds ground chicken dark meat
1/2 pound ground chicken skin
1/2 cup onion powder
1/4 cup garlic powder
Salt to taste
Minced garlic to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste
Instructions
In a large bowl, combine pork, chicken, and skin with your hands, blending well.
Add seasonings and mix with hands.
Using a burger press or your hand measure out desired size patties and make them as round as possible. This recipe yields 13 half pounders or 26 quarter pounders.
Using your thumb, lightly depress center of eat patty.
Allow patties to rest in the fridge from one hour to overnight.
Heat grill to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Grill patties until cooked through. Cooking times will vary by grill – ours took 6 minutes on each side. Check temperature to determine when they are done. The USDA recommends meat to be cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove from grill. Allow patties to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Disclosure: Some links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
The few times we get carry out, we have a favorite Chinese place we go to. Their family combos are to die for, and we always add on an extra order of their crispy cream cheese wontons.
Since we can’t get out as often as we would like, we’ve found its cheaper to make our favorite Asian inspired dishes ourselves. This pork stir fry gives you all the umami you’d expect from your favorite place with the ease of staying in home while you whip it up hot in your own wok!
We cook up our rice in our pressure cooker to make it fast and fluffy! No need to get a single function rice cooker!
We used a bag of frozen veggies from Costco to make ours. You can always substitute fresh produce in, but we find it is often cheaper to grab these veggies frozen – especially when they aren’t in season.
In a medium bowl, whisk corn starch and cold water. Add remaining sauce ingredients, mixing as you go. Set aside
Start the Stir fry:
Add 1 1/2 TBS olive oil to deep skillet or wok and heat over medium high heat. Add pork, cook in batches if necessary, and add salt and pepper to taste as cooking. Cook for 5 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from pan.
Add remaining oil and reduce heat to medium. Add frozen vegetables to pan, stirring occasionally until heated through but not soggy.
Add garlic powder and powdered ginger and cook for a minute. Add pork back into pan, stirring to combine.
Mix sauce again in case of separation. Our over meat and vegetables, stirring gently to coat.
Increase heat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Let boil for a minute.
Remove from heat. Serve hot over rice.
Notes
**The frozen bag of vegetables we use includes: broccoli, sugar snap peas, green beans, carrots, mushrooms, red bell peppers, water chestnuts and yellow onions. You can use 2 1/2 lbs of whatever fresh vegetables you like. When cooking, cook vegetables until cooked through but still a little crisp.
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Spring is in the air – but if you live anywhere like we do, April still has a chill in the air. Around here that means soup time!
One of our heartiest and budget friendly soups is our Taco Soup! Filled with lots of protein and brimming with flavor, we can never have enough!
You can make this recipe even simpler if you want to use canned beans instead of soaking your own. Or make it faster by using a pressure cooker to cook up your beans!
Garnished with tortilla chips, sour cream, and green onions for a fiesta in a bowl!
Slow Cooker Taco Soup
Comfort, Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Mexican, Pork, Soup
Ingredients
3 lbs pork shoulder, cut into bite sized chunks
1 1/2 cups dried pinto beans
1 1/2 cups dried black beans
1 1/2 cups dried kidney beans
5 TBS Taco Seasoning
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 can of corn
7 cups of water
2 TBS of chicken base powder
2 medium Anaheim peppers, finely chopped and separated
1 bunch of green onion, chopped
1 lb of cheddar cheese, shredded
Sour cream
Tortilla chips
Instructions
Mix dried beans in a large bowl or pot. Fill bowl with enough water to cover the beans. Soak overnight. Drain beans.
Mix beans, pork, 4 TBS of the taco seasoning, diced tomatoes, 3 cups of water, 1 TBS chicken base and corn in a 6 QT slow cooker. Cook on high for 2 hours.
Add 1/2 of a medium Anaheim pepper. Cook for another 5 hours on high.
Add remaining water, chicken base, and taco seasoning. Cook for an additional 2 hours, bringing the total cook time to 9 hours.
Garnish soup with tortilla chips, remaining Anaheim peppers, green onions, cheese, and sour cream.
Notes
If using canned beans use 3 15oz cans of beans, drained, for each variety. They will not need to be soaked. Reduce cook time by 1 hour and cook on low instead of high.
In our house we love to cook things low and slow! Nothing tastes better than tender pork cooked to perfection. The only problem is how much effort it can take.
That is unless you use our slow cooker recipe!
Perfect for the summer time, this pork has gotten many the compliment and pat on the back. It’s a go to recipe when I have a potluck. And it’s versatile! Shredded pork tacos? You are set! Barbecue sandwiches? Done!
We prefer to cook for about 14 hours – crazy, I know. But I have never met a more tender pork with such a basic recipe!
Stick it in your favorite slow cooker and let it stew. Here are a few of our favorites:
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Pork
Ingredients
4 cups warm water
1TBS chicken bouillon
10lb bone in pork shoulder
Instructions
In a medium bowl, combine the warm water and chicken bouillon.
Carve the pork shoulder – removing excess fat and removing most of the meat off of the bone. Cut meat into chunks to fit into slow cooker (about 3” squared pieces, they do not have to be uniform). Save the bone.
Put half of the bouillon into the crockpot. Put all the meat into the crock pot. Put in the remaining half of the liquid. If there is room in the crockpot place the bone at the top to make a richer pork taste. If you can’t fit it in or don’t want that strong of a flavor, save the bone for soups!
Place the lid on the slow cooker. Cook on high for 10 hours.
Remove bone and use tongs or forks to break up the meat.** Cook on low for another 4 hours
Use tongs to serve.
Notes
**If you are adding barbeque sauce, taco sauce, or any other sauces, add it at this step.
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Crispy crust around warm meat paired with mashed potatoes and white gravy – what could be better?
This traditionally southern comfort food is part of our family’s regular rotation. Whenever I hit a store I check the meat department for sweet deals, and one of my favorite finds is pork loin! I grab a few when the price is right. I grind some up, and slice the rest extra thin. I bread them and freeze them so we always have these fried steaks on hand!
We usually deep fry ours, but you can fry them up in a skillet if you want. Then we cook up our mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot and grab a packet of white gravy and we’re good to go!
Chicken Fried Steaks
Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meat, Pork
Ingredients
1 Pork loin
5 cups flour
1/4 cup onion powder
1/4 cup garlic powder
1/4 cup black pepper
10 eggs
1/4 cup milk
Instructions
Thinly slice the pork loin into half inch slices. Using a meat mallet, pound the meat until its about a quarter inch thick.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and the spices. In a shallow dish (like a pie pan), beat the eggs and milk.
Bread the pork in the flour mixture first, then egg mix, then flour again. Shake off excess flour and place flat on a baking sheet. Freeze the breaded steaks for at least 2 hours until semi solid. If not eating immediately, place steaks into a freezer bag. Store for up to 6 months in the freezer.
When ready to eat, heat your deep fryer to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Deep fry the steaks for 7-10 minutes until golden brown, flipping at the 4 minute mark. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot with country gravy and mashed potatoes.
