And the winner is...

OK, I actually have a few recipes to post today. But first things first!!! Back to last week's cliff hanger. "Who won the battle of the soups??!!", I'm sure all two of you have been asking yourself daily, checking my blog in disappointment when you saw there was nothing there. Well, here's what you've been waiting for. I think that my "revised version" of the soup really tasted like the original, but it had more veggies and that's always good, so I'm going to go with version #2 as the decided winner. It is quite a delicious and healthy soup either way. I will post that recipe below.



Now onto the rest of my cooking adventures. I always cook dinner on Sunday. "Supper" for clarification since Sunday is the only day of the week when we folks in the south refer to lunch as "dinner" - I've never understood that. Anyway, wanted to try something new and wanted to do a pork roast so I found a recipe for Pork Chile Rojo. Sounded good and had high ratings on allrecipes, my recipe "holy city", if you will (I'm not being blasphemous here, please note). If allrecipes.com had a frequent flyer club, I'd have several free round trip tickets to anywhere around the world. I'm what you would call and addict. Anyway, I digress.



I made the pork, it was good, but not something that you want to eat the leftovers several times because it is soooo delicious. It was a one time meal kind of "I like it". Well, obviously we had a little left over since it was a 4.25lb roast and there are only two of us. So, I went to my recipe holy land and found a KILLER Pork Chile Casserole to make with the leftovers and it KILLED. Very, very yummy. Richard had his as burrito stuffing, and I ate mine as casserole with a salad. I topped with low fat sour cream and some taco sauce. Well, Richard only got the taco sauce because he thinks that sour cream is evil (weirdo). Asheley came over to help me decide on the hanging of artwork and the final (or at least final for now) furniture placement before we take the overstock to storage, and she had some of the casserole and like it too. Could be that she was famished from a day of no eating, but I'm going to cling to the idea that it's because the casserole was so friggin' good.

Here are the recipes that mentioned in this post:

Pork Chile Rojo
· 1 (4 pound) boneless pork shoulder roast, trimmed
· 3 tablespoons chili powder
· 1 cup chopped onions
· 4 cups water
· 2 (16 ounce) jars salsa
· 2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
· Juice from 1 lime

1. Place the pork roast into an oven roasting bag set inside a slow cooker. Sprinkle the chili powder over the roast and arrange onions on top of the roast. Loosely close the top of the bag with a nylon tie. Use scissors to cut 3 vents, 1-inch long in the top of the bag. Pour the water into the bottom of the slow cooker, around the bag, so that it is at least 1 inch deep.
2. Cover and cook the pork on Low for 6 to 8 hours.
3. Remove the pork and onions from the bag and place in a large Dutch oven; reserve 3/4 cup of liquid from the bag. Shred the pork by pulling it apart using two forks. Stir the salsa, tomatoes, and cooking liquid in with the shredded pork.
4. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Gina's Turkey Vegetable Soup
· 1 package ground turkey ( I believe the Butterball packages are 1 ¼ pound)
· 6 slices turkey bacon chopped
· 1 onion, chopped
· 2 cloves garlic, minced
· Salt, pepper, coriander, Italian seasoning
Brown in a little olive oil until turkey is done – DO NOT DRAIN
· 2 ½ cups frozen vegetables (I used the mix of corn, carrots, green beans and English peas)
· 2 cups of gumbo vegetables (okra, red peppers, peppers, onions and corn)
· 3-4 fresh yellow squash chopped (I used chunky pieces)
· 1 large can diced tomatoes
· 1 can rotel
· 1 medium can tomato sauce meatloaf seasoning (I believe this was made by Del Monte)
· 4-5 cups Chicken stock/broth (I always use Swanson’s organic, low sodium)
· Ketchup to taste (I probably used almost ¼ cup)
· Worcestershire sauce to taste (I probably used almost a ¼ cup)
Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, or cook on low in a crockpot for 6 or so hours.

Pork and Green Chili Casserole
· 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
· 1 1/2 pounds boneless pork loin chops, cut into bite-size pieces
· 1 1/2 cups instant brown rice, uncooked
· 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
· 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
· 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
· 2 (4 ounce) cans diced green chile peppers
· 3 tablespoons chunky salsa
· 1/4 cup water
· 2 tablespoons ground cumin
· 1 cup shredded Colby cheese
*I modified this recipe slightly because my pork was already cooked with tomatoes and salsa in it, so I just used 1 can or rotel. Also, mine was pulled and not cubed.
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan or stock pot over medium-high heat. Add pork, and saute until browned. Drain off grease. Add the rice, cream of chicken soup, black beans, tomatoes, green chiles, salsa and water. Season with cumin. Stir to blend, then bring to a boil. Simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes, or until the rice is tender.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). When the pork mixture is cooked, transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle cheese over the top.
3. Bake for 5 to 10 minutes, until cheese is melted. Serve with tortillas

Well - that's all for now. Have a great weekend!