Mango Pork Kabobs

About 2 weeks ago I went out to a restaurant in Royal Oak, MI for a girls night out and one of the specials was this pork kabob masterpiece. Seriously. I wasn’t listening super closely to the description, so really I was on my own. I guessed that the relish that was on it contained mango, and I knew there was red onion on the kabob. This inspired me to try to replicate it best I can.  This was the result.

I have to tell you that this is one of the most off-the-cuff recipes I have ever made, but it is also now one of my favorites. The flavors work perfectly, and my husband who is not a huge pork fan also loved it.

The best part, this dish (if served with the correct proprtions) is 430 cal and 15g fat per serving (though that included the green beans I served on the side).

Enjoy!

Mango Pork Kabobs

Mango Pork Kabobs

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 cup cooked white rice

2 6oz pork chops, not thin cut, boneless, cut into large pieces (appx. 4 pieces ber chop)

1 medium red onion,  1/3 cut into large pieces and there rest chopped

1 mango

1 tsp fresh garlic

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp garlic powder

EVOO

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cook your rice.

Cut the mango into small pieces and set aside. Take the chopped red onions and saute with a small amount of EVOO and the fresh garlic until soft. Mix with the mango pieces, then add the soy sauce. Set aside, preferebly in the fridge, while you cook the rest.

Mango Relish

Preheat your grill or grill pan to medium. Put the pork chops and larger pieces of onion onto skewers. Drizzle the chops with a small amount of EVOO and season evenly with the garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Grill appx 7 minutes on each side and cook the pork to 160 degrees.

My new grill pan!

Serve over rice with the mango mixture. Delicious!

Italian-style Baked Zucchini

The best part about this recipe, I learned how to spell zucchini.

Ok, I lied.  This dish was good, not my best though.  I think it needs a little something, but it probably requires a lot of oil and frying. Ideas are welcome.  This recipe was adopted from a Zucchini Provncal dish that sounded, well, gross.  I don’t do lavendar.

I hope you like it, and can help me improve it.

Italian Style Zucchini Back

Italian Style Zucchini Bake

Ingredients

1 large zucchini

6 tbsp EVOO, divided into 2

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tbsp italian seasoning

1 tsp garlic

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/3 cup parmersean cheese, shredded

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange the zucchini in a pie place or baking dish with each piece overlapping slightly.

Arrange the zucchini overlapping then drizze the olive oil (3 tbsp) and spices on it

Once arranged, drizzle 3 tbsp of olive oil over the zucchini and put the spices on it.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

While it is baking, mix the bread crumbs, parmersan cheese, and 3 tbsp olive oil together and set aside.  After the 30 minutes of baking, put the breadcrumbs on the zucchini and bake another 10 minutes. Then, turn your broiler on high and broil for 5 minutes, watching the entire time so you don’t burn it!

Impossibly Spicy Spaghetti (and meatballs)

I’m back!  I have a few things saved up from my month off. I can’t wait to share it all!

Donald’s family makes the most fantastic meatballs. Seriously. They are amazing. Unfortunately, they require a cooking method is one I don’t particularly love (deep frying) but the flavor is worth it. I am sure you can bake them, but its one of the few foods my husband won’t compromise on.

We like to make a bunch of meatballs at a time, usually 6lbs of ground beef. This makes enough for us for months. They freeze perfectly and cook up well after freezing.

I only have one picture of the final dish. If we make these again soon, I will take pictures of the process. Its hard to take pictures because you are literally up to your elbows in beef.

Spicy Spaghetti and Meatballs

Meatballs

Ingredients

3 lbs ground beef, at most 90% lean

1 cup Italian style breadcrumbs

2 eggs

1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1/3 cup shredded romano cheese

2 tbsp Italian seasoning

2 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp parsley, basil, oregano

2 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

Directions

Mix all of the ingredients together. That’s it.

Ok there is a bit more to it than that. There is a very specific texture that you need to achieve here, there is a delicate balance of breadcrumbs and egg in the meatballs that allows them to stick together very well and yet still be firm when you roll them up into a ball, they should not squish easily between your fingers.  You want them to have some “bounce” when you gently squeeze them.

Preheat your deep fryer to 325 degrees.

Roll 3 to 4 meatballs and then cook them for 5 minutes, and taste them. Make sure your spice balance is right. You want them to be very flavorful as they are.

Once you have your spice balance and texture right, cook tem all up and then allow to cool. They will freeze perfectly in a gallon sized bag.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Ingredients

1 jar pasta sauce, your choice

1 can diced tomato

1 can (small can) tomato paste

1 jalapeno, diced small (I remove the seeds…)

1/2 onion chopped finely

2 tbsp crushed red pepper

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp crushed garlic

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

2 tsp each oregano, basil, parsley

1 tbsp brown sugar… trust me

1 tbsp tabasco (no more spice, I promise)

Meatballs!

EVOO

Directions

In your dutch oven or large saucepan, saute the onion and jalapeno until softened. Then add the pasta sauce, tomato and the paste. Make sure the sauce is a little watery at this point, a lot of that water will cook off and you want it to be a bit thin right now for the meatballs.

Add there rest of the ingredients EXCEPT THE BROWN SUGAR. Save that. Make sure that the meatballs are submerged completely by the sauce.

Heat until it bubbles then turn down to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 2 hours at least, but its better if you go  4-5 hours.

1.5 hours from completion, add the brown sugar.

At the end, if the pasta is still a little too watery, leave the top off and heat to medium for a few minutes. It won’t last long.

Technology-driven break

Unfortunately, my laptop is in triage, and my substitute laptop is my work laptop, so I don’t feel comfortable installing the software to upload directly from the camera. I hope to be back up and running next week. In the meantime, I have made italian-style baked zucchini and impossibly spicey meatballs which I will happily post upon my return.

Miss you all, back in a week or 2.

Loki