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- 2 cups corn masa flour (like Maseca)
- 2 cups water
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- vegetable or coconut oil for cooking
- 10-ounce container of Sabra Chipotle Hummus
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large zucchini, diced (about 1 cup)
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 1 cup white button mushrooms, diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup queso fresco or feta cheese crumbles
- Sour cream
- store-bought balsamic glaze
- In a large bowl, combine flour, water, salt. Mix thoroughly until forming soft dough.
- Preheat an cast iron pan or griddle over medium heat.Drizzle with 1-2 Tablespoons of oil.
- Divide dough into 8 equal-sized balls. Press each ball between the palms of your hand and flatten to discs 3″ in circumference.
- Cook each disc for 3-5 minutes on each side until each side begins to look slightly golden.
- Place on a serving plate and cover with cloth napkin to keep warm and soft.
- In a large non-stick pan, heat pan to medium heat and add olive oil.
- Add the diced vegetables and spices and cook for 7 minutes making sure the zucchini stays bright green and not mushy.Add the queso fresco into mix.
- Take one sope and add about 2 Tablespoons Sabra Chipotle Hummus.
- Top hummus with 1/4 cup of veggies and cheese and drizzle with sour cream and balsamic glaze.
- BBQ PULLED PORK: I placed 4-5 cups of cooked pork in the crock pot and emptied 1 1/2 bottles of favorite BBQ sauce and heated on low for an hour before company arrived
- 2 cups frozen sweet potato fries
- 1 1/2 cups cooked pulled pork
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
- sour cream
- 9 pounds bone-in pork shoulder, as much fat removed and cut in large chunks
- 3-4 ounces Szeged Rib Rub Seasoning
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 large white or yellow onions, sliced
- 8 cups vegetable or beef broth
- 6-quart crock pot
- Remove as much fat from the shoulder and cut shoulder in large chunks.
- Rub the seasoning over all the meat and then place in a plastic container and cover.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- Remove from fridge in the morning.
- In a large skillet, heat to medium heat and sear each side of the pork chunks for 3 minutes on each side.
- Place all the seared meat into the crock pot.
- In the same pan, place the sliced onions and cook over the same heat for 5 minutes to allow the onion and drippings to deglaze pan.
- Place the onions over the meat.
- Cover meat with broth and place crock pot on low and cook for 10-12 hours or until meat is falling off bone.
- Remove the pork from the broth and place in a large plate or heat resistant container.
- Remove the bones and shred the pork with 2 forks.
- Weigh and divide meat into 1-pound portions.
- Make Loaded Pulled Pork Sweet Potato Fries http://singerskitchen.com/recipes/?recipe_id=6077605
- Community Foodbank of New Jersey
- Philabundance
- The FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Inc.
- Maryland Food Bank
- Food Bank for Westchester
- Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York
- Connecticut Food Bank
- Food Bank of Delaware
- Food Bank of South Jersey
- Avocados from Mexico Mexican Hass Avocados
- Earthbound Farm®
- Eat Smart® Fresh Cut Vegetables
- Fresh Express® Packaged Salads
- Kings River Packing California Citrus
- Maries® Dressings
- RealSweet® Vidalia® Onions
- Setton Farms® Pistachios
- To¬Jo Mushrooms
- Wholly Guacamole®
- 1 container (5-ounces) Earthbound Farms Deep Green Blends Kale
- 1 1/2 cups grilled chicken, chopped
- 2 Kings River Mandarins, peeled, sliced and chopped
- 1/3 cup Setton Farms Pistachios, shelled
- 2/3 cups fresh raspberries
- 3 Tablespoons granola
- 3 Tablespoons Marie's Raspberry Vinaigrette
- Mix all the ingredients except nuts and granola together in a large salad bowl and toss. Add granola and pistachios at the end.
Spicy Mexican Veggie Sopes for National Hummus Day
May 13th, 2016
Just when you thought all holidays had been celebrated, and then here I bring in a fun one. Yes, May 13th is National Hummus Day so why not enjoy today with your favorite container of Sabra Hummus for your #UnOfficialMeal or Snacketizer (Snack + Appetizer). This is a sponsored post with Sabra,
Many people might not know it but my husband definitely knows that if someone were to ask me where I would like to go to eat for dinner, I usually will say I feel like eating Mexican. My husband has to anticipate this by telling me that he does not feel like eating Mexican food. Usually though, he goes with my consistent craving and we visit our local Mexican food joint
While hummus is not really considered Mexican, there are flavor components that easily can make it so. Chickpeas, or garbanzos, are consumed many ways but not usually as a dip. Even though I have tried to go through all Sabra hummus options, I get stuck on my favorite ones and forget about the variety available.
Refried beans are typically used in many Mexican dishes especially in sopes, which are fried masa or corn dough discs that are thicker that corn tortillas. They are usually topped with refried beans, veggies, meat and topped with salsa. They are usually offered as appetizers or antojitos in Mexico but I like them for lunch sometimes too!
What works nicely is that an antojito literally means “little cravings” and are small meals enjoyed in between the main meals of the day so you can technically consider them as an #UnOfficialMeal, a campaign that Sabra is sharing all over social media. Our family is always all about the unofficial meal because my girls are growing and they are constantly hungry so healthy snacks are necessary.
Back to sopes though. As I was creating this appetizer, I almost did not have a recipe to share because my husband almost ate my fried masa but he reminded stopped himself because he knew I prepared them because I am always having a Mexican food craving. While that was kind of him, I otherwise would have been out frustrated that part of my recipe was consumed!
Instead of the typical refried beans component, I used Sabra’s Chipotle Hummus as the base and then made a typical calabaza or typical sautéed squash mixture to go layer on top of the hummus. While one sope might seem a lot for a little snack, two is okay to have. Protein packed snacks are healthy and delicious and great for the whole family.
Feel free to substitute your own Sabra hummus flavor for the base of the sope and tell me what you like best. Garlic and Roasted Red Pepper would make a great combination as well. Either way, celebrate today with your favorite flavor and with a loved one and enjoy National Hummus Day!
Here is a coupon for you at www.sabra.com. Coupon available only on 5/13 (midnight to midnight EST)
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The Tastiest and Easiest Pulled Pork
May 12th, 2016
This pulled pork recipe is so easy despite the ingredients and steps. It really does not require a whole bunch of ingredients because what really makes this recipe is the rub used and the searing of the meat. This recipe will give you plenty of leftovers for many different meals that I will be sharing. Enjoy!
Most weeks it is practically impossible to sit and share some of the meals I have been preparing for my family. I am thankful for Instagram for keeping record of all the meals I prepare so I can go back and share them with you. This past weekend we hosted a family of 7 and I had to come up with an easy but tasty meal. Despite the wet and cool weather we have been having, I knew that I had to get past that and charge through, looking to summer with some BBQ Pulled Pork and Baked Potatoes.
When it comes to handling raw meat, I run out the kitchen leaving my husband to deal with it, but I can’t always do that and I know I have to pull up my big girl pants and learn how to cook and prepare different cuts especially with pork. When I found a GREAT deal on bone-in pork shoulder at GIANT Food Markets, I knew that pulled pork was in my future.
I have had an unused canister of Szeged Rib Rub for a while and knew that this was going to make my pork a star. Not only that, but since I was using bone-in pork, I knew that there would be more flavor in my finished product. I rubbed the seasoning over all the pork and refrigerated the meat overnight. The day after I seared the meat on each side and placed in a large 6-quart crock pot. After that I sliced 2 yellow onions and let them cook in the pan where I had seared the pork. I then added it to the crock pot and poured 8 cups of vegetable broth and several minced garlic into the mix.
My husband went to bed dreaming of the meat since the whole house smelled of seared pork. Best ever right?
The pork cooked overnight for 7 hours and then I let it cook another 4 hours. The meat was falling off the bone and it tasted really great! I removed the broth and then set the pulled aside and removed the bone. I then used 2 forks to shred the pork and divided the cooked pork for different meals.
HOW TO USE COOKED PULLED PORK:
A photo posted by Noelle-Opera Singer in Kitchen (@singerinkitchen) onLOADED PULLED PORK SWEET POTATO FRIES
by
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Keywords: bake melted appetizer entree pork sweet potato summer
Ingredients (2 adult servings + 2 kid servi)
Instructions
Cook sweet potato fries according to package instructions about 15-20 minutes.
When the fries finish cooking, place cheese over the fries and then heat pulled pork in a skillet or in microwave and place the shredded pork over the cheese.
Place in oven and melt the cheese for 5 minutes.
Remove from oven and sprinkle diced tomatoes over fries and drizzle with sour cream and green onions.
This makes 2 large portions for adults and 2 for toddlers.
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disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon which means if you purchase I will receive a small percentage from your purchase thanks to my recommendation which helps keep this site alive and active. Thanks!
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Treat Your Loved Ones to Breakfast All-Day
May 7th, 2016
Give your mom a break this weekend by sending her off to enjoy a HOT cup of coffee with one of Dunkin’ Donuts new additions to the menu including breakfast all-day. Thanks to them for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.
I cannot believe it is May especially with the continuous dreary, cold and rainy weather. If you are in Pennsylvania like me, then you know what I am talking about. By the time summer decides to arrive, I will be at the doctor’s office getting Vitamin D supplements because the lack of sunshine has been obsolete. How do I vary the monotony of the weather? Sometimes, I take myself and the girls for a treat or even a place that serves breakfast all-day!
One of the things my girls have been asking quite often is to have breakfast for dinner which in some aspects, makes for an easier dinner prep. On weekends that my husband is out-of-town, I give myself a break from cooking and take the girls out for breakfast at a local cafe. Some people think I am crazy doing this with three young girls but it really is easier for me since the older girls LOVE eating out. Even so it is nice to see seeing breakfast permeate through the entire day and Dunkin’ Donuts is a great destination for on-the-go people who want a quick bite or a meal any time of day. Breakfast is available all day long!
Sometimes there are mornings that are just fast-paced (because I am slow some mornings) and I do not get to eat breakfast so I drop off my oldest at preschool and go to Dunkin’ Donuts which is really close to her school since her class only lasts for 2.5 hours. My girls like donuts and I occasionally like treating them to them. Growing up, all sugary items were mostly prohibited in our home because my mom was focusing on all-natural eating but that just caused me to rebel. I do not want my girls to do the same, so I share with them that there are occasional time to have a treat.
On this one occasion, we settled at our local Dunkin’ Donuts and shared some new treats that the store is offering. While I ordered a breakfast sandwich, I also ordered their new Blueberry Cobbler Croissant Donut and new Caramel Latte Square for us to try. I was never aware of the Croissant Donut but the first one appeared at Dunkin’ Donuts in 2014 as a limited-time only menu item, and became one of the most popular limited-time bakery items in recent brand history. Where was I?
The Blueberry Cobbler Croissant Donut is super tantalizing on its own with its cinnamon and sugar crumble on top. You wouldn’t know it was filled with blueberry but when cut in half, there is the blueberry cobbler waiting to be devoured. In the past, I have enjoyed some filled donuts but truth be told, this was not my favorite. There was hardly any semblance or flavor of blueberry other than the color.
I would have done without the filling and just gone with the Croissant part easily. The Croissant Donut part was soft and flaky and slightly sweet which was a nice balance to the crumble on the outside of the donut. It is a very dense donut and runs at $2.49 for one.
On the other hand, the Caramel Latte Square was hands down the better donut. Everything tasted like coffee from the glaze to the cream filling. It paired well with a hot espresso with cream. I like that the donut is a different shape than the normal donuts and it proved to be more popular with my girls too. It runs at $1.49 for each glazed goodie.
Treat your moms and wives this weekend to an iced or hot coffee paired with one of these new donuts and give your own opinion. Dunkin’ Donuts knows that their guests don’t always have time to sit down and enjoy a complete meal, so they have continued to create menu options that provide delicious choices they can enjoy anywhere, at any time of day.
Have a great Happy Mother’s Day!
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Chicken Raspberry Kale Salad
May 4th, 2016
Want to learn how to get your kids to eat kale and salad anytime? Check out this scrumptious salad we created as a family for Produce for Kids and ACME Markets.
Gloomy and rainy days can take a toll on anyone especially when it is May and the winter seemed so long. Where are the sunny warm days? As a mother of three it is always a challenge to keep things interesting on a daily basis for my very energetic kids. At one point, I decided a great way to keep them occupied was to have them in the kitchen with me, learning skills that were safe for their age and learning about all kinds of foods. Produce for Kids® has been a great resource because they are all about educating families about healthy-eating.
Eating what is in season only became part of my vocabulary in 2010 when I moved to Michigan and I frequented farmer’s markets and learned about restaurants that changed their menus seasonally. It was so exciting and so inspiring. It continued inspiring me in my own kitchen even during the years I was vegan especially since I was eating lots of produce.
One of the things I purposed was to continue this way of cooking when my kids were born. My husband and i agreed that we would not be making separate meals for the kids but they would be eating as we did and as much as possible so they could have a well-rounded perspective of real food and healthy at that. After having my third and last child, I can tell you that this is not perfect in our home, but we have stuck to the rules and the girls really do eat what we eat. They ask questions and we encourage to taste before rejecting and it has been successful. If they do not like something we try again another time and if at the end they reject it we hope that they will grow to like it down the road at another time.
Even if you do not know where to start there are campaigns like the healthy eating-focused Produce for Kids® campaign with ACME Markets (ACME) which is making an incentive to encourage families to focus on healthy meal solutions by offering recipes and tips. The campaign launched on April 29 and will go through June 2nd and will raise funds for local Feeding America® food banks like:
When we went into the store we found the list of sponsors involved in the campaign and started planning a healthy recipe using primarily those products as listed on the board. Those included the following:
I thought it would be fun to talk through the items with my 3 and 4-year-old because I have experience that if I let them help and prepare the food they are for sure going to eat most of it. I shared them with ideas through the produce section and the girls picked out fruit, lettuce, and dressing and we promptly went home to prepare our dinner for the evening.
It is a great teaching time for any parent to show kids how to cut their produce and to understand the responsibility of helping out during meal times. We made a simple but scrumptious Chicken Raspberry Kale Salad. Anything with fruit is sure to be a hit with my girls especially berries.
My middle daughter helped peel and cut the Kings River Packing oranges and my oldest helped shell the pistachios until she got distracted by having a bit of snack time. She loves salty foods. I then placed all ingredients in bowls and had them mix everything into a larger salad bowl and taught them to mix the salad gently while I poured the raspberry dressing.
Was it a hit? Well, the girls did eat their favorite items from the salad but I also encouraged them to eat the thin kale greens along with their favorite fixings so they could experience the salad as a whole. I was happy with how they did and I hope you get your family in the kitchen because it brings everyone together.
Need more healthy ideas and you want to know more about how you can support the campaign? Visit ProduceForKids.com/ACME for more info on the campaign and then visit ProduceForKids.com for more than 200 registered dietitian-approved and family tested recipes, meal planning tools, grocery store specific campaign details, and healthy tips from real parents.
Last year’s campaign was able to supply 188,000 meals to local families in need and raised more than $17,172.50 for Feeding America. How about we tell our friends and neighbors so it can double that?
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Chilean Dreams and Eats – In Memory of my Abuelito
April 30th, 2016
It had been way too long, probably 7 years since I had last heard or spoken to my Chilean grandfather. I believe a lot of the reason I cook and am what I am, is a result of everything I saw and learned growing up. When people find out that I am half Chilean and half Mexican, they are quite confused. I am sometimes confused myself. How much culture can someone have in their lives? Apparently I am influenced by so much and here I am, in my late 30s, and I am still trying to fit in one culture.
The facts are these. I am influenced by both and therefore I am at an advantage. I am a mother of three young little girls, and I struggle to find a happy medium and even introducing my children to the world I lived in. I struggle teaching them Spanish and telling them stories about any of their grandparents.
When I look at what I yearn to share with others and the legacy I want to leave my girls with at the end of my life, is something in between both worlds. It is true that a mother’s influence can go very far if used wisely, so it is evident that my mother’s family and her heritage is more of an influence in my life. I grew up going to Mexico much more often and not even to Chile at all.
I lived near my Chilean grandparents in Texas, but most of my earlier years were spent apart from them due to family disputes and what not. I heard about the political unrest and trauma my dad and his family endured while living in Chile, but happier years and how life was spent in Chile was not shared.
The closest I got to Chile was in the cuisine. My grandmother was an excellent cook and even now I can remember her in the kitchen making delicious tortas or cakes for our birthdays. I remember asking what measurements were used for ingredients and being told that all I had to do was watch in order to learn. I remember smells, laughter, loud talking, and my grandfather bellowing laughter.
After I married my husband, I decided I needed to reconnect with my grandfather because after all, I had many regrets not being at my grandmother’s death-bed because of MANY reasons. Now, I was not living my life with regrets, just sadness that I did not get to see her one last time. So when I made a choice that I wanted to reconnect with my grandfather, who now had moved back from Chile, I was afraid and hesitant.
My parents had divorced after 25 years of marriage, my Chilean grandmother died, my father moved out, and we were suddenly estranged from everything Chilean. My grandfather then moved back to Chile because it was always his dream to go back and now he had no reason to stay in Texas.
Back to calling my grandfather. In 2012, I decided to call and was greeted with the same bellow of a laugh I remembered. It was a New Years Eve and after I had made a traditional Chilean New Year’s Eve spiked coffee cocktail, I knew I had to call him.
See, while I was making and learning to make traditional Mexican dishes on my own, I was really trying to remember all the dishes my grandmother had made in her kitchen. It made me think of her and the great times we had. Is it not the times that we dine that we remember the best memories? I know I sure do! Sunday nights were kept for English tea and pan amasado, freshly baked bread the Chilean way, and jam, cold cuts, pate and more!
While I kept in touch with my grandfather over 3 years, I only chatted once each year, still very tentative on how close I could keep in touch but enough to be able to let him know that I missed him and cared about him. In December 2015, after making more pan de pascua, a Chilean fruitcake, I knew I had to chat a little more with my grandfather. I share with him how our lives were doing and he teased me on how my Spanish sounded so broken. I shared with him all the cooking I had been doing and how I still kept the memory of all that I knew to be Chilean.
Last month, my husband surprised me with a trip to Chile to visit my grandfather and I was so surprised that I started bawling. He had contacted my father who had then contacted my grandfather to find out the best dates to go visit him and my ticket was booked. I was nervous and excited.
Just a little over three weeks ago, I learned my grandfather died. It was unexpected and all of a sudden and just like that he was gone. My father called bearing the news and I lost it. My plans of connecting with him after 20 years of not seeing him were shot. It was strange because two days prior I had chatted with him telling him I was looking forward seeing him and how he was excited as well.
I do not understand why this happened but I know that everything happens for a reason, I just do not want to dwell on it. Both my Chilean grandparents are gone and my chances of really knowing who they were growing up are shot and I know that in part it is some of my fault but there is a reason why things end the way they do but I just do not want to understand them now.
I am thankful for the recipes I have now created in my life and I am going to purpose myself to learn more Chilean recipes and share them with you. Tonight I am thankful for Chilean bread in memory of my grandfather, despite the gluten, and tomorrow I start a new day. I leave you with a recording of Ravel’s Bolero, one of the pieces I remember my grandfather loving.
