Thrifty Grocer Recipe Post

Okay, here is the post where I give you the recipes that were requested from the Thrifty Grocer post. Not too many requests...which is good. Because I'm lazy and don't cook with recipes. This is my shot at looking back and trying to remember what I put in when I'm cooking.

Carnitas

For the meat:

2.5 - 3 lb hunk o pork (any kind of pork works...sometimes I buy Carnitas, sometimes I buy tip roast, sometimes I find "pork value pack" which probably contains pig eyeballs for alI know but heck, it's like 99 cents a pound)

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon minced garlic (I just use the jarred stuff but if you have the energy to cut up a couple gloves of garlic, get it girl!)

1 tablespoon cumin

salt and pepper

Once cooked, shred with two forks. Add in lime juice to taste. I like it limey so I usually put in about 1/4 cup of lime juice (about a whole large lime or 2 smaller limes).

Note: I prefer to make these in my cast iron soup pot and let them cook for 3-4 hours on low heat. However, it's easier for me to do them when I am working in the crockpot. In that case, just cook on low for 6-8 hours.

For the sauce:

1 jar of reciato

1 large can of whole tomatillos, drained

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1 tablespoon lime juice (or more if you like it limey like I do)

Put in food processor (or the magic bullet blender) and process for a minute or so until smooth. Warm in microwave for a minute or two.

Wrap the carnitas in corn tortillas and serve with a spoonful of the tomatillo sauce, a squeeze of lime juice, and fresh cilantro and avacado if you've got it.

Kolaches (easiest thing ever)

Fully cooked breakfast sausage (we use banquet turkey sausage)

Rhodes white dinner rolls, thawed

Take a thawed roll and a frozen sausage and merge those two puppies together. Essentially, just flatten the roll and wrap it around the sausage--pinching the ends to seal. Set on a greased cookie sheet and let rise. I do up to 100 kolaches at a time (not fun, but worth it) and let them rise for about an hour. Then bake according to package directions on the rolls (I think it's 350 for 15 minutes). Like I said, doing 100 of them takes forever so I usually have to do about 5 rounds of baking but once they are done, SO worth it! Let them cool completely and then stick them in a freezer ziploc bag and stick in your freezer. Microwave for 30 seconds for one kolache and 1 minute for 2. You can also add cheese or jalapenos when you first wrap the kolache if you feel so inclined. Great quick breakfast on the go.  

Curry Chicken

Newsflash: I'm not Indian. But I love me some Indian food. And since I don't have an Auntie who taught me how to make Indian food, I just wing it. And I like the way it tastes. But please don't tell me I make it wrong...because if this is wrong, my tastebuds don't want to be right.

1 package of chicken tenderloins (a package is a fridge to freezer pack from Costco)

1 can coconut milk (lite if you can get it)

1 tablespoon curry

1 teaspoon garlic

1 cup chicken broth

Cut chicken into small cubes and place in a deep skillet, let brown. Then add all ingredients except the milk. Once the chicken is cooked, add the milk and let it come to a boil. Let simmer for 15 minutes or so and add a wee bit of flour (about 1/2 teaspoon) and mix well to thicken the sauce a bit. Serve with basmati rice and naan (you can make the naan or you can buy it from the store). This isn't a TON of chicken for 3 adults but we make do in an effort to be cheap. Plus we fill up on naan and rice with all the sauce. If you guys are meat people, you may want to add another pound of chicken to the mix. The sauce will still be enough though. The recipe above makes a pretty saucy little dish.