Saturday, September 23, 2017

Mason Jar Lunches

When things are going well, I'm writing in my diary, exercising regularly, sleeping well and night and packing my lunch. I recently went through a period where I made myself lunch salads in mason jars on Sunday and had lunch ready every single day. It was FABULOUS. As a result I found a great new food blog Foxes Loves Lemons. She had some real cool combinations on her site. The recipe below I found on The Seasoned Mom.

Spinach and Bacon Mason Jar Salad

For the dressing:

½ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon salt

For the salad:

4 cups baby spinach leaves
1 red onion, diced
8 slices bacon, cooked and coarsely chopped
4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
2 cups sliced mushrooms

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Lemon Garlic Pork with Bulgur Wheat

I cannot recall a time when my youngest child (now the only one left at home) said, "That was good Mom," when he left the dinner table. But this dish made that happen. Needless to say, I want to make it every week for the rest of the year. Poor thing, he once told me he liked a turkey sandwich and it's the only thing he gets for lunch every weekday. At the very least, this dish is going into heavy rotation.

1 1/4 cups water
3/4 cup uncooked bulgur
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
2 cups small broccoli florets
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup unsalted chicken stock
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Bring water, bulgur, and 1/4 t. salt to boil in a saucepan, reduce heat cover, and cook for 12 minutes

Heat a bit of oil in a saute pan and cook the broccoli, remove from the pan (about 3 minutes)
Combine pork and cornstarch in a bowl, toss well
Add 1T of butter to the pan, and cook pork until browned on all sides.
Add garlic, 1/4 t. salt, chicken stock, lemon juice and honey to the pork
Heat until the sauce thickens
Stir in remaining salt, pork and basil
Top bulgur with pork mixture and serve.