Cookin’ Cookbook + Football Finale

Tonight’s dinner was so good!

But lunch first, I guess.

I heated up some of the Annie’s mac’n’cheese combo from last night and added about a cup more broccoli for some more green today.

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I also tried these new veggie chips that Nick’s mom gave us last weekend

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They were pretty good, actually. Really light and crispy, and I liked that they were all different colors.

After lunch, I took Maggie on a walk around the neighborhood. You know it’s been cold lately when you have a day that’s finally OVER 32 degrees and think it’s not too bad (even though it’s still only 35 degrees).

We took another short walk around the block this afternoon – it felt so nice to get out of the house for a little while! It was still cold, for sure, but not so bad that I couldn’t handle it.

As soon as 5:00 hit, I fed Maggie part of her dinner in her kennel while I did a little peanut butter flow with Polly’s DVD :) Just what I needed. I fell out of half moon on both sides, but it’s still one of my favorites.

Okay, back to dinner.

Last week, I received this cookbook to review and I made my first recipe out of it for dinner tonight!

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DOLLARS TO DONUTS: Comfort Food and Kitchen Wisdom from Route 66’s Landmark Rock Cafe by Dawn Welch

I love this cookbook already. It has such great comfort food type recipes that all have a little twist to them – plus, there are tips on how to save money, time, and resources, which are definitely nice to have.

Tonight’s dinner came from this recipe:

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I can’t post the recipe, but I only made a few changes:

  • I cooked my pork in the crockpot today instead of roasting it in the oven.
  • I used pork loin instead of shoulder since that’s what I had.
  • I turned mine into a Mexican-type salad instead of just having the pork on its own.

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For my salad, I layered:

  • refried beans
  • shredded pork
  • corn
  • romaine
  • diced avocado
  • scallions
  • salsa verde (from the recipe)

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This pork is awesome! Since I did mine in the crockpot, I didn’t actually marinate the meat – I just cooked it in the marinade and the citrus flavors were just amazing. The pork tasted light and bright and went perfectly with the salsa verde.

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And you can’t have Mexican without Corona.

And lime.

And football :)

And chips, salsa + queso, which will probably be our football game snack tonight.

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That’s right.

Tonight is the National Championship Game – #1 Alabama vs. #2 Texas.

I am extremely excited about it. I think it’s going to be an awesome game, and I’m ready to watch.

But…the night of the championship game always makes me a little sad because I know I’ll have to wait 8 months to watch college football again :( Is that pathetic or what?

Better get to it ;) The game’s starting soon!

 

 

16 comments

  1. I love slow roasting pork in the crockpot.

    Enjoy your night of college football and watch the old games for fun on the ESPN classics channel.

  2. half moon is a tricky one girl – there are days I can’t stay in it for more than 1 second to save my life… balance varies from day to day :)

    enjoy your night, sweetums! xo

  3. Your salad looks good :) (I love when the romaine is super shredded)
    Enjoy the game!

  4. That salad is seriously restaurant quality! Yum!

    35 sounds amazing right now, lol

  5. Your dinner sounds great!

    You need to get into college basketball! Then you get fun college sports until March. If you’re looking for a team to root for (besides VTech, of course), Syracuse is pretty darn awesome. ;)

  6. My husband and I were watching the game for a while but he said it was “over” because someone got injured!
    Love your “Mexican” salad, great combos!

  7. Let me know how you like the cookbook!

  8. Have fun watching football!

  9. Yes, it’s sad that I’m JEALOUS when another person says it’s 32 degrees out. The low tomorrow is -11. Ugh.
    Dinner looks great. So does that Corona ;)
    Have fun tonight!

  10. mmm that’s good game food!
    last year when the sooners were in it i made some real football food… this year we didn’t , and i feel kinda sad i missed out on doing something for it

  11. Comfort food is the best on a chilly night. Esp a football night! I still can’t get into football, but I would eat that dinner with you! ;-)

  12. By the looks of the meal you made, I bet I would enjoy that cookbook–happy Friday!

  13. Your dinner looks great! Love comfort food…

  14. I am so disappointed in the outcome! That should have been the Longhorn’s game and Colt’s time to shine. His injury was unfortunate but we put up a good fight.

  15. happy to come to your site..full of good stuff.

  16. Hey, I just wanted to say what a fantastic website. I really enjoyed it and found it fascinating reading. Excited to read your next post!

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