Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Burrito Bowl

A homemade burrito bowl recipe using slow cooker pulled pork, homemade rice and beans, veggies, and plenty of toppings. This is an excellent base recipe for using up leftover meats, veggies, rice, and beans when you need to make healthy quick meals.

(Update - August 2015: Two and a half years later I still love this burrito bowl recipe, but my photography skills and camera have definitely advanced since my original posting. So, I took the liberty of re-photographing this meal when I ate it recently. These new pictures are MUCH brighter and more appetizing. Hope y'all enjoy!)

I have a pound of organic dried black beans simmering in my crockpot right now and the smell is tantalizing. I used half homemade chicken broth and half water, plus onion, garlic, bay leaf, and a piece of peppered bacon to cook them.

Maybe I'm a weirdo, but I wish there was a candle for this scent! Of course, it would be a synthetic "fragrance" so I'd never use it, but a gal can wish, right?  

When the beans are finished, I plan on using some of them to make this slow cooker pulled pork burrito bowl for dinner tonight. It'll be the third time I've made it in the past week. It's that good! 

But, you know what I love most about this burrito bowl recipe?

Banana Oat Muffins with a Blood Orange Glaze

I promised I'd be back soon with more blood orange recipes, remember? Well here's one more...that I came up with last night while I was trying to fall asleep. 

Of course I've had two other blood orange recipes floating around my head for the past few weeks. 

But no, those weren't good enough. 

It needed banana. 

Cause I had four lovely ones browning on my counter until this afternoon when I made these here muffins. 

I generally make lower-sugar muffins and avoid baking foods like cookies, cupcakes, etc. simply because I have no self control and will eat them all within a few days. 

Also, my boyfriend doesn't care for sweets...so that only leaves me. 

If I still lived in Kansas City that'd be a different story. I'd have friends, family and coworkers to push 'em off on. 

Not so much here. My grandma lives 2 hours away and I have some awesome cousins that live 30-45 minutes away that I have not yet visited since I moved here nearly a year ago. (I really need to remedy that. I've been such a hermit.)

Savory Cottage Cheese Bowl with Mini Tomatoes, Cucumber & Avocado

There are certain foods I crave in specific seasons. Now that it's spring and we're receiving warmer weather here in Texas (unlike other parts of the country that are still covered in snow), I'm back to eating protein packed cottage cheese. Sure, I could eat it all year long, but I tend to enjoy cottage cheese more with fresh fruit or vegetables mixed in. 

Don't get me wrong, I love eating it plain with a generous sprinkling of sea salt and cracked black pepper, but I can snarf down a large bowl pretty quickly. When you combine it with other healthy foods not only does it bolster the nutritional value, but it makes the cottage cheese a more filling snack. Win/win!

Homemade Pink Lemonade with Honey & Blueberries

When I was in college, I used to buy jugs of Simply Lemonade to sip on in between writing essays and studying for exams. I'd already ditched powdered lemonade mix (too many funky ingredients) and was happy with the convenient switch. 

However, I gradually reduced my sugar intake over the years (first by eliminating soda completely and then cooking/baking with unrefined sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup), and suddenly sweet store-bought drinks like lemonade and sweet tea tasted waaaaaay too sugary to me.

Healthy Homemade Lemonade

Thankfully, I realized how easy it was to whip together a small batch of cold brew tea (sans the sugar), as well as fresh squeezed lemonade with healthy ingredients like fresh lemon juice, raw honey, and purified water. 

Roasted Beet Slices with Fleur de Sel + How to Roast Fresh Beets

Ever since last summer, I've been smitten with naturally colorful food. It started with purple cauliflower, orange cauliflower, and purple potatoes. This transitioned to organic red kale and most recently blood oranges. 

After staining my fingers a teensy bit with the oranges I figured I might as well go all out with the red theme and try my hand at cooking beets! After all, I've adored blueberries for years and regularly have purple-stained fingers from assembling my morning oatmeal or yogurt. Obviously, I have no problem getting my hands dirty. 

{Sidenote: These red and purple food juices all wash off with a little warm water and soap. However, they will stain fabric and maybe other things if you let it sit for too long. Just clean everything diligently and you'll be fine.} 

Roasted Cabbage Slices with Lemon, Garlic & Nutritional Yeast

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. It's a VERY popular holiday here in America and the second most popular "drinking holiday" after New Years Eve. There are all sorts of authentic and inauthentic ways to celebrate Irish heritage. Green beer (a.k.a. domestic beer with green food coloring) certainly comes to mind for the second category. 

I think a better alternative is to read up on Irish and Irish-American history, then partake of traditional food, drink, music, etc. If you're spending money, try to purchase Irish products. Guinness, Harp, Jameson and Kerrygold come to mind immediately, but there are obviously loads more to choose from. 

Even if the Irish don't treat it as an excuse for binge drinking like in America (it's considered a holy day there, although they do hold festivals in the large cities), I'm sure they appreciate American sales!

Creamy Goat Cheese Pasta with Fresh Veggies & Pan Fried Chicken

Do you have a favorite recipe you've used for years that's scrawled on a torn sheet of paper or note card? 

It's likely creased all over from multiple foldings and splattered with liquid stains from coffee, wine or stock. You pull it out from time to time for reference, but you always switch it up a bit every time based on the ingredients in your pantry.

Well, folks...this is exactly that type of recipe, at least for me. 

I've been making a variation of this dish since 2010, ever since I hand copied the basic recipe onto the back of one of my English 441 writing assignments. 

I found this online at Martha Stewart's website, but it's originally from her food magazine, Everyday Food. Sadly, the print version of that magazine no longer exists, but you can still nab the recipes and watch videos online.

Let me tell you, this recipe is super adaptable and oh so luxurious. As per my usual adaptations, I've added in extra veggies, aromatics and spices so it's a more filling and well rounded dish.

Blood Orange, Banana, Kiwi & Chia Seed Smoothie

It's smoothie time again! Sick of the same 'ole ingredients? Switch it up by trying this refreshing, citrus probiotic and protein smoothie.

You may or may not have realized this, but it's currently blood orange season. 

If you're not familiar, this is a variety of orange with flesh that has a crimson, blood-like color! Slice one in half and you'll notice the insides and juice are a vivid red. 

And depending on the individual orange they can taste especially sweet or slightly tart. On top of all that, blood oranges are perfect for adding splashes of intense color to drinks and foods.



My brain's already teeming with recipe ideas incorporating this seasonal produce. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try a few out before I eat them all or  they disappear off the shelves. So...keep an eye out in the next few weeks for more blood orange recipes from me.

In the meantime, here's a recipe that harnesses the punchy, citrusy flavors of blood orange and kiwi, which are mellowed slightly by adding a super ripe banana. 

And the benefits of combining these three fruits? LOTS of vitamin c and potassium, with a bit of extra fiber from the kiwi. Plus, the blood orange's red flesh provides additional antioxidants. 

Chicken Piccata with Artichokes, Onion, Garlic & Capellini

I've eaten classic chicken piccata numerous times at fancy Italian joints, but for one simple, particular reason I never attempted to cook it at home. 

The reason? I loathed capers outside of this dish. 

I believe this stems from years ago when I worked at a bagel shop. One of the most popular savory items was a plain bagel with plain cream cheese, capers and lox (smoked salmon). I was perfectly happy to serve it to eager customers, but the idea of eating it myself...was revolting. 

Okay, maybe that's a strong word, but I strongly disliked it, especially the lox. 

However, after a chicken piccata or two, my opinion of capers changed dramatically. I learned to accept them in certain circumstances. 

I've been meaning to purchase capers for awhile now, but kept putting it off. Yesterday I bit the bullet and snagged a tiny bottle. 

And made an adapted version of Giada De Laurentiis' Food Network recipe. 

OH.MY.LORD. 

This dish trumps anything else I've made. 

It was glorious. 

How to Make Homemade Meat Stock

It's slightly absurd that I haven't posted a recipe for how to make homemade stock yet, since it's easy, thrifty and prevents waste. I'll blame it on my lack of specified measuring. My penchant for eyeballing it. I couldn't very well write: I just throw some of this and some of that into a pot and voila! 

However, while I've managed to keep track of basic measurements for my go-to meat stock, I haven't done so for my homemade chicken soup yet. I typically use a shortcut method that combines the two processes of making chicken stock and homemade soup. This yields a flavorful soup in two to three hours instead of four to six. 

Someday I'll mange to jot it down. Until then, here's an easy, all natural way for you to make homemade meat stock. 

How to Make Quick Breakfast Potatoes

Breakfast potatoes always make me think of...well, breakfast joints. You thought I was going to recount some early childhood memory of homemade potatoes? Nope. I spent many a Saturday and Sunday morning eating breakfast with my father and sister at restaurants. Specifically, Tippins (when it still existed) and First Watch. 

This was during late childhood, when I preferred hot chocolate over coffee. I'd smile as my father gulped down cup after cup of coffee, a whipped cream mustache clinging to my upper lip. The guy could kill a pot of coffee by himself in no time. I'm sure I inherited my addiction to penchant for coffee from him. 

Back then I typically ordered American-style breakfasts with over easy eggs, crispy bacon, potatoes and an English muffin. Every once in awhile, I'd order pancakes, but would ALWAYS end up with an upset stomach afterward. Back then I had no idea why. Today, I'm sure it's because I drenched my pancakes in the fake syrup served alongside them. 

You do know that almost all restaurants serve maple-flavored corn syrup masqueraded as actual maple syrup, right? More often than not the main ingredient in these syrups is high fructose corn syrup. Yuck. Of course, you can always ask if they have the real stuff and pay extra for it. First Watch recently started offering tiny bottles of maple syrup for $1. I think it's worth it!