What to do with a Boston Butt? Pulled Pork Enchiladas & Kitchen Sink Brunswick Stew!

Boston Butts were on sale at the Teeter last week-- so naturally I got one, because we love pulled pork around our house!   Here is a link if you need to know what a boston butt is:  Boston Butt Link.  We also had a southern ice storm two days ago and have been stuck inside --- so I threw the Boston Butt in the crock pot and let it cook all day so we would have some options for lunch/dinner while we were trapped in the house!

I tried two improvised concoctions with it and wanted to share because I think they both turned out pretty good!

First-- if you have a boston butt-- just cook it on low for 8-10 hours in the crock pot.  Once it is done, remove the fat from the meat and shred the meat up well with two forks.   I put all the meat in a ziploc bag to use as I needed.

Boston Butt Recipe #1

The only picture I got of the enchiladas!!

Pulled Pork Enchiladas
(makes approx. 6 enchiladas)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups pulled pork
• 1 can rotel
• 1 can enchilada sauce
• (6) corn tortillas
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I used Daiya Vegan Cheese so my little one could eat them!)

Method:

• Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.
• I have a Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker so I used that for the recipe.  (Here is the link to my post on the DCB and how to get one!)My recipe inspiration is also a Pampered Chef recipe called "Easy Enchiladas" that uses chicken-- (check it out.)  I placed the pulled pork and can of rotel in my deep covered baker (you can also use a casserole dish 11 x 7 size would work well.  I covered the pork/rotel and placed in microwave for 5 minutes on high.
• Remove the dish from the micro and drain excess juice out of the pork/rotel.
• Next add 1/8 of the enchilada sauce to the pork/rotel and mix together.  
• Push pork/rotel mixture to one end of the dish (leaving space to start placing the tortillas.)
• Hold corn tortilla in hand and fill with pork mixture.  Roll tortilla and place in casserole seam side down.  Repeat with remainder of pork mixture/tortillas.
• Top tortillas with remainder of enchilada sauce.  
• Top tortillas with cheese.
• Cover and bake 15 minutes covered, and then 10 minutes uncovered.  *If you are using your PC Deep Covered Baker you can opt to put this in microwave for 6 minutes instead of oven.

Top with Sour Cream!  ENJOY

Boston Butt Recipe #2

This one really was a "throw what you have in the kitchen in the crock pot type of recipe-- but I thought it turned out delicious and it was PERFECT for a cold icy day!

Kitchen Sink Brunswick Stew

(makes approximately 8 servings)

Ingredients:

• 4 cups pulled pork
• 3 carrots, peeled and diced
• 3 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 large sweet onion diced
• olive oil
• 3/4 cup peas (frozen or canned)
• 2 cans creamed corn
• (2) 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
• 2.5 cups Beef Broth (I used reduced Sodium)
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3Tbs Red Wine Vinegar (If I had Apple Cider Vinegar in pantry I would have used that-- either way I think it would be good!)
• 3 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 Tsp Onion Powder
• 1 Tsp Paprika
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Method:

• Dice carrots, celery and onion.  Heat 1tsp olive oil over medium heat in skillet.  Add carrots, celery and onions and cook until soft, stirring frequently. (approx 10 minutes)
• While vegetables are cooking- place rest of ingredients in large slow cooker.  Pork, peas, creamed corn, diced tomatoes, beef broth, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, worc. sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and black pepper.  Mix well.
• Once vegetables are soft transfer to slow cooker- mix well.
• Cook on low 7-8 hours.

*I plan on freezing the leftovers of this stew for another day!!  It will definitely freeze well!

ENJOY!

Freezer Cooking #6: Toddler Breakfast Ideas

Loves Baked Oatmeal & Blueberries!  (traveling in this pic)

Breakfast around our house on weekday mornings means quick & simple!  It's hard enough to get out of the house with a toddler and make it to daycare and work on-time and in one piece let alone make extravagant breakfasts!!  Since I have a love for "freezer cooking" -- I replenish his stash about once a month with breakfast foods that easily thaw & heat in the morning.  Here is what he is eating for breakfast this month:

-Mini Veggie Omelets
-Baked Banana Apple Oatmeal
-Mini Pumpkin Pie Muffins

It usually takes me 1-2 hours from start to clean up to make 3/4 different items.



Here are the recipes!  Hope your little one enjoys as much as mine!

**My little one is allergic to cows milk so I use So Delicious Coconut Milk and Daiya dairy-free "cheese" in my recipes.  I also avoid cooking sprays that contain any sort of butter.  If your little one does not have a cow's milk allergy-- you can sub regular cheese & milk in these recipes.

Mini Veggie Omelets
(makes 24 mini muffin sized omelets)

Ingredients:

• 8-10 eggs
• 1 cup Daiya cheddar-style shreds (or 1 cup regular cheese)
• 1/2 cup Unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk (or regular milk)
• Your Choice Diced Veggies!  (I used broccoli, spinach, red pepper, onion for this time)
• Olive Oil
• Garlic Powder or Ground Mustard if you wish!

Method:

Mini Omelets cooling before flash-freezing.

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray mini muffin pan with non-stick spray.
2. Chop all your veggies-- I usually use whatever I have left in the fridge that I want to get rid of!  Be creative to your hearts content! ( I will estimate approximately 1 cup of sauteed veggies is what I end up with to mix into the eggs- so you may want to start out with 2 cups raw veggies if they are veggies that shrink when cooked!.)
3. Warm a small amount of olive oil in a saute pan over Medium Heat (approx 1tsp) and then throw all your veggies in.  Cook until tender (approx 10 min).  Set aside to cool a few minutes.
4. In the meantime- start cracking your eggs!   I usually do between 8-10 eggs in a medium sized mixing bowl.  
5. Next, add the shredded cheese, milk and optional garlic powder/ground mustard.  Mix well.  
6. Once veggies have slightly cooled evenly distribute in mini muffin pan.  Now evenly distribute egg mixture.  (will expand slightly while cooking so don't overfill any of the cups- but most of the time mine are filled almost to the top.)
7. Place in oven and bake approximately 15-18 minutes or until cooked through.
8. Once mini omelets have had a chance to cool a bit, transfer to cooling rack.  Once cool enough- transfer to cutting board/baking sheet that will fit in your freezer and flash-freeze.  Once frozen - transfer mini omelets to ziploc bag.

** To defrost-  I usually defrost these in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes before serving.


Baked Banana Apple Oatmeal
(makes 24 oatmeal muffins)

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsps baking powder
• sprinkle of salt
• 1 1/4 cup Unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk
• 3/4 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
• 1 banana mashed



Baked Oatmeal Cooling before flash-freezing.

• 1 tsp vanilla

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray (2) regular sized muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Mix all of the above ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
3. Distribute evenly between the 24 muffin tins.  (I usually use my cookie scoop and put a heaping scoop of the mix in each tin) I would estimate you are filling them about 1/2 full.  I'll admit-- one time I made these I only got 18 muffins out of it so just use your judgement with how big you want your muffins to be!
4. Bake 18-20 minutes or until done.
5. Let cool and then transfer to cooling rack.   Once cool enough- transfer to cutting board/baking sheet that will fit in your freezer and flash-freeze.  Once frozen - transfer baked oatmeal to ziploc bag.

*I usually defrost these in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.


Pumpkin Pie Muffins
(makes 24 mini muffins)

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Wheat Flour
• 3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/4 tsp  Salt
• 1 1/4 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp Baking Powder
• 1 Can Pure Pumpkin 
• 3 Tbsp Applesauce
• 1/2 Cup Vanilla Coconut Milk
• 1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil

Method:

1. Preheat Oven to 400 Degrees.  Spray Mini Muffin Pan with Non-Stick Cooking Spray
2. Mix together wheat flour, all purpose flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and baking powder in a medium sized bowl.
3. In a separate bowl beat together pumpkin, applesauce, milk and vegetable oil.
4. Slowly add dry ingredient mixture to wet ingredients- beating slowly.
   Mix well.
5. Distribute batter evenly between muffin tin cups- do not overfill. (I used a heaping cookie scoop in each).  I had some extra batter so I used a regular sized muffin tin (6) to finish it off.
6. Bake approximately 12 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let cool and then transfer to cooling rack.   Once cool enough- transfer to cutting board/baking sheet that will fit in your freezer and flash-freeze.  Once frozen - transfer muffins to ziploc bag.

Freezer Cooking #5 : Toddler/Baby Finger Foods

My "love" of freezer cooking comes from the simplicity of having an abundance of already-prepared food in the freezer that I can pull out at anytime and have dinner on the table in less than 20 minutes.   Freezer cooking really helps take the "stress" out of my everyday "whats for dinner"... because there is always something in the freezer we can eat!

Once our baby started eating finger foods, I knew I needed to use the same concept for his food- mass finger food cooking = 30+ meals in the freezer for him.

Of course I wanted to share what I made for him so you can do the same for your little ones!
I will go ahead and mention-- my LO has an allergy to cow's milk- so I use vegan cheese, rice or almond milk, vegan sour cream etc... in my recipes-- you can use regular cow's milk products in the same quantities I have listed.  I also try to buy as much organic for him as possible—but I don’t always—so even if it says organic or doesn’t say at all—you can use your own discretion.

Something I will also mention is that you will definitely need a mini muffin pan (or TWO) to make this freezer cooking easier-- I only had one, and probably could have saved myself a lot of time if I borrowed a neighbors! If you don’t have a mini muffin pan you can improvise with most of the recipes and just roll everything into a ball or patty.  For the muffin recipes you can utilize a regular sized muffin tin and cut them in half.

What's on the menu for your Little One?

• Healthy Meatballs (24-32)
• Mini Chicken Parmesan Cups (24)
• Broccoli Cheese Patties (20)
• Spinach Cups (20)
• Mashed Potato Cups (24)
• Blueberry Donut Muffins (30)
• Apple Banana Muffins (24)
• Sweet Potato Fries

Here is my grocery list: (don’t be alarmed! The list looks a bit long but most of the ingredients were already in my cabinet and are probably in yours! Everything in italics was already in my cabinet. Compare this list to your cabinets and cross out the items you won’t need to buy at the store. =) )
 Fresh Produce:

·         Small Sweet Onion (1)  

·         (2) Medium Sweet Potatoes

·         Cloves of Garlic (2)

·         4 Medium Potatoes

·         Large Apple (1)

·         Bananas (2)

·         Blueberries (1 cup)

·         Bag of Spinach

Meat:

·         1 Ib. Ground Organic Chicken (I bought breasts and ground myself)

·         1 Ib. Ground Organic Beef

Grocery:

·         Breadcrumbs (Italian & Regular)

·         Wheat Bran

·         Whole Wheat Organic Flour

·         Old Fashioned Oats

·         Small Jar Marinara Sauce

·         Basil, Oregano, Garlic Powder, Parsley

·         Cinnamon

·         Vegetable Oil

·         Baking Powder

·         Baking Soda

·         White Sugar

·         Brown Sugar

·         Salt

·         Pepper

·         Vanilla Extract

·         Baby food Purees (2 containers) – I use these since I have them leftover, you can use any other sort of vegetable puree or applesauce for this.

·         Gallon Sized Freezer Bags

·         Quart Sized Freezer Bags

Refrigerated:

·         Unsalted Butter (2 Tbsp)  (I use vegan soft spread)

·         Egg (9)

·         Milk (1 1/2 c) ( I use almond milk & rice milk)

·         Sour Cream (1 c) (I use vegan)

·         Mozzarella OR Parmesan Cheese (1/2 Cup) (I use Daiya brand vegan)

·         Cheddar Cheese (1 3/4 cup) (I use Daiya brand vegan)

Frozen:

·         Frozen Broccoli Florets (2 cups) thawed

Of course, once you get everything home and you are ready to cook put it on the counter and admire what you are about to do!! =)

I label everything with name and date BEFORE I start:

• Healthy Meatballs (1 Quart Sized Bag)
• Mini Chicken Parmesan Cups (1 Quart Sized Bag)
• Broccoli Cheese Patties (1 Quart Sized Bag)
• Spinach Cups (1 Quart Sized Bag)
• Sweet Potato Fries (1 Quart Sized Bag)
• Mashed Potato Cups (1 Gallon Sized Bag)
• Blueberry Donut Muffins (1 Gallon Sized Bag)
• Apple Banana Muffins (1 Gallon Sized Bag)

Now it’s time to get started! 

1) I decided to start with the “meat”:  Preheat Oven to 375

• Finely Dice Small Onion and set aside (will need about ¼ c).   Mince (2) cloves garlic and set aside.
• Get (2) Medium Sized Mixing Bowls out- put ground beef in one and ground chicken in the other.
• Add the following to the ground beef bowl:  ½ cup wheat bran, ¼ cup breadcrumbs, ¼ tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp oregano, (2) containers baby food purees.
• Add the following to the ground chicken bowl:  ½ of the minced garlic (already prepped), ¼ cup diced onion, 1 egg, ½ cup Italian breadcrumbs, ½ cup shredded mozzarella or parmesan cheese, ¾ cup marinara sauce, 1 tsp oregano.
• Mix both mixtures (separately) well.   If needed, add more breadcrumbs so mixture sticks together well.
  
• Spray mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Using a medium scoop- distribute chicken mixture evenly among 24 muffin cups.  (mixture will shrink during cooking so fill to top)
• Spray baking sheet (with sides!) with non stick cooking spray.  Using your hands, roll beef mixture into meatballs (approx 1.5 inch) – should make approx 24-30.  You can keep these fairly close together on the baking sheet, they do not expand.
• Place chicken bites & meatballs in oven- bake for 15-20 min, or until cooked through and golden brown.

2) Next I did the “vegetables”:

• Wash & Peel the sweet potatoes and regular potatoes.  Cut the sweet potatoes into skinny “fries”.  Place on greased Large Cookie Sheet and toss in a small amount of olive oil- make sure they are not overlapping much.  Set aside.
• Cut the regular potatoes into “chunks” and place in microwave in covered microwave safe dish for 8 minutes.
• By now your meat should be out of the oven cooling- I typically pop everything off the pans and onto cooling racks.
• Increase oven temp to 450 and place prepared Sweet Potatoes in oven.  Bake 15 minutes, then “flip” fries and bake 10-15 more minutes.
• Check potatoes in microwave- if soft, remove.  You may need to add 2-3 more minutes cooking time if not soft.  Transfer soft potatoes to mixing bowl- mash a bit with a hand masher or with a wooden spoon.  Add the following to the potato mixture:  ½ cup cheddar cheese, 2 eggs, ½ cup milk (I used rice milk), ½ cup sour cream.  Using hand mixer- blend well.  Grease mini muffin pan, transfer heaping scoops into each muffin cup.  Set Aside
• Wash Spinach and place in food processor.  (I had to process in 4 batches)  Put finely chopped spinach in mixing bowl and add:  ½ c sour cream, ½ c cheddar cheese, sprinkle of pepper, 2 eggs and the rest of the minced garlic.  Mix well.  Place mixture in greased mini muffin pan.
  
• By now the sweet potato fries should be done.  Reduce oven temp to 350 and place mashed potato bites and spinach cups in oven.  Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden.
• Now to start the last vegetable item:  Place thawed broccoli in food processor- finely chop and transfer to mixing bowl.  Add: ¾ cup grated cheddar, 1 cup breadcrumbs, 2 large eggs (I beat these separately and then added), ¼ tsp basil, ¼ tsp oregano, ¼ tsp parsley.  Mix well.  Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray.  I used a small measuring cup and formed the broccoli mixture into “round patties” and placed on cookie sheet.   Bake 10 minutes, then flip patties over and bake 10 more minutes or until “formed” and slightly golden.
  
• Spinach Bites & Mashed Potato Bites should be cooling on a cooling rack.

*At this point your meatballs, chicken parmesan bites and sweet potato fries should be fairly cool.  You will want to “flash freeze” the pieces individually so when you transfer them to the Ziploc bags they won’t freeze together in one big block.  Transfer the pieces to a cutting board or something else that will fit in your freezer.  Make sure they are not touching—put in freezer for approx 1 hour.  If items feel semi- frozen transfer them into respective bags and place immediately in freezer.

3) Lastly, it’s time to bake the breakfast goods

• I started with (2) mixing bowls.  In the one bowl add the following:  1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour, 1tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt- whisk together, this is your “blueberry bowl”.  In the second bowl whisk together the following:  1 ½ cups whole wheat flour, ½ cup old fashioned oats, 2 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon- this will be your “apple banana bowl”.
• In a separate bowl mash (2) bananas and grate the apple (peel the apple first).  Add 3 Tbsp vegetable oil, ½ c brown sugar, 1 egg, ½ cup milk (I used almond milk) and mix together well.   Add this mixture to the “apple banana” dry ingredients bowl and mix well.
  
• In another separate bowl cream together using a mixer (2) tbsp softened butter and ½ cup white sugar.  Add (1) egg, ½ cup milk and 1tsp vanilla.  Mix well.  Add the blueberry flour mixture to the wet mixture and combine.  Fold in (1) cup blueberries.
• Grease both mini muffin pans – using a medium scoop, fill each muffin cup with respective blueberry OR apple banana mix.  *I had some extra so I actually also filled a regular sized (6) cup muffin tin with the remainder so I didn’t’ waste.
• Place in oven and bake approx 15 min or until toothpick comes out clean.  Transfer to cooling rack. 
  

*By this time your spinach cups, mashed potato cups & broccoli bites should be cool- transfer to cutting board and place in freezer to “flash freeze”.

Once muffins are cool- also transfer to cutting boards to “flash freeze”.  Once everything is semi-frozen, transfer to respective Ziploc bags and place in freezer!

When I am ready to “use” the freezer items—I either set them on the counter for about 30 min prior to use and let them thaw OR put them in the microwave on defrost setting for 1min30sec.    Depending on your little ones age- you may want to cut up the items into little finger bites. 

I hope your little one enjoys the food as much as mine does!!