Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Joan's Chocolate Cake

2 1/2 Cups flour
2 Cups sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. soda
2 eggs
1/3 Cup cocoa
1 Cup oil
1 Cup sour milk or cream or buttermilk
1 Cup boiling water
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream sugar and oil. Add eggs and milk and beat heard. Sift cocoa, flour, salt and soda. Add to first mixture and beat. Add boiling water and vanilla. Bake in pans coated with shortening and flour. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

**This cake recipe was made for high altitude. I don't know how well it works in normal altitude, but it is super good, and worth a try.
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Peanut Butter Icing

1 Cup Confectioners' sugar
1 Cup creamy peanut butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioner' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in a bowl and mix on medium-low speed until creamy. Scrap the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

**I double this recipe to cover a two layer cake.
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Chocolate Buttercream Icing

1/2 Cup shortening
1/2 Cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
4 cups (approx. 1 lb.) sifted confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder (or three 1 oz. squares unsweetened chocolate, melted)
4 tablespoons milk

Cream butter and shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. Add cocoa. Will seem very dry. Add milk and beat on high until light and fluffy.
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Make the cake and then freeze the layers, wrapped in plastic wrap, over night. Torte the layers and add chocolate buttercream and then the peanut butter icing for the middle layer. Then cover the whole cake in the peanut butter icing. Add Reeces peanut butter cups.

Dirt cake

This is the cake that I made for the boys birthdays this year.  There are so many ways to make it but I really like this way the very best.  You can change it up for the holidays with the mint christmas oreos and for Halloween use Vanilla wafers as tomb stones.  For girls make it into a potted plant.  I mean you could really go crazy I am sure that you guys have a lot better idea out there.


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese,
• softened
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla
• pudding mix
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped
• topping, thawed
• 32 ounces chocolate sandwich cookies with creme filling ( I totally used the Walmart brand because they were a dollar cheaper.)

 

1.	Chop cookies very fine in food processor. The white cream will disappear.
2.	Mix butter, cream cheese, and sugar in bowl.
3.	In a large bowl mix milk, pudding and whipped topping together.
4.	Combine pudding mixture and cream mixture together.
5.	Layer in flower pot, starting with cookies then cream mixture. Repeat layers.
6.	Chill until ready to serve

Szechuan Barbecue Pork

I found a cool website with Weight Watchers Recipes, http://www.angelfire.com/journal/wwrecipes/. Here is one I'm trying soon. Pictures to come. we can erase this from the blog if it turns out to me gross-o.

1/4 cup fat-free barbecue sauce

3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

cooking spray

1 (3/4 pound) pork tenderloin, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices

1 1/4 cups fresh baby carrots

1 (6-ounce) package frozen snow pea pods

3 cups hot cooked long-grain rice (cooked without salt or fat)

1. Combine first 3 ingredients; stir well and set aside. 2. Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; place over medium heat until hot. Add pork, and cook 4 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. 3. Add sauce mixture and carrots to skillet, cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 7 minutes. Add snow peas; cook, uncovered, 4 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Serve over rice.

Yields: 4 servings

Shared by: Momoftwoiam

6 Points Per Serving

Orange Basil Pork Medaillons

A recipe I'm trying this week. I'll let you know if it rocks or not. :)

Meat medaillons are slices of meat that are typically pounded with a meat mallet to about 1/2-inch thickness. To keep these pork medaillons tender and juicy, cook them only until there is a little pink left.

2/3 cup couscous

1 cup orange juice

1/4 cup water

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp instant chicken bouillon granules

1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed

1/8 tsp pepper

12 ounces pork tenderloin

Nonstick cooking spray

1 tbsp snipped parsley

Orange peel strips (optional)

Prepare couscous according to package directions. For sauce, in a small bowl stir together orange juice, water, cornstarch, bouillon granules, basil, and pepper. Set aside. Cut pork into 12 equal slices. Place each slice of pork between two sheets of plastic wrap. Lightly pound the slices with the flat side of the meat mallet to about 1/2-inch thickness. Spray a cold large skillet with nonstick spray coating. Preheat over medium heat. Add pork slices to the skillet. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes. Turn slices over and cook about 2 minutes more or till just slightly pink. Remove the pork from the skillet; keep warm. Stir sauce; add sauce to the skillet. Cook and stir over medium heat till thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more. Stir parsley into couscous. Arrange couscous and pork on a serving platter. Garnish with orange peel strips, if desired.

Makes 4 Servings, 5 Points Per Serving

PER SERVING: 261 Calories, 23 g Protein, 4 g Fat, 1 g Saturated Fat, 31 g Carbohydrate, 265 mg Sodium, 61mg Cholesterol, 5 g Dietary Fiber

Sweet Pork Tacos with Cilantro Lime Slaw

I found this recipe on the crafty blog, Make it and Love it. And I made it and I LOVED it! lol I wish I could eat it everyday! Shaun said it is so good that it competes with Cafe Rio Pork Salad! What!?

Cilantro Lime Slaw
1/2 of a head (about) of red cabbage or 1 pkg coleslaw
1 c. Mayonnaise
1 c. Cilantro, chopped
1 tsp. minced Garlic
1/4 tsp. Cayenne Pepper or a dash of your favorite hot sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. Lime Juice
1/2 tsp. Cumin

Chop and combine all but cabbage. Mix desired amount of dressing with slaw mix no more than 30 minutes before serving.

Roasted Sweet Pork mmmmm mmmmMMM good.
6 (approx) pounds Pork butt/shoulder
1 19 oz. can Red Enchilada Sauce
20 oz Dr. Pepper
2 tsp. Chili Powder
1 tsp. Cumin
1 tsp. salt
1 Clove Garlic or 1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 1/2 c. Brown Sugar
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Combine all ingredients into your crock pot and cook on low for over night or until meat is tender. (I cooked mine on low for 4 hours and turned it to high for 3 hours)

Place the meat on top of a grilled corn tortilla (or just a plain flour tortilla would be good too) and then the slaw on top of that. Fold in half and take your first mouth-watering bite! Then accept all the compliments on one amazing meal. ;)

Weight Watchers Points:
Slaw= .5 points for 1/18 serving
Pork = 6 points for 1/18 serving
Corn Tortilla = 1 pt for 1 tortilla

I foresee the points for this needing to be recalculated depending on how much pork you use so for future reference, we figured that you can get about 18 servings from this. (servings are small because the tortillas are small, you'll probably want two ...or more!.) For the total recipe, the Slaw is 8.5 points for the Fat-Free Miracle Whip and everything else is free. The Pork is 105 broken down this way: 23 points for 1 lb of pork loin with fat. (We used 3 lbs to get a total of 69.5 points.) 5 points for enchilada sauce, 5 points for Dr. Pepper, 24 points for brown sugar, 1.5 points for the onion, and everything else is free.

Fruit Tart

Ingredients:
1 and 1/3 c flour
2/3 c butter
1/3 c brown sugar
1 package whipped cream cheese
fresh fruit
glaze/honey

Ingredients for glaze (optional):
1 c sugar
3 tbs cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1 c orange juice

Use honey instead of glaze or use what ever that really healthy stuff is that Brigitte uses. ;)

Step 1
Cut together flour, brown sugar and butter and press into 12" pie pan. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes.

Step 2
When crust is cool, spread cream cheese on top and fresh cut up fruit. (I have only tried strawberries but I hear the peach or peach/strawberry is great. You can also sprinkle pecans on top of the fruit too.)

Step 3
Drizzle with Glaze or honey.


*pictures coming soon, of course if I don't eat it too fast...

... well, I did forget to take a picture of the final product before we served it but I went to take a picture of what was left of it and I walked in to find that Shaun was scraping the pie plate! lol

Coriander-Pepper Pork Chops, Plus Pics

What sounds grosser, a pork chop or a pork loin?

Oops, we ate it too fast and forgot a picture of the real meal! but, these fabulous people liked it pretty well. :) That other seat is pulled out for you, Brig and Adam.


Okay, here we go... This is one of my favorite recipes!
Prep Time: 10 minutes then marinate for at least 30 minutes
Cook Time: 9 minutes or so
Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground coriander or 1 Tablespoon coriander seeds, crushed.
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 (about 1 and 1/2 pounds total) 3/4-inch-thick boneless pork loin chops

Directions:
Combine soy sauce, pepper, sugar, coriander, and garlic in a large bowl; add pork. Cover; marinate in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (but longer would be better). Drain; discard marinade.

3 ways to cook:
Broil - Place on rack of broiler pan. Broil 3 to 4 inches from heat, turning once, for 9 to 12 minutes or until pork is no longer pink in center. WATCH closely, mine catch on fire a lot when I do it this way.
OR
George Foreman - gotta love that guy.
OR
Bake - on a cookie sheet at like 350 or something until they are not pink inside anymore.

Then open the windows or something because this dinner usually makes my house smell yummy for days.