Pork Enchiladas

So this week I've not made it to the grocery. Maddox has been sick and grouchy, we've been busy and I've just not felt like it. So I've been "Pantry Cooking"! I've just been trying to come up with things to make from what we already have in the pantry and freezer. I think I hit this one out of the park though, Jeff must have told me 10 times how much he liked these.

It all started with leftover Pork BBQ that I had in the freezer. I wanted to do something different than just BBQ sandwiches. We had tortillas, so I figured I could do something like an enchilada with the pork!

Pork BBQ Enchiladas

2 1/2 cups of shredded pork BBQ (Pork BBQ recipe below) 

1 cup brown rice

1 TBS chopped chipotle chilies in adobo sauce

1 cup shredded cheese plus some to sprinkle

16 small tortillas

4 TBS peach salsa

1. Defrost pork, when its defrosted throw in a pan on medium heat.

2. Make rice according to package directions.

3. As pork is warming, add the chipotle chilies. These are pretty spicy, you may want to just use the sauce, or use less if you don't like spice. 

4. Combine the cooked rice and pork mixture, add cheese

5. Spoon mixture into middle of each tortilla and roll them up.

6. Top with shredded cheese and peach salsa.

7. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees

You could use bigger tortillas, I used small because its what I had. Pretty easy and delicious meal!

Pork BBQ

5 lb pork loin

1 can beer (darker the better)

1 medium onion (you can either chop or slice the onion)

Salt and Pepper

BBQ sauce

1. Place the pork loin in the crock pot, pour in beer, you may not need the entire beer, make sure its covering at least half of the loin. Add onions. Salt and pepper. Top with BBQ sauce. I usually squirt it back and forth a few times (don't worry, you'll add more sauce later)

2. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

3. Remove from the crockpot and shred the pork. Drain liquid from the crock pot and add pork back in. Cover with more BBQ sauce (as much or as little as you want) and mix well. Leave in crockpot on warm.

We usually eat it for one meal and maybe leftovers the next day at lunch then I portion it out and freeze it for those quick nights where I didn't have time to cook or just don't feel like it.

Halloween

....was kind of lame. Whoops! I'm probably not supposed to admit that one huh?!?!  Maddox has been sick this week.  Snotty, coughing and a low grade fever on Monday and Tuesday. We took it easy this week. Although I have to say, taking it easy for Maddox made it super easy for me to get things done around our house! I got lots of projects completed while he got better :-)

Wednesday was the first day he was really feeling better. Jeff had to work late and traffic was bad so by the time he got home, we ate dinner, I threw on MD's costume, it was time to get trick or treating!

Disclaimer! I couldn't find my camera, but I'm not going to lie, I also didn't look for it. HA! 

I know this is pathetic. I'm a photographer, we were in my home (in front of my studio actually) and I have to share with you a picture of the back of my neighbor's camera of a photo that her husband took of our boys. Photographer FAIL ;-)

Also, I feel like we should have done photos then given them suckers (with the wrappers still on them...yep!) (from May....shhh, don't tell anyone we gave out candy from MD's birthday party)

Passing out candy to trick or treaters, and stealing suckers any chance he got

Super lonely little boots....

So yea, this is the best photo I got. He kind of looks like he wants to punch me.

We had a good time, even though I have no photos to reflect that. We went to a few houses in our neighborhood then sat on our porch and handed out candy. We didn't have a ton of trick or treaters, I think less and less people are handing out candy in the neighborhood so other people outside of the neighborhood aren't coming anymore, which I'm probably not going to complain about. We were left with a bunch of delicious candy because of it ;-) We ended up coming inside around 8:30 because we were getting eaten up by mosquitos. That's something that never happened when I was growing up and trick or treating in Indiana. We also didn't have to worry about over heating on Halloween either.

Uncle Chris got Maddox this Auburn Tiger costume last year, I just found it last week when I was organizing closets and it fits him perfectly. He looked super cute in it! I was going to put him in it for a Halloween party we were supposed to go to, but we ended up missing because he wasn't feeling well.

War Eagle!

Fall in Pearland

A little different than fall in Indiana, by just 25 degrees or so :-) 

This week we did story time at the Pumpkin Patch! Of course Maddox wasn't interested in smiling for photos, but he was interested in throwing the small pumpkins. We didn't really stay too long...

I'm going to guess that 1 second after this photo was taken that pumpkin was being thrown

Just a little dirty

This week we also got to have lunch with Jewelsie and go to the Children's Museum!

Lunch at Tiny Boxwoods

We're REALLY into dipping. If I give him ketchup he'll eat everything. Who knew that strawberries and ketchup were good together?

Playing with Grandma Jewelsie

And yesterday we did the most fall-ish activity I can think of. We went to the BEACH! :-) It was a beautiful day and honestly in my opinion this is the very best time of year to go to the beach. A little bit cooler weather and no crowds! Jeff was in Gavelston for a work meeting for two days so we went and hung out at Hotel Galvez for a little bit until he was done and then went to the beach for a little bit.

There was a sailboat race and there were at least a hundred boats out there. It was beautiful!

First (and hopefully not last!) family beach day

I did take the time to snap a few fall photos of Maddox this week. He actually did really well, and I was very surprised seeing as this is the first time he's ever cooperated in my studio!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful fall! I know we are! 

Corn & Bean Fritters

Ok, so I made this recipe once when my sister (the vegetarian) was in town and surprisingly, Jeff loves these things, and so does Maddox! So these are a big hit at my house. I got the recipe from a Food magazine so its currently on a ripped out magazine page that I'm afraid I will lose so here goes it preserving a family favorite :-)

Corn & Bean Fritters

1 lb grape or cherry tomatoes

1 Tbs vinegar

1 can of sweet crisp corn

1 can of butter beans, rinsed and drained

1 - 6oz pkg corn bread mix (I use Jiffy)

1 egg

1 tsp chili powder

Olive oil

1. Coarsely chop, halve or slice tomatoes. In a small saucepan combine tomatoes, vinegar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 cup water. Cook covered, over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.

2. For fritter batter, in a large bowl, mash beans. Add corn, corn bread mix, egg, chili powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 cup water, stir to combine.

3. Heat a large griddle or 12 inch skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tsp oil. Drop four 1/2 cup scoops of batter on griddle at a time. Cook 4 minutes per side.

4. Serve fritters with warm tomatoes and parsley or cilantro!

Confessions! I don't serve with tomatoes on top! I also do not add the water to the batter, but since it calls for it I wanted to put that all in the recipe :-) I also only cook 2 a time, just so they don't get all jammed up together and it gives me more room to flip them.

Enjoy!

Fall in Indiana...Oh so nice!

We just got back from another trip to Indiana! I feel so blessed that we've been able to go home so many times this year. Sometimes it pays to be the one that lives so far away, everyone misses you, they are so happy to see you when you're there, people make a big deal out of you being there. I'm sure if I actually lived close there would be more fighting and less hugging ;-)

The main purpose of this trip was to meet the newest addition to our family, baby Miles! And oh how sweet he is. He's a cuddle bug to the max and I loved it! I told Mark and Jackie both not to feel bad about letting him sleep on them because you never get that time back and no matter what some books say, I promise he will not be 2 and still sleeping on your chest.

"Hellooooo, why aren't you talking to me!"

"Wait a second, you want me to HOLD him? Uncle Mark, are you crazy?"

"Ah, this is not so bad, he's pretty snuggly"

"Aunt Victoria, please save me"

These two had so many matching outfits that we didn't even get them in all of them :-) I'm sure this will not be the last time that they match though. I see christmas pajamas from this year until, oh maybe 18 or 25 if they'll let us.

We spent a lot of time at Mark and Jackie's house and it made me realize just how much my entire day, every day revolves around Maddox. To say I got frustrated with him while we were up there would be an understatement. He's into anything and everything, and while it doesn't bother me at our house, it bothers me when we're somewhere else. One night before we were getting ready to go we were looking all over the house for his Teddy Blue. We looked in all the closets, cabinets, drawers, boxes, the dog crate, it was no where. Finally Mark found it in the bottom of the trash can. Whoops! Even though he threw him away he would have been awfully sad that night when Teddy wasn't there to keep him company!

We also did some fun stuff while we were up there. I really wanted to go to an apple orchard because we don't have them down here. It was a lot of fun and the weather was actually hot! As soon as we got there Maddox picked an apple up off the ground and started eating it.

 "Run Uncle Randy!"

Someone really loves their Uncle Randy

They also had a pumpkin patch! But the apples were way tastier ;-)

They also had a little play set at the apple orchard and Maddox loved the slide! It was a big slide and it was really fast. I think Aunt Angie was a little more worried than Mommy. But that was probably a good thing.

Who's happier? Maddox or Aunt Angie?

Miles' first trip to the neighborhood park!

We were all very sad to leave. But thankfully we'll be back in 2 and a half months for Christmas! Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!!