Annual Family Picnic - I brought Kalua Pork & Cabbage (and I'm sharing my recipe!)

My cousin, Jen & Leonard - Corn Hole Champs 2014

It's been a while, huh? Well, this recipe (in my opinion) was worthy enough to take a minute and share it with you. You have no idea how many requests I get for recipes after I post a picture on my InstaGram & Facebook. And I gladly say "of course!" I need to catch up on those requests. I've been so busy! For instance, this past weekend my family had our Annual Family Picnic. We used to have these to celebrate all the July birthdays when my Grandma (Nanay Talia) was around because her birthday is in July. After she passed, we continued the reunion and made it an annual tradition. Every year in July, our family (and friends) gathers together for a beach day. We make it an all day thing to play games, enjoy the company, BBQ, play on the sandy beach, and soak up our fabulous San Diego weather. My brother and his Navy friend were like back to back Corn Hole Tournament Champs and they had a pair of shiny wrestling belts. My competitive husband was intrigued with the game, so he wanted to take on the champs. Leonard and my nephew practiced for a long time. After all the guys played some volleyball, Leonard was ready. First, he paired up with my nephew, but that didn't go too well. Then he paired up with my cousin to take on my brother and his friend. After a really close game, we have a new champion!

Miss Marley Digging

Miss Kaylani & Miss Marley laying out

 

Miss Pheobe & Miss Marley

  

We had an awesome time! And I can't wait to do this again when my cousin comes home with her family! 

As with any Filipino party, there's a TON of food! Our picnic is potluck style, so this year I decided to make some Kalua Pork and Cabbage to bring as our contribution for the potluck. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it! :( But! I can tell you that everyone loved it and it went pretty fast! It's really easy and allows you to do other things (like sleep through the night). If you make this recipe, send me some pics and I'll update this blog with your pictures and a shout out!

 

Slow Cooker Kalua Pork and Cabbage

Ingredients

I use this liquid smoke.

• 2 lb. bone-in pork shoulder roast
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp garlic salt
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 ½ - 2 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced. (or 1 tbsp ground ginger)
• 1 1/2 tbsp liquid smoke
• 1 head small cabbage (or half head of large cabbage), shredded

Directions

• Mix soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, black pepper, ginger and liquid smoke in a bowl. Set aside.
• Place pork shoulder roast in slow cooker and pour sauce mixture over roast, and spread mixture evenly over the roast.
• Cook on low for 7 hours. Add cabbage in the slow cooker; replace lid and cook for another 2 hour. Mixing in the cabbage is not necessary because the heated sauce will steam the cabbage.
• After 9 hours of cooking, shred pork with forks before serving. 

Serve with rice, macaroni salad, or King's Sweet Hawaiian Rolls! 
I hope you enjoy this recipe! Share your comments & share my blog!!! 

God Bless!
XOXO, 
Kayfletch

FTWM (Cheesy Chicken & Zucchini Enchilada Recipe Included!)

Man, it’s been a while since I’ve shared something with you all! My bad! I’ve been so busy with life! You know how they have that acronym “SAHM”? What do we call us Moms who work a full time at a job and work full time at home? For real, this is a serious question! I believe they gave us “FTWM”, which is “Full Time Working Mom”, but like many of you, I do so much more than that when I get off work… I feel it doesn’t do us any justice. We drive the kids around, go to work, pick up the kids, take them everywhere, balance a schedule, manage our finances, cook dinner, feed them, bathe them, get them ready for the next day, and even if we don’t want to, we clean up, etc. But it seems that we’re just “normal” or “typical” moms. Ah, well, I guess we don’t really need an acronym… because in the eyes of our children, we are loved and appreciated just as much as the SAHM’s out there. By no means am I discounting the SAHM’s out there… They get mad props! I just like working out of the house.

ANYWAYS, I just needed to vent that. I was wondering about it all weekend. We had a long weekend for Memorial Day (By the way… HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! AND THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE SERVED, ARE CURRENTLY SERVING, OR SUPPORTED/SUPPORTING YOUR SPOUSE OR PARENT WHILE THEY SERVE(D)!). To top it off, we didn’t have any kids sports planned! I just wanted to sleep all weekend, but my body kept telling me to get up and handle the kids and help my husband out. Plus, I was so embedded in my Tempur-Pedic that I felt like I was stuck, so I had to get up. For Memorial Day, I managed to sleep in until 10:00am and cook breakfast. For dinner I made my Cheesy Chicken & Zucchini Enchiladas. The kids thought it was so good, they didn’t mind eating the zucchini! Leonard and the kids loved it and I got them to eat zucchini without complaining. Ha!

I’m running out of words and time, so here’s my recipe!

CHEESY CHICKEN & ZUCCHINI ENCHILADAS

Ingredients:

2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into thinly sliced strips

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion – diced

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 4 oz. can of diced green chilies

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp garlic powder

2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp paprika

2 tbsp chicken bouillon

3 small zucchini – diced

¼ cup finely chopped green onions

8 oz. Velveeta block, sliced (You gotta trust me on this one!)

12 oz. shredded cheddar jack cheese

1 28 oz. can of enchilada sauce

1 pack (8 – 10 tortillas) of burrito sized flour tortillas

Sour cream (Optional Topping)

Directions:

Heat a large skillet over medium heat for a few minutes. After pan is heated, add olive oil until hot. Once oil is hot, sauté garlic & onions until onions are almost translucent, stirring constantly so they don’t burn. Add chicken breast & diced green chilies, cumin, garlic powder, black pepper & paprika. When chicken is thoroughly cooked, add chicken bouillon and zucchini. Continue to sauté until zucchini is tender. Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a 9x13 pan that is lightly greased, roll tortillas w/ about 1/3 cup of chicken mixture w/ a slice of Velveeta cheese. Continue to do this until you make about 8 – 10 enchiladas, using all the chicken mixture. Top stuffed tortillas w/ enchilada sauce. I try to use the whole can because we like sauce, pouring it all over & under, but you can use as much as you’d like. After sauce is poured over enchiladas, top with cheddar jack cheese and garnish with chopped green onions.

Bake in oven at 350° for 30 minutes. Enjoy w/ sour cream!

God Bless!

XOXO, Kayfletch

"Are those hot dogs in your spaghetti?"

When I was younger, I avoided eating Filipino spaghetti in front of people who weren’t Filipino… not because I was ashamed, but because I hated having to answer the question, “are those hot dogs in your spaghetti?” and then I would get laughed at. I was silly for caring about what other people thought of my food. I was too young to realize that they most likely never tried it and if they had, they’d probably love it as much as I do. Heck, now I don’t even care. In fact, I just brought some to work and posted a picture on my social networks. If they aren’t buying my food, it doesn’t matter what they think. I’m so glad I grew out of that. If they tried asking me that now, I’d probably say “yes, those are hot dogs in my spaghetti. Would you like some?” and fling a hot dog at them, aiming for their forehead. Just kidding. I wouldn’t.


This is my baby boy, Ryan, during one of his
Little League games.:)

Nowadays, when Ryan asks his daily question: “What are we having for dinner?” and I answer “Filipino spaghetti”, his reply is “Yes!” Sometimes his response includes a little fist pump. Sometimes he asks if he can bring the leftovers to school. This makes me giddy inside. He’s an athlete, so I need to keep him fed. And what better way to do so than spaghetti? It’s tasty, inexpensive and filling!

When someone mentions “spaghetti” I think of garlic bread. So when I serve up some Filipino spaghetti, I try to make some garlic pandesal to go with it. My family loves it! Just slice some pandesal in half, spread butter on both halves, lightly sprinkle garlic powder and parsley, and pop it in the oven at 400°F for 5-8 minutes.

Here’s my recipe!

Kayfletch's Filipino Spaghetti

Ingredients:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 lb ground beef

1 small onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 hot dogs, sliced (I use the red Filipino hot dogs)

½ cup ketchup

¼ cup sugar

2 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp black pepper

1 jar of marinara sauce

1 lb. spaghetti noodles

Directions:

In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Prepare spaghetti noodles as directed (boil, drain, rinse). Set aside.

In a large wok over high medium heat, heat wok and add vegetable oil. When vegetable oil is hot, add garlic, onions, and hot dogs. Saute until hot dogs start to brown. When hot dogs start getting toasty, add ground beef and continue to saute until ground beef is brown and fully cooked. Remove wok from heat to drain oil and return to heat. Add garlic powder, black pepper, ketchup. Saute ingredients for 5 minutes. Add in marinara sauce and sugar. Reduce heat to low-medium and allow sauce to simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in spaghetti noodles and mix thoroughly. Toss mixture occasionally over heat for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and enjoy!

 ENJOY AND GOD BLESS!

XOXO, Kayfletch

Pork Chops for Mama (yes, there's a recipe!)

“Say what?! We get pork chops and Les isn’t here?!”



This is Ryan & my beautiful,
tiny Mommy

Yeah… that’s what Leonard said the other night when I cooked pork chops. I bought this pack of pork chops from the grocery store for like $10 and there were like 10 good sized, thin sliced pork chops in it. I already had rice, eggs, bread crumbs & seasoning. I bought it on Monday, not knowing my Mom & brother were coming down for dinner. If I knew they were coming, I would've prepared an all out feast! I love cooking for my Mom! When Leonard made that statement, my mom didn’t understand what he was saying, so he explained: “When Les is here, she always cooks him the good stuff.” Then he mocks me in his lame (but cute) girl voice impression, “Oh baby, what do you want to eat? I’ll cook you whatever you want.” Good thing my mom has a sense of humor and knows that Leonard is always joking around. On the bright side, I guess now I know Leonard loves my pork chops! And the best thing about it, it’s so easy to make and you can serve them in different ways!

 

Mommy liked it… I hope you will too!

 

Crispy Panko Breaded Pork Chops

Ingredients:

4 thin pork chops

3 cups Panko bread crumbs
1 large egg
Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning

This stuff right here is AMAZING!
I use this ish on almost errythang!

Preparation:

Rinse off you pork chops, then pat dry with a paper towel. Set aside.

In a large bowl, scramble egg with about 3 tsp of Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning. Set aside.

In another large bowl, mix bread crumbs with about 1 tbsp of Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning.

Start heating a frying pan with oil over medium high heat.

While oil is heating up:

Dip your pork chops, one at a time, in the egg wash, then place in the bread crumb bowl. Using a meat tenderizer (If you don’t have one - the hammer looking thing you use to beat the meat to make it soft- use your fist) to pound the bread crumbs onto the pork chop.

Kayfletch's Crispy Panko Breaded
Pork Chops

Cooking Directions:

 

Once oil is heated, start frying your pork chops. Do not over crowd your pan. Cook pork chops until golden brown all around. Since I use thin pork chops, it only takes about 3 - 4 minutes on each side to cook thoroughly. Thicker pork chops take a little bit longer.

When pork chops are done frying, remove from oil and allow to drain on a paper towel lined plate. And BOOM! You got yourself some comforting, delicious pork chops! I serve these up with rice & veggies. I like eating my pork chops with ketchup mixed with sriacha or tabasco. You can use some katsu sauce, bbq sauce, etc. :)

Enjoy & God Bless!

 

XOXO, Kayfletch

Cooking with The Littles (recipe included!)

After feeling unmotivated all day, I was determined to take a night off from cooking. I wanted to just lay on the couch and take a nap. Leonard and Ryan had baseball practice, so I was thinking "what a great opportunity to just order some pizza." Plus, for lunch I went with a couple ladies from the office to this burger place nearby and inhaled what they call their "Ultimate Burger". When it was time to go home, I escaped my food coma and started feeling determined again. As soon as I picked up Marley from daycare, I had an epiphany! I miss spending time with The Littles (Les and Ryan are the "Bigs", Lucas and Marley are the "Littles"). How can I incorporate cooking dinner and spending time with them??? Of course! Have them help make a surprise dinner for Leonard and Ryan! Now, mind you, I have always tried to get them to cook with me. But the Littles fight over silly things sometimes, causing me to stress out in the kitchen. Here's a guilty confession: One time, I "fired" Marley because she was mixing some brownie batter made a huge mess on the dining table. I guess I was impatient that day. Extremely impatient. But, I have since "rehired"  and apologized to her. Now, Marley will occasionally peel the carrots for me, mix batter, put toppings on or scramble eggs. Lucas will help, but most of the time he's busy playing with Ryan or drawing. I think it's really important to teach my kids how to cook, because years of watching my Grandma and Dad cook has taught me more than just cooking. It taught me how to provide my family with meals, and spend quality time with them.

So, the game plan was set. We made a quick trip to the supermarket for our ingredients, and spent $26. It was a little pricey, but for a last minute dinner idea it was money well spent. I got to spend time with the Littles, and hear them say silly things to make each other laugh. They were talking about how Daddy and Ryan are going to be so surprised! They took turns and worked together. They put almost all 2 lbs. of mozzerella cheese on 3 half loaves of pizza, but I fixed it and spread it evenly. I heard them tell each other about their day at school. $26 made more than enough dinner for the 5 of us and we had a great time. When Leonard and Ryan came home from practice, the pizzas were done and my little niece, Kay, came over. The boys were surpised and excited! :) I had a great night!

Per the request of one of my friends (and a follower), here is my recipe! Make some memories with your Littles!

French Bread Pizza

(Makes 6-8 Servings)

Ingredients:

 

3 loaves of Supermarket Bakery French bread

1 jar of Marinara Sauce (I used Prego Traditional sauce)

2 lbs of shredded mozzarella

Desired toppings (I used pepperoni, sweet Italian sausage, & fresh mushrooms)

Butter to butter the bread

Garlic Powder

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300°

Slice each French bread in half (the long way) to make 6 pizzas. Slice off the bottom of each half loaf to cut off all the hard crust. Place on cookie sheets. Spread butter on top side of each half loaf and sprinkle with garlic powder. Place in oven at 300°for 10 minutes to slightly toast.

 After bread is slightly toasted, remove from oven. Increase oven temperature to 400°, Allow the bread to cool off, then spread Marinara sauce on each half loaf. Add light layer of cheese and desired toppings to pizza. Top with more cheese so other toppings won’t fall off. (If using Italian Sausage, remove sausage meat from the sausage skin and sauté in a pan until brown & crumbled. Cook sausage thoroughly.) Bake pizzas in oven for 10 – 15 minutes until cheese is melted.

 

Remove from oven and enjoy! :)

 

XOXO,

Kayfletch

 

 

My Sweet Husband (And a Sweet & Sticky recipe)

On the way to work today, the side of my right shoe snagged on something and tore. I texted Leonard "My shoe ripped. :(" and he called to ask which ones I want him to bring. I told him, "It’s okay. You don't have to. But if you can, the black closed toe heels would be good." An hour later, he shows up at my work with my shoes. The elevator door opens up and I see him, using my shoes as laser guns, shooting me & making "pew, pew, pew" sounds. Granted, he was working in this area, but he still had to get my shoes at the house. Ah, the little things he does for me. He always goes out of his way to make things happen for me. I love him bigger than the sky! And he says he “loves me as much as God loves me.” That’s a whole lotta love! And, I no longer have to be paranoid about my baby toe sticking out of the side of my shoe while I’m working in the office, all because of my great husband.

This handsome guy right here is
my handsome, loving, crazy, awesome,
amazing husband, Leonard.
 

He doesn’t do all this without getting anything in return! Let me give you an example of what I do for him.

 

Yesterday, Leonard was working in an area that didn’t have very many places he wanted to eat. He ended up only eating a snack before having to pick up our youngest son, Lucas, for baseball practice. I had to hook him up. This is my husband and he needs to get fed or else he’s going to be grumpy! The kids and I don’t really like the grumpy dad. He needed something hearty for dinner! So, Marley asked me to cook some ribs. I decided to cook up some Sweet & Sticky BBQ Pork Spareribs, served with a side of peas & carrots (Leonard bought me like a 5 lb. bag of carrots and I had to cook them) and my awesome loaded smashed potatoes (mashed potatoes, but I say “smashed” because it’s more fun. He bought a 10 lb. bag of potatoes and they needed be used). So, using what we already had (seasoning, milk, butter, cheese, veggies, bbq sauce, honey) and spending only $8 on the ribs, I was able to hook him up with this:

These ribs were so simple and it only took 1 hour and 15 minutes (prep time included) to cook. I thought I should share with you. You could serve it up with salad, pasta, or pretty much anything! You’re not a fan of BBQ sauce? No problem! Replace it with Teriyaki sauce and sprinkle some sesame seeds & chopped green onions on them! Like them spicy? Add some sriracha sauce to the BBQ/teriyaki sauce and then brush it on the ribs. The possibilities are endless!

 

SWEET & STICKY BBQ PORK SPARERIBS

2 - 3 lbs. Pork Spare Ribs

1/4 cups vinegar

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 bottle of your favorite BBQ Sauce (I use Garland Jack's)

1/4 cup of honey/table syrup

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place pork spareribs in a baking pan. Rub ribs with garlic powder, paprika, ground black pepper, and salt. Slowly pour in vinegar without washing off the dry rub. Cover pan tightly with foil. Bake for 45 minutes.

 

While your waiting, prepare your sauce. In a small bowl, mix 1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce with honey/table syrup. Mix well & set aside.

 

When ribs are done, remove foil and drain excess liquid from pan. Coat ribs well with sauce and bake for another 15 minutes.

 

And BOOM! You got yourself some delicious Sweet & Sticky BBQ Pork Ribs! :)

 

Enjoy! And when you get a chance, please share! Follow my blog so you can get all the recipes i have to share! God bless!

 

XOXO, Kayfletch