pulled

After devouring my heavenly doughy bagel from Noah’s yesterday morning, I got really lazy.

I had good intentions:

~ take down decorations from Holden’s party!
~ clean out/straighten up the garage
~ go to the grocery store
~ do some laundry
~ workout
~ make sushi for dinner

I managed to accomplish ONE of the above mentioned tasks…laundry!

Instead of carrying out the other five chores, I made some banana bread:

…and viewed this gorgeous rainbow after cuddling up on the couch and doing nothing ALL day:

Since I didn’t make it to the store, I raided the freezer for dinner and we feasted on Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken and some of Lola’s lumpia ~ not too shabby.

But today was much more productive. It was gorgeous and Jay played outside with the kids while I ran a couple errands. I decided to make pulled pork and potato salad for dinner.

I found this pork shoulder on sale and grabbed a BBQ pulled pork seasoning package. Thanks for the tip, Lisa!

Just trim outside fat off roast, plop into the slow cooker, combine seasoning packet with 1 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, mix and pour over pork….Voila! (Note: I am going off memory on the amounts above, but they’re close – just follow the EASY instructions on the back of the packet.)

8 hours on low or 4 on high and you will have this:

Hawaiian Sweet Roll Pulled Pork Sliders

Scrumptious.

I made some Spicy Ranch Potato Salad to go alongside. (Adapted from my sister’s Ranch potato salad recipe.)

This time I used 2 large russet potatoes (1.88 lbs.) since I only wanted a little bit of potato salad….uh, these 2 taters made a TON of tater salad! Normally I use a 3 lb. bag of red potatoes, quarter them and leave the skins on. This time I skinned the russets and cubed them before boiling. Once they are fork tender, drain, cool and add the following:

1/4 red onion, minced
2-3 stalks celery, chopped (I use a mini food processor) My sister also turned me on to using the leafy parts of the inner stalks which I used to trash. These add a lot of extra flavor so I throw in some chopped leafy parts, too.
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
3/4 package Ranch dressing mix (I swear this is the secret to this recipe)
10-12 jalapeño slices, chopped
2 Tbsp. yellow mustard
1/4 to 1/2 cup mayo depending on your mayo threshold (I’m a mayo girl, but don’t like my potato salads too heavy – if that’s at all possible!?!)
Salt & pepper to taste

Mix all together and chill in ‘fridge for an hour or so before serving.

I was able to go workout while dinner was in the crock pot!

No, I haven’t taken down the decorations or worked on the garage, but there’s always tomorrow, right?

This week’s recipes:

Salmon Cakes & Parmesan Roasted Asparagus

(I picked up a couple gorgeous bunches of asparagus today for 97 cents a pound!)

Oh, and what do you think about flipflopfollies’ new look?

No more cheesy red flip flops and candy cane border!

Kudos to my personal blog bling’er, Jay!

I {L-O-V-E} it, babe! Thank you!