Pork, Greens and Beans, Yellow Rice.

Tonight's dinner was a bit of a throw together(okay so most nights are this way, I suck at meal planning). I had pork chops/steaks thawed out but nothing else planned.  So I went out to the garden and saw I had some radishes that were ready for harvest. I pull these thinking I could fix these and their greens for dinner. I then look at my collard and turnip greens. Those are big enough to pick as well. So I get a few of each to go with dinner. Next I decide on rice for another side. I wasn't sure how I wanted to fix it so I turn to Google.  I find a rice pilaf recipe that gave me another idea. So here it is. A total of approximately: 426.2 Calories, 18.7 g of total fat, 36g of total carbohydrate, 10g of dietary fiber, 0.4g of sugar, and 28.2g of protein.

For the pork I just took 5 chops/steaks and put black pepper, salt and garlic powder over them. Drizzled about 2 tbsp of Italian dressing and stuck them in the oven. I baked them at 425-450 for about 20 minutes then turned the temp down to 375 and kept them there till they were done. I didn't time it so I have now idea how long it was. I know that when everything else was done so were they.

Here's the approximate nutrition data figured up at sparkrecipes.com:

Pork Chops

Nutrition Facts

  6 Servings

Amount Per Serving

  Calories

195.3

  Total Fat

12.2 g

  Saturated Fat

4.0 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat

2.2 g  

  Monounsaturated Fat

4.8 g

  Cholesterol

59.5 mg

  Sodium

467.2 mg

  Potassium

251.3 mg

  Total Carbohydrate

0.9 g   

  Dietary Fiber

0.1 g   

  Sugars

0.0 g

  Protein

19.4 g

My yellow rice was started by heating a pan with a small amount of oil. I then added 2 cups of white rice and about 1 tablespoon of dry, minced onion and cooked them till they got slightly translucent and began to brown. At the same time I had 2 chicken bullion cubes in 4 cups of water heating in a medium sized saucepan.  When the rice was done browning/turning translucent I added it to the boiling water and completed cooking according to rice package directions.  Here is also where I should of done something different. I added the turmeric, salt and ginger at the end of cooking and I should of done it when the rice went in the water. So here add 1 tsp of turmeric, 1/2 to 1 tsp of salt, and 1/2 tsp of ground ginger to rice. Cook till done. 

The approximate nutrition data for the rice is:

Yellow Rice 

Nutrition Facts

8 servings

Calories 57.8

Total Fat 0.2g

Saturated fat 0.0g

Monounsaturated fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 0.0mg

Sodium 521.4mg

Potassium 38.0mg

Total Carbohydrate 12.2 g

Dietary fiber 0.4g

Sugars 0.0g

Protein 1.2g

I was going to just saute the greens in butter, roast the radishes and add them together.
Unfortunately I overestimated the amount of greens I had harvested. As i was cooking them I noticed they were cooking down to nothing. So I opened up two cans of light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed them, and added them to the greens and radishes. I then added some garlic powder, black pepper and salt. There was also about 3 tablespoons of butter and 1 cup of water with a beef bullion cube in the dish. I sauteed/pan roasted/steamed...okay how about cooked...cooked the radishes in the water/bullion and 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter. I then added the greens, two more tablespoons of butter, seasonings and sauteed them till soft. I next added the beans and cooked till heated.


Here is the nutrition data for Beans and Greens:
6 servings
Calories 173.1
Total Fat 6.3g
Saturated fat 3.7g
Polyunsaturated fat 0.5g
Monounsaturated fat 1.7g
Cholesterol 15.5 mg
Sodium 1,024.9mg (I'm not sure what's up with this number)
Potassium 446.6 mg
Total Carbohydrate 22.9g
Dietary Fiber 9.5g
Sugars 0.4g
Protein 7.6g


Tonight's meal went over well with my boys calling dibs on leftover rice for tomorrow.  Since they don't usually eat rice unless it's made sweet or drowning in gravy, this is a definite win.

Pork and Wild Rice mix

A couple of weeks ago my mother came down to help out with the kiddies while they were on Fall break. While down we went to Lit restaurant supply to browse and she bought this ParExcellence Garden Harvest wild rice mix. It had some dehydrated carrots, celery, garlic and onion in it and seemed pretty clean and healthy. Well when I fixed it that night I didn't add anything to it. I had read the ingredients list and thought that it should have enough flavor of it's own. I was wrong, it was like eating plain rice. I was hoping that my mother would of taken the container back home with her (especially since it had 50 servings worth of rice mix in it). No such luck. So being stuck with this stuff I decided I was going to fix it like I would plain rice.

Here's what I came up with.

Pork and Wild Rice Mix

6 servings about 2 cups each

5 pork steaks, sliced

2 3/4 cups of water
1 cup of wild rice mix
1 can low sodium corn
1 can of italian herb diced tomatoes
1 medium jalapeno, diced
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 dashes creole seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

1. In 1 tablespoon olive oil, brown the sliced pork steaks.

2. Add water and rice, bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Stir in tomatoes, jalapeno and drained corn.

4. I had a lot of liquid in the skillet so I left it uncovered turned the heat up to medium and cooked till liquid evaporated.

Nutrition Data (approx.)

Calories 460 Calories from Fat 197

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 21.9g 34%

Saturated Fat 7.2 g 36%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 108mg 36%

Sodium 503mg 21%

Total Carbohydrates 31.0g 10%

Dietary Fiber 3.4g 14%

Sugars 4.1g

Protein 34. 8g

Vitamin A 10% • Vitamin C 24% Calcium 6% • Iron 16%