Simple Bites' Roast Pork & Caramelized Balsamic Onions and Stir Fry with the Leftovers

I discovered a blog, Simple Bites, this week and found several recipes I want to try.  I made Simple Bites' Roast Pork & Caramelized Balsamic Onions for dinner on Wednesday with one of the roasts I cut from a Christmas gift.  The roast was deelish and I used the leftovers to make Pork Fried Rice.

I had to show the picture on the right of the roast before I put it in the oven.  The hubs came into the kitchen, saw it and said in a very reverent whisper,"WHAT are you MAKING?!?!"  I even spotted some drool at the corner of his mouth.  ;o)  Pork wrapped in bacon - what male omnivore wouldn't be all over that?

I followed the timing directions however the roast was less than 90 degrees F inside, so I cooked it another 25 minutes to perfection.  I removed the roast to my cutting board and while it rested, I poured the juice and onions into a saucepan to reduce the sauce.  It was very tasty!

This morning, I made brown rice for Pork Fried Rice.  I poured some sesame oil in my wok over medium-high heat, added some minced garlic, ginger and onions from the roast and tossed them around to heat through.  Then I added a cup of mixed, frozen veggies and continue to toss until they were thoroughly heated.  I removed the veggies and tossed the diced pork until it was heated through, then removed.  Next I added the cooked, brown rice to the wok, pressed it into a thin layer around the wok and let it snap, crackle and pop to get the rice crunchy.  Cuz, seriously, if you're going to make fried rice, ya gotta make it crunchy!  After a few minutes, I turned the rice over to get the other side crunchy and then added the veggies and meat back it.  The final, and best step, was to pour some of this teriyaki sauce in the wok and toss to coat.  YUM!  That teriyaki sauce is so easy to make and I keep some in the fridge most of the time.

I hope y'all give these recipes a try and I look forward to trying more recipes from Simple Bites!

Leftover Wednesday - Breakfast Hash Curveball, Bagel Pizzas and Pork Fried Rice

I got busy today with leftovers!  We had leftover steak in the fridge and I wanted to make My Breakfast Hash this morning.  Sadly, I discovered we were out of potatoes.  *sniff, sniff*  Hungrily, I decided to clean out the bread cabinet and found 3, plain, mini bagels in the back.  I had made a batch of spaghetti sauce last week and still had half a jar left.  Ding! Ding! Ding! Bagel pizzas for B!  I looked in the fridge's cheese drawer but no mozzarella.  I went looking for mozzarella in the freezer and found something else I didn't know I had - half a bag of Arby's Curly Fries (not from the restaurant.  You can buy them in your grocer's freezer now).  I decided to try substituting the curly fries for the fresh potatoes in my hash.  Then I found an unopened bag of mozzarella for the bagel pizzas.  We also had half of the hubs pork loin from Monday night's dinner, so I assigned him pork fried rice.  Phew!  Here we go....

Opened bag of curly fries, bag of steak leftovers and an onion.  With the seasoned fries, I didn't need salt, pepper nor paprika in this dish!

Since I have so many pictures in this post already, I won't add play-by-play ones of my cooking; I'll just tell you.  I heated vegetable oil in my pan and added a handful of curly fries.  Once they crisped up on both sides, I removed them to a paper towel-lined plate to drain and added half an onion, chopped, to the pan.  While the onions cooked a few minutes, I chopped the curly fries up and added them back into the pan to crisp up some more and let the onion continue to cook.  I chopped the steak added it to the pan and heated it through a couple of minutes.  Here is the finished product!

These are the ingredients I had for pork fried rice.  Slim pickin's this week, I tell ya!  I'm trying to get better at buying less and not buying anything else until the next shopping day.  You get creative!  I only had 1 carrot left, half a bag of frozen peas, a tomato from my mom's garden, a shallot, some garlic, some ginger, the other half of the hash's onion and Wegmans Stir Fry Sauce.  No, I've never had a tomato in fried rice before, but it needed to be used up so we gave it a try. It worked.

The hubs grated the ginger, diced everything else and stir fried in our wok with sesame oil.  Carrot, shallot and onions first, because they take the longest.  Then peas, garlic and ginger.  Removed all that from the pan.  Tossed the pork around to reheat but not to overcook.  Removed from pan.  Threw a few portions of cooked brown rice into the wok and crisped that up, then added 2 eggs and continued to fry.  Once eggs were cooked, he turned off the flame, added veggies and pork back in and added some stir fry sauce to taste.  It was so good!  It made enough to feed both of us for dinner and lunch leftovers for both of us tomorrow.  Leftovers from the leftovers!  I love it!

B had bagel pizzas for dinner.  Not because he does not like pork fried rice; he really does.  But I wanted to use things up and he was thrilled to be eating pizza.  And, as the hubs said, "More leftovers for us!"  This is a shot of the ingredients for the pizza, but I don't have a shot of the result.  I'm sure you can use your imagination, though.  While the pizzas were in the oven, I ran out to chase and catch a full rainbow!  While doing that, the pizzas were done and B chowed down on 4.  I came back and ate one while the hubs was cooking our dinner and the last one fell on the floor.  Totally forgot about a picture.

But, I do have a video of the rainbow to share with you!  It was so big, I could not fit it in a picture.  Not the best quality, as it was on my phone.  Later, a 2nd rainbow appeared above it!  It sure is nice to be reminded of His promise, especially in these hard times.