Let’s Play Cook Has Moved

I have two blogs, one personal (not quite because it is public) and this. I moved my personal blog to Blogspot and I figured I might as well move this one there. And since I realize that managing two blogs is too much of a work (yeah, I am that lazy), I will simply combine the two.

Hope to see you there!

Dear Johnny

Slow-Cooked Pork Chop

I created this dish without any idea how it’s going to end up. Matter of fact, I still have 30 minutes before it’s done and here I am typing this already. (Don’t worry though, you won’t be reading this if it didn’t taste good in the end.)

And since you are reading this, I am proud to present it to you all! Very juicy and tender. No knife needed to slice the chops!

Serving: 4

What you’ll need:

4 center-cut boneless pork chop, roughly 110 g each
1 cup reduced-salt chicken broth
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp garlic powder
1.5 tbsp chicken-flavor bouillon
1 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

How to make it:

• Whisk together the broth, oil garlic, garlic powder, bouillon and basil.
• Pour mixture into the slow cooker.
• Cut small slits on both sides of each pork chop and lightly season with salt and pepper.
• Place each pork chop into the slow cooker, close the lid.
• Cook high for 3 – 4 hours, depending on the thickness of the chop.
• Baste the chops occasionally with the sauce.

**PS. The nutritional information includes the sauce. So unless you’re going to use the sauce as a soup with the pork chops, the following nutrition information are over-estimates.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 305  Fat: 19 grams Sat. Fat: 4 grams Protein: 3 grams  Carbohydrate: 24 grams  Fiber: 0 grams  Cholesterol: 55 mg Sodium: 1119 mg

Sautéed Mung Beans

Another recipe that I attempted to health-ify is my mung beans dish. I usually use pork and pork rinds in it but this time, I am sticking with just shrimp and lots and lots of spinach!

Serving: 6

What you’ll need:

½ cup mung beans
2 cups spinach, stem removed
2 cups chopped shrimp
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 cloves garlic
½ cup chopped onion

How to make it:

• Soak the beans for at least 6 hours, and then drain the water.
• On a pot, bring water just enough to cover the beans to a boil. Put beans in and boil for about 5 – 10 minutes or until soft.
• On a separate pot, sauté garlic, onion, and shrimp.
• Mix the mung beans (with the water) with sautéed mixture.
• Add fish sauce to taste.
• Remove from heat, add spinach and cover the pot.

**PS. Serving size depends on how much water you put. You can either make it thick (you’ll end up with about 4 servings) or like a soup; I made mine the latter.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 93  Fat: 1 grams  Protein: 10 grams  Carbohydrate: 13 grams  Fiber: 4 grams Cholesterol: 48 mg  Sodium: 388 mg

Sloppy Cheeseburger

One member of MyFitnessPal posted this recipe on the site’s forum and I have been wanting to try it. I finally took my crock pot out of the box and made use of it! And OMG! It’s cheeseburger heaven!!! Sloppy and not really pleasant to look at, however, again, OMG! Definitely a must-try!

Serving: 10 (about 1/3 cup)

What you’ll need:

crock pot
cooking spray

1.5 lbs lean ground beef
¼ tsp garlic salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 tbsp skin milk
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
8 oz Velveeta light cheese
1 tbsp mustard, optional
1 tbsp dill relish, optional

How to make it:

• Brown the beef on a skillet.

• Spray crock pot with cooking spray and throw the beef in.
• Add garlic, pepper and skim milk.
• Add onions, garlic and cheese.

• Mix all up.
• Close crock pot with lid and cook high for 2 – 3 hours (until cheese melts).
• Serve on sandwich thins.

**PS. Sandwich bread not included in nutrition information.

Nutrition information:

Calories: 183  Fat: 10 grams  Sat. fat: 4 grams  Protein: 19 grams  Carbohydrate: 6 grams  Cholesterol: 56 mg  Sodium: 397 mg

Butter-Baked Chicken

I know I know, I have been missing-in-action for a while now. I have an excuse though! My step-daughter came for a visit and I didn’t really cook anything while she was here because, well, we have been eating garbage. See? I didn’t say it was a good excuse!

Today, I attempted to health-ify one of my favorite baked chicken recipe. I normally use drumstick but this time I used chicken breast. Also, instead of the usual Parmesan cheese + bread crumbs, I used Italian bread crumbs alone.

Serving: 4

What you’ll need:

2 chicken breast, roughly 700g for both
3 tbsp of unsalted butter
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 medium egg

How to make it:

• Preheat oven at 400F.
• Beat the egg on one bowl and pour the bread crumbs on another.
• Cut the chicken breast into halves, roughly 175g for each slice.
• Soak chicken breast on egg and dredge on the crumbs; repeat for the other 3 slices.
• Place chicken breast on a pan.
• Slice butter into pieces and place around the chicken on the pan.
• Bake for 30 minutes, turning chicken once.

*I sliced each half of the breast further into two simply because my bowls are small and I couldn’t dredge the breast otherwise.

**PS. You can omit the butter and simply spray the pan with cooking spray instead and it will lower the calories by 100 calories/serving.

Nutrition information:

Calories: 311  Fat: 15 grams  Sat. fat: 9 grams  Protein: 42 grams  Carbohydrate: 3 grams Cholesterol: 153 mg  Sodium: 185 mg