another camping taste adventure 9/10

so it's been a while since i blogged but not since we've cooked! here's our tasty dinner and breakfast from camping in west va. tom found the dinner recipe somewhere and i think i have it packed away with our stuff. it was chicken and rice and went something like this...

• 1 pkg cooked chicken breast


• 1 pkg instant brown rice


• 8-10 cut up dried mushrooms i used a bunch of shitakes from the asian food section


• 1 sm can of whole corn


• some cocoanut milk i think we used 1/3 - 1/2 a can


• then i added garlic powder, dried onions, chicken bullion, pepper and some water (as per box directions) and stirred.

it really came out great and was super easy. our wine was good too and of course we had smores for dessert!

the next morning was a fun meal too. we made cheesee grits with scrambled eggs. simple but really yummy and kept us warm and full for our 7 hour hike!

keep eating!

ok pork salsa stew 4/5? needs a mulligan

so i don't really know what to say about this recipe. i liked it; it was light, tasty, spicey, healthy... what's not to like? well, it started off with a black cloud because our pork was bad. i don't know much about meat but if pork smells like salmon that can't be good. and then our mango was ripe. too ripe. and stringy. i've found that florida and mexico seem to have the stringiest mangos and i really don't like them. peru is usually good though. anyway, so we already we're in the mood since 2 main ingredients were lacking. but we plodded on and found a frozen turkey tenderloin in the freezer and tried to cut the mango pretty small and made ourselves a dinner. not the best but i'd certainly eat it again; especially if we got the ingredients right! and some fresh cilantro would have been nice too but we didn't have any since i hadn't been to the grocery store yet.

Southwest Pork Salsa Stew

from BH&G

Start to Finish: 25 minutes

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
12 oz. boneless pork loin or sirloin, trimmed of fat and cut into bite-size strips (we used that frozen turkey tenderloin)
1 14-oz. can reduced-sodium chicken broth bullion
1 6-oz. can no-salt-added tomato paste
1/2 cup bottled cilantro-flavored salsa or basic salsa my homemade salsa, of course
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (2 cups)
1 cup frozen sweet soybeans (edamame) or baby lima beans
1 small mango, pitted, peeled and chopped (about 1/2 cup)*

Directions
1. Lightly coat a large saucepan with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat over medium-high heat. Add pork to hot pan; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until browned.
2. Add broth, tomato paste, salsa, and cumin; stir until combined. Stir in zucchini and soybeans. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Top with chopped mango. Makes 4 servings.
3. Test Kitchen Tip: In place of cilantro-flavor salsa, use basic salsa and stir in 2 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro. In place of fresh mango, use refrigerated mango slices, rinsed, drained, and chopped; or use frozen chopped mango, thawed.

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition facts per serving:
Calories 243
Total Fat (g) 7
Saturated Fat (g) 2
Monounsaturated Fat (g) 2
Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 1
Cholesterol (mg) 47
Sodium (mg) 594
Carbohydrate (g) 19
Total Sugar (g) 12
Fiber (g) 6
Protein (g) 26
Vitamin C (DV%) 49
Calcium (DV%) 8
Iron (DV%) 17
*Percent Daily Values are base on a 2,000 calorie diet

it really wasn't a bad meal. like i said, i'd love to try it again. tom was looking for something "heartier". apparently the word "stew" means rich, fatty and slow cooked to him so this wasn't what he was expecting. i thought it made a really nice light dinner for people who like quick, healthy and flavorful. and make sure that you buy the edemame shelled or this will take a lot longer to make than 25min! keep eating...