Shrimp ‘n’ Black Bean Chili

Ingredients

• ½ C. chopped onion
• ½ C. chopped green pepper
• 1 tbsp. canola oil
• 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 C. chicken broth
• 1/3 C. picante sauce
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• ½ tsp. dried basil
• 1lb cooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• Hot cooked rice, optional

 Instructions: 

1. In a large saucepan, sauté onion and green pepper in oil for 4-5 minutes or until crisp-tender.
2. Stir in the beans, tomatoes, broth, picante sauce, cumin, and basil.
3. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes or until heated through.
4. Add shrimp; simmer 3-4 minutes longer or until heated through. Serve with rice if desired.

Apple Bread

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. butter   
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 c. chopped apples

Topping Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp. flour
• 4tbsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Cream butter, sugar, and eggs. Stir in remaining ingredients
3. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans.
4. Combine ingredients, working into butter until crumbles form.
5. Sprinkle over batter in pans.
6. Bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

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My mother used to make this apple bread ( and banana bread, too) all the time while I was growing up. It's beyond easy to make and easily makes your house smell like home-made apple pie. Yum!

Maple Glazed Stuff Roast Pork

Ingredients

• 2 TBSP butter
• 1 apple, chopped
• 1.5 C. hot water
• 1 pkg (6 oz) Stuffing Mix ( I used the chicken flavor)
• 1 pork loin (2lbs), butterflied
• 2 TBSP maple syrup
• 2 TBSP spicy brown mustard
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary

Make it:

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Melt Butter in large skillet on medium heat. Add apples; cook and stir 3 minutes or until crisp-tender. Add water and stuffing mix; cover. Let stand 5 minutes; mix lightly.
3. Spoon stuffing mixture onto cut side of meat to within ½ inch of edges. Roll up, jelly-roll fashion, starting at one of the short ends. Place, seam-side down, in roasting pan sprayed with cooking spray
4. Bake 1 hr. Mix syrup, mustard, and rosemary; spread over meat. Bake 20 minutes or until meat is done. Let stand 15 minutes before slicing to serve.

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The roast, after coming out of the oven and sitting for a couple minutes.

What I did: I ended up doing mine a bit different. In the pork bag, 2 pieces of the loin was there instead of one big piece. I butterflied both pieces, seared only one side of each piece, placed one piece of meat (seared side down) in a roasting pan, placed the stuffing mixture ontop, and then laid the last piece of meat (seared side up) on the stuffing. I covered the roasting pan with foil and baked for about an hour and 5 minutes, removed the foil and baked for 5-10 minutes (the stuffing was really wet), and then smeared the maple syrup/honey mustard sauce over the meat and baked for about 5-10 minutes more. The meat was incredibly moist! Next time, I'm only adding half of an apple into the stuffing, I'm not really into the whole fruit thing in savory foods. The whole family LOVED it, even my 7-yr-old and my 3-yr-old. I served it with green beans and beets.

Welcome to Amanda's Dishes!

I love to cook— especially from scratch. I have memories of cooking, at a young age, with my mother making anything and everything. She had one rule: If you cook and make a mess, then you better clean it up. My favorite thing to make was a single layer chocolate cake. If I remember correctly, the recipe came from one of my mother’s Betty Cocker’s cookbooks. We would add a piece of warm cake in a bowl and then a splash of cold milk. Talk about YUM!


Ok, flash forward from memory-lane to today. The majority of the time, in my household anyways, I not only do almost all of the cooking but I do almost all of the dishes that accumulat from the said cooking, too, hence Amanda’s Dishes. I figured I would share the recipes that I already have and the ones I will eventually come across. So, like I said in the title of this post, welcome to my dishes! And no, I won't make you clean up the dirty dishes, either. :)