Pantry Purge 2011, Days 3 & 4

Day 3:
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. As I struggle with a cold that is quickly kicking my ass, I have gotten a day behind in blogging. So to recap yesterday, we spent breakfast with our wonderful friends, Terry and Patrice, to celebrate his birthday. His wish was to leave it up to the boys and somehow we ended up at the airport Waffle House. Honestly, it was perfect. The food and the service was fantastically tragic. Now when I say breakfast, I should really say it was more of a brunch since we didn't eat until after noon.

Due to the lunch-time breakfast, we skipped lunch and focused on dinner. This proposed a new challenge Pantry Purge dinner with guests!! Terry and Patrice were coming over!! Yikes! What started as a mission to clean out a couple of jars from the fridge turned into a pretty great dinner.

Pork Tacos with Red Slaw and Cilantro Lime Rice:
(Tacos)

1 Pkg. 12 hard taco shells
1 boston butt pork roast
1 jar green salsa
1/4 bottled jalapenos, sliced
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp pepper jelly
5 cloves garlic
5 dashes jalapeno Tabasco sauce
1 medium white onion
salt and pepper to taste

Season pork with salt and pepper on all sides and place in a small roaster. Put the rest of the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Cover pork roast and place in preheated oven at 350. Roast in oven for about 2 1/2 hours.

Meanwhile....
(Slaw)
Combine:
1/2 head red cabbage, shredded,
1 green pepper, chopped,
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
salt to taste

To assemble tacos:

Shred pork and place back in sauce in roaster. Once combined, place small amount in the bottom of each taco. Cover with slaw. We also topped ours with crema and pepper jack cheese.

YUMMY!!

Cilantro Lime Rice:
Cook rice according to package directions. Once cooked, add juice of 2 limes, 1/2 cup cilantro, 1/2 cup frozen corn, 1/2 chopped adobe pepper, 1/2 cumin, and salt to taste.

It sounds far more complicated than it really was! It easy and delicious and again, the family gobbled them right up! In this meal, I was able to get rid of a box of taco shells, 1 jar green salsa, 1/2 head of cabbage, 1 partially used onion, 3 limes that had been saved after being zested, and the rest of some crema from fish tacos.

Day 4:
Today was an easy day and as crappy as I feel with this cold, I am VERY thankful. I met one of my favorite people for lunch today. (That's you, Courtney!!) Luckily for me, lunch provided just enough dinner for my under the weather appetite. Brent had a couple of things to choose from and ended up eating the rest of the Jalapeno-Corn Chowder from the other night (The last pre-challenge meal) and the soba noodles with chicken and veggies. While it's not very exciting, it does help keep the fridge empty and us from needing to go grocery shopping for one more day!