sandwiches

Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Crunchy Slaw

If you’re feeding a crowd, there’s not many recipes easier or more beloved than slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches topped with a simple, crunchy, vinegar-dressed slaw.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Whether it’s summer get togethers or a laid back game day gathered ’round the TV, there’s no better option for easy eats like pulled pork sandwiches. They’re simple to make, easily customizable, and it’s rare I don’t hear enthusiastic, “Oh, that sounds so good” from those I’m making them for.

These sandwiches start with my slow cooker pulled pork that seriously tastes even better the longer it sits in the fridge, making it perfect for make-ahead menus and weekly meal planning.

And in the world of recipe making, how many can claim that distinction?!

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17 Recipes to Make with Leftover Ham

From ham and bean soup to ham fried rice, these 17 irresistible leftover ham recipes are the perfect way to put those smoky Easter leftovers to good use.

If you’re lucky enough to find yourself with leftover ham this Easter (this is one of my favorite recipes), that means spring pastas, soups, fried rice, and more are just a bite away. Of course it takes a whole lot of restraint not to just channel our inner caveman and snack on the remaining ham straight off the bone — the porky goodness is just way too tempting.

Baked hams are a celebratory food. Since we tend to make them for holidays and special occasions, they’re typically not something we have on a regular basis, so when we do, we know there’s a wealth of yummy ideas for repurposing that ham are at our disposal.

From classic split pea soup made in the pressure cooker, to gussied up grilled cheese, these round-two leftover ideas are so good, they’ll give your holiday ham dinner a run for its money .

So let’s carve in, shall we?

Pressure Cooker Split Pea Soup with Ham from Skinnytastecontinue to the recipe… about 17 Recipes to Make with Leftover Ham

31 Healthy Lunches to Make in January

Get a healthy start on your week by creating lunches that won’t derail your best eating intentions. These 31 recipes will keep you on track!

Happy New Year, friends!

Now that we’ve eaten too many cookies, drunk too much champagne, and thrown caution to the wind with our diets (because #holidays), 2018 is upon us and The Ghost of Christmas Future has awarded us a fresh slate. But that doesn’t mean we have to trade in our culinary vices for full force diet deprivation ala Sugar-Free-Paleo-Whole30-latest-diet-trend-to-jump-onto. Though if you are, more power to you.

For me, January is never about diet repentance or deprivation, but always about finding balance. It’s about enjoying comfort food like chicken pot pie or lasagna while also embracing more salads that don’t always require “detox” in the name.

Lunch is a good place to start, because it’s all too often the “chopped liver” of our three daily meals, and sometimes we skip it or eat a protein bar and call it good. Breakfast may get credited as the most important meal of the day, but lunch is a close runner-up and is the fuel needed to power through the day so we don’t succumb to the dreaded afternoon slump where we just want to face plant into our desks.

That’s why 2018’s first 31 day what to cook series installment is dedicated to healthy lunches, with an emphasis on meal prep.

And so here are 31 virtuous (but still totally yummy) lunch recipes to motivate you through the new-you month of January.

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31 Summer Slow Cooker Recipes to Make in July

These 31 fast to pull together slow cooker recipe ideas for chicken, meat, seafood, and vegetables are the secret to easy summer cooking.

For many of us, pulling out the slow cooker for cozy, warming, winter meals is as natural a thing to do as heating up the grill for summer burgers, brats, chicken and fish.

Ah, but alas! You may be missing out on one of the most advantageous qualities of the beloved slow cooker, the fact that this kitchen appliance can actually be your secret weapon in summer, too.

This list of 31 days of recipes is the reason you should pull your Crock Pot, Instant Pot (there’s a new 9-in-1 model!) or slow cooker out of hibernation and get it cookin’ for you. (affiliate links)

So pack up the sunscreen and head to the pool or out for a hike, because just like in winter, summer is the perfect season to put your slow cooker to work for you.

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How to Build a Better Sandwich

There are a few secrets that make your sandwich instantly Instagrammable. These are the tips I follow to make a good sandwich great.

This post is sponsored by AdobeSpark. All of the photos in today’s post were shot over the past few months on my iPhone, with type added by a super fun app called AdobeSpark. The whole process makes it fast and easy to share on the blog and all of my social channels. See how I do it here.

It was my 8th grade summer when I embraced my independent wings. That was the year we were old enough to take the bus by ourselves to walk the floors of Ogden City Mall. We looked for boys and then looked away when they looked at us. We hummed along to Culture Club as we wandered through the aisles of Contempo Casuals. We sorted through the fishnet gloves ala Madonna and off-the-shoulder sweatshirts ala Flashdance wishing we had the money and the guts to pull off the look the girls in Seventeen magazine did.

Ogden was not the fashion capital of the world, but then neither were we.

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Ham Salad Sandwiches

Leftover ham mixed with pickle relish and dried onion flakes come together in a nice and easy spread that gets slathered atop a soft white bun, for one of my favorite lunches of all time.

I can’t be all elegant and fancy all of the time. It’s just not in my nature.

You’ll find me in my Vans slip-ons more often than strappy heels.

I prefer to hole up at a cabin in the mountains or sit on the beach with friends and family rather than shopping at the hippest boutiques.

And I’m totally into eating good old-fashioned favorites instead of upscale molecular cuisine.

Who wants to eat molecules anyway? Oh wait, I guess we all do. But, you know what I mean.

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Korean Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Caramel Apple Crumble

Presented by Spike TV’s Frankenfood. Premiers Sunday, June 22 at 10/9c.

Why subsist in the normal when you can revel in the outrageous? It’s what puts the spice in life. And sometimes it makes us scratch our heads and say, “Really? Would those flavors really taste good together???”

I know you’ve noticed it, too. Culinary creations that border on the line of incredible. Sometimes even a tad bizarre. Where mash-ups of menu favorites go head-to-head, meet and then marry to become unexpected culinary masterpieces.

That’s what Frankenfood is all about.

I have a personal relationship with this culinary creature that’s been introduced to the world as Frankenfood. It all started with my husband’s, ahem, “creative ways” in the kitchen.

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Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit Sandwiches

Do you know what happens mere moments after the Easter Bunny silently scampers away from the scene of the crime? When mom and dad survey the scene of multi-colored egg bombs that litter the yard?

The elephant in the room appears and asks, “How much egg salad are we going to have to eat this year?”

Easter is funny that way. Traditional always, with flavors like ham, carrots and scalloped potatoes. Scalloped potatoes are a flavor in my book. And of course there’s a spring berry something for dessert.

And eggs. Let us not ignore the eggs.

I for one take my egg salad very, very seriously, and very, very happily. But sometimes you just have to throw your hands in the air and let the world know that enough is simply enough with the egg salad.

That’s when it’s time to double down and try something new. Like biscuits and eggs. Still a sandwich, but different enough.

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Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

So here’s a question for you. When you were a kid, why did savory foods always get segregated from one another and how come it never was—and still isn’t—the case with sweets?

Remember when you didn’t like your food to touch each other? How the lunch room divided trays were a godsend to just about any and every elementary age child?

Don’t let my gravy come a lick within the carrots!

Ew, I can’t eat my potatoes because they had a confrontation with the mustard!

But when it comes to sweets, it seems that the more sweet we can load into a single recipe, the more enticing it is.

Hence, Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches. And if that isn’t a mouthful, just try eating one.

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Mushroom and Kale Grilled Cheese and Friday Faves

Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Oh, and can I get a side of cheese with that please?

My day yesterday was a cheese lover’s-cheesehead-dream sandwiched between slices of pretzel bread, sourdough and even a shout out to challah (hollah!) all to be consumed in less than two hours.

Over the last few months, I’ve shared the details of this contest with you and it’s finally all come down to this. The day had arrived. A grilled cheese reckoning. Homage to the great grilled cheese. The medal of honor to all things gooey and melty. The day I became an official judge for the Grilled Cheese Academy’s Grilled Cheese Recipe Showdown.

Following a selection process that had been narrowed down to the final seven recipe contestants, I went to Madison, WI to meet with my fellow judges from Wisconsin Cheese to determine which of these recipes would become the grand prize winner of a $5,000 prize package. (photos thanks to Mike)

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Strawberry Bruschetta Grilled Cheese and Friday Faves

It was that sock that sat right in the middle of the floor for over a week. And her flip-flops that were haphazardly strewn about the living room along with a pile of papers and markers and other 8 year old stuff. And the pile of yet to be cleaned paint brushes sitting on the counter after my husband deposited them, left to languish next to the pile of clean towels that never seemed to get put away.

The little annoyances that last week gave me prickly heat every time I saw them, melted to the background after several national events reminded me that life as we know it can change in an instant.

I’m just grateful I get to once again have this gentle nudge to not take “stuff” so seriously. It is, afterall, just stuff.

As I show you my favorite recipes or share the latest shoes I covet, I don’t want to be insensitive—or on the flip side too melancholy—to events beyond our control. I think it’s important to remember that while we’re all affected by national circumstances, and while saddened or frustrated by them, we must also learn something from them. So I’m working on learning to turn a blind eye to MY issues with what gets my dander up, and be thankful I have loved ones to contribute to my self-induced peeves.

Yesterday I asked Facebook what you were craving to continue my Grilled Cheese Month Friday recipes: Savory or sweet? While the savory side seemed to weigh in pretty heavy, there were a fair number of you in the sweet camp as well. So I made a compromise: Let’s do a savory AND sweet grilled cheese this week. And here she is.

I present…Strawberry Bruschetta Grilled Cheese.continue to the recipe… about Strawberry Bruschetta Grilled Cheese and Friday Faves

Mexican Turkey Meatball Sandwiches with Avocado Smash and Game Day Sweepstakes

Enter Avocado from Mexico’s Game Day Sweepstakes via FoodieCrush here. See what you might win and details at the bottom of this post.

I’m just saying it now. So get out your cute little Moleskins, grab a pen and take heed.

2013 is the year of the meatball.

No matter it’s nationality—Italian, Swedish, Vietnamese, Greek, every country has it’s version of meatballs—the meatball is a ubiquitous culinary staple that is the figurehead of basic, down-to-earth, comfort food. In. My. Mouth.

The meatball has even made its way into popular culture, including as the title of one of my all-time favorite movies now being made into a T.V. series by none other than the creator of Friday Night Lights (I’m so ready to discover who will become my new Riggins, IF, and that’s a big IF, he can be replaced.) Are you ready for the summer? Are you ready for the good times? Ah, yes, about now I certainly am.continue to the recipe… about Mexican Turkey Meatball Sandwiches with Avocado Smash and Game Day Sweepstakes