Mexican Manicotti

I'll admit, this post was a bit of an afterthought.  This is one of those dishes that I make when I just don't feel like putting much thought or effort into dinner.  It's delicious and everyone loves it, but it is incredibly easy.  It's so easy, that it just never occurred to me to do a post as I was actually making it.  In fact, it wasn't until I was eating the left-overs today for lunch that it hit me (so please forgive the lack of photos here).  This is exactly the kind of dish I am always hoping to find.  Moms need dishes like this in their repertoire.  And, I have this one because of my mom.  It's one of her go-to's and now it is definitely one of mine.

I typically make this with ground turkey, but it is actually much more decadent (can meat even be decadent?) with ground beef.  And, we don't use any cheese on this since, you know, I can't eat dairy at the moment, and my husband - bless his heart - doesn't like cheese (can you imagine?), but feel free to add it your dish.  I've included it below.

Mexican Manicotti:
1 lb. ground turkey or beef
1 can refried beans
1 packet taco seasoning
1 box manicotti shells
1 cup water
1 large jar of salsa
8 oz. shredded cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, combine meat, refried beans, and taco seasoning until thoroughly mixed.  Place the meat mixture into a freezer bag and cut off a tip so the bag can be used like a pastry bag.  Squeeze the meat mixture into the manicotti shells and place the shells side by side in a 9x13 glass baking dish (you may need to occasionally nudge the meat in with a spoon or knife - and it may get a bit messy!).  Once the dish is full of shells, pour 1 cup water over the shells.  Top with the entire jar of salsa.  Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for one hour.  Remove from the oven, and if using, immediately top the dish with the shredded cheese.

Enjoy!
 

Pulled Pork BBQ with Mustard Sauce

Each year we go to Kiawah Island in South Carolina with my parents, my little sister, and my brother's family.  While down there, we always eat at Bessinger's BBQ and it is fantastic.  Now, being born a Tarheel in the western half of North Carolina, I am partial to tomato based sauces on my pulled pork (Western NC = tomato based; Eastern NC = vingear).  But, for my first attempt at making pulled pork myself, I decided to go with a South Carolina style sauce similar to Bessinger's (mainly because I didn't have any molasses on hand).  In other words, mustard based.  And, I must say, it was fantastic. 
 

 
I also made homemade burger buns which I have done several times.  I will post more about those later, but the buns in the picture above were made dairy-free using rice milk and Earth Balance dairy free butter, so that I could eat them.  I believe this affected the rise and is why they are not quite as fluffy as usual, but they were still tasty!


Slighty Adapted Version of Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce:
1 cup prepared yellow mustard
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons chili powder (adjust this according to your chili powder preferenece)
1.5 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons butter (I used Earth Balance dairy-free butter)

Pulled Pork:
1 onion
1 pork butt/shoulder approx. 6-7 lbs.
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper


Preheat oven to 300.  Prepare sauce by combining all ingredients except soy sauce and butter.  Simmer for 30 minutes and add soy sauce and butter.  Simmer an additional 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, cut onion into wedges and place in bottom of dutch oven.  Prepare pork butt by generously coating all sides with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.  Place pork butt into dutch oven on top of onion wedges with the fatty side facing up.  Pour sauce over and all around pork butt.  Cook in oven for at least 6 hours, flipping the meat every 1-2 hours, starting and finishing with fat side up.  Once cooked, skim as much fat off as possible and remove bone (meat should easily slide off bone and bone should come out clean).  Shred meat by using two forks to pull it apart.  Cover and let stand for 20-30 minutes so all the meat is covered in sauce and flavors meld.     


Notes:  We ate off this for days, even after feeding company.  I used leftovers to make salads for lunch, putting some of the BBQ on top of spinach and drizzling just a tiny bit of soy sauce over the greens.  It was wonderful!


Technique for cooking pork butt inspired by Pioneer Woman.