Recipes – Page 2 – Crazy 4 Smiths

Instant Pot Pork Carnitas Recipe – Boneless Pork Sirloin Roasts JUST $0.99/lb at Smith’s!

Smith’s has a STELLAR sale price happening this week on their Boneless Pork Sirloin Roasts. They will cost you a mere $0.99/lb as apposed to the regular $4.00/lb price! The roasts are sold whole in a bag. The cost is around $10 for the entire roast. When you cut the package open the roast is portioned into 4 sections. You are going to want to stock your freezers with a couple of these roasts, and I wanted to share a family favorite recipe that utilizes these roasts.

Pork Carnitas

My family LOVES tacos! Beef, chicken, pork. They’re all delicious. I like to use the pork roast to make pork carnitas. My go to recipe is friendly for an Instant Pot. If you don’t have an instant pot you seriously need to get one! This kitchen is a mom’s best friend! It’s a pressure cooker and literally cooks your food in no time flat. I can take frozen meat and make a delicious dinner ready to be served in 1 hour – that’s crazy!

For the Pork Carnitas your roast will be fork tender in 2 hours, which takes 8 hours in a regular crock pot. The pork carnitas can be served with just about anything. Serve them like regular tacos with all the toppings, or simply spoon them over rice. Whatever works for you.

For leftovers, I like to throw my meat back into my Instant Pot with a bottle of BBQ sauce. Cook it on manual for 15 minutes and voila you have pulled BBQ pork to throw on a bun!

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Pistachio Pudding Dessert

Pistachio Pudding Dessert is an inexpensive and easy dessert for St. Patrick’s Day or anytime. This is one of my hubby’s favorite desserts. His mother made it when he was growing up and now our kids love it too! I love it because many of the ingredients are things I keep on hand and because it is super simple.

There are just 8 ingredients in this 4 layer dessert and most of them you probably have in your pantry or refrigerator. Smith’s has Kroger Whipped Topping on sale this week for $1.00 each. The Kroger Cream Cheese is $1.50 and Kroger Instant Pudding is .59 each.

You can see the 4 layers above.

First, the crust. Put 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup softened butter and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts in a bowl and mix it together with a fork. With your hands, press it into the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Bake for 15 min at 350 degrees and let it cool.
For the next layer just beat 8 oz room cream cheese (room temp) with 1 cup of powdered sugar until smooth. Then fold in 2 cups of whipped topping. Spread onto the cooled crust. Refrigerate while you make the next layer.
To make the pudding whisk together 2 small boxes of Pistachio Pudding with 3 cups of milk. Pour over the cream cheese mixture and refrigerate until set.
Last, spread the remainder of the whipped topping (1 whole carton and what ever is left from the carton used in step 2) over the pudding and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Cut into 16 pieces. Enjoy!

If you think you don’t like pistachio flavor, try this dessert. The tang from the cream cheese, the nuttiness from the crust and pudding, the sweetness from the whipped topping… it is really perfect!

I love the beautiful layers in this dessert. It looks so fancy but it is so easy to make and it is PERFECT for St. Patrick’s Day or Easter! Enjoy!

Apple Cranberry Winter Salad

I first created this salad to take to Thanksgiving dinner and I have made it again and again this winter. I love it for so many reasons! First, it’s so simple to throw together. Second, it’s so fresh, which I think we all crave after the holidays. Third, it is a delicious side dish or add some grilled chicken breast and it is a full meal. I hope you enjoy this Apple Cranberry Winter Salad as much as we do!

The ingredients are all optional, so if there is something you don’t like, leave it out. If there is something you love, add more of it. (Please note that I forgot to include bacon in this photo. Trust me, you don’t want to forget the bacon!)

First, I chop the apples into bite size pieces and soak them for about 5 minutes in a mixture of cold water and lemon juice. Honestly, I never measure it, but I would say it’s 3 parts water to 1 part lemon juice. This step is just to keep the apples from going brown.

Next, I toast the walnuts with a little butter, sugar and cinnamon in a frying pan on the stove. I love the slight sweetness and wonderful flavor this adds to the salad. They are SO yummy! Actually, these are so addicting, that I eat them right off the pan and I have to be careful to not eat all of them before the salad is finished!

Finally, cook the bacon until crisp, then cut or crumble it into bite-size pieces. Next, just toss the mixed greens, apples, bacon, walnuts, dried cranberries and feta cheese together in a big bowl. Last, drizzle with my new favorite salad dressing! I found this Marzetti Simple Dressed Pomegranate Vinaigrette at Smiths (near the salad in the produce department) and it is the perfect compliment to this salad! I think it has the perfect balance of tang and sweet and the pomegranate compliments the other “winter” flavors in the salad so well.

Give it a try! I have had nothing but great reviews from everyone who has tried this salad.

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Smith’s Case Lot Sale – Our Favorite Deals & Recipes!

Smith’s is running their case lot sale right now! Through January 17th you’ll save BIG on items for your pantry when you buy in bulk. These are rock-bottom prices and this is the time to be grabbing all those items you use on a daily basis in your pantries. You can view the full list of case lot items HERE >>

We LOVE Smith’s case lot sales, and we had a fun time stocking up on our favorites. There are some prices happening that are flat out exciting! We each want to share our “top favorite” items to grab in the case lot sale, plus, a few recipes we use over and over again. Can you guess which one of us is a picky eater?

Joani’s Favorite Case Lot Deals:

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Joani likes to bake a fresh sweet potato for lunch, then she adds kidney beans and salsa to the hot potato. A super healthy and filling lunch option!
Joani uses her case of Italian hamburger helper as a base for an easy and healthy soup! That’s such a genius idea! She adds cooked ground turkey and fresh cut up vegetables. Super easy, and it’s ready to eat when the veggies are tender!

[yumprint-recipe id=’10’]Heather’s Favorite Case Lot Deals:

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Heather’s favorite family dinner recipe is Swedish Meatballs. This recipe utilizes the pasta, ground turkey and cream soup. It’s easy and full of flavor!

[yumprint-recipe id=’9′]Jacki’s Favorite Case Lot Deals:

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Jacki’s favorite family dinner recipe is homemade Lasagne. It’s a quick and easy recipe that delivers on flavor! This recipe utilizes the pasta sauce jars that are just $1 in the sale!

[yumprint-recipe id=’11’]There are several others case lot recipes you’ll use again and again we highlighted HERE >>

Christmas No Bake Brownie Bites

Christmas is just a couple of days away so if you are looking for an eye-catching, no-bake dessert to take to your next Christmas party or for Christmas Eve, try our Christmas Brownie Bites. We have Rudolph bites, Santa’s Hat bites and Peppermint Candy Cane bites! You can try just one or all three using the ready-made brownie bites found in the Smith’s bakery. (Of course, it is cheaper to make your own brownie bites using a brownie mix and mini muffin pan, if you have time.)

Rudolph Brownie Bites

To make the Rudolph Brownie Bites, I used a canned chocolate frosting to frost the top of the brownie. In a separate bowl, I mixed a small amount of chocolate and vanilla frosting to get a light brown for the “snout”. I used a frosting bag to pipe a dollop of light brown frosting in the middle of the bottom half. Then just press a red M&M into it for the nose. For the eyes, I used Wilton candy eyes, which are also available at Smith’s. The antlers are just a broken pretzel pressed into the side of the brownie bite.

Peppermint Candy Cane Brownie Bites

For these very festive, Peppermint Candy Cane Bites you just need vanilla frosting, crushed candy canes, and peppermint or mint extract.

Stir 1 tsp. of mint or peppermint extract into canned vanilla frosting. (If you are also making the Rudolph Bites, you can use the remainder of the vanilla frosting that you opened to make the light brown.) Frost the brownies with a spatula or a frosting bag and tip. Put 1 candy cane into a plastic zip-top bag and crush it using a rolling pin. Sprinkle the crushed candy cane onto the peppermint frosting.

Santa’s Hat Brownie Bites

These cute Santa Hat Brownie Bites are so simple but so yummy! I used a dollop of canned cream cheese frosting on the top of the brownie and pressed an upside down, cut strawberry into it. With a frosting bag and small star tip, I added a small bit of frosting to the top of the strawberry to represent the pom pom on the top of Santa’s hat. (I wouldn’t recommend making these more than an hour or two before your party as the cut strawberry can get juicy and slide off the frosting.)

Hope you and yours have a Verry Merry Christmas from everyone at Crazy4Smiths!

Apple Crisp Chex Mix

I created this Apple Crisp Chex Mix on vacation last summer in St. George. We were sharing a beautiful house with a great kitchen with my parents. My Mom, has Celiac’s disease and doesn’t eat any gluten. Enter, Gluten Free Apple Crisp Chex Mix!

The best part is that Chex is on sale at Smith’s right now for $1.99 and SavingStar is offering a $1.00 rebate on (2) boxes. After making your purchase, simply submit a picture of your receipt through their handy app. and you’ll get $1.00 back. You’ll also find a $1/2 Smith’s Digital coupon on the app. SWEET!

We munched and munched on it while we played board games and everyone enjoyed it so much, the next day we went to the store and bought more ingredients so we could make it again! Check out the recipe and the short video to see how easy it is to make.

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Easy Recipe – The Best Swedish Meatballs on the Planet

This recipe for Swedish Meatballs is a family favorite and super easy to make and the kids love it. It goes along perfectly with the Hemis Faire pasta deal we shared with you last week (ends December 7). You can check out this post for a list of the products and prices. Plus, the kids think the curly noodles of the Fusilli Bucati Linguini are fun. Come back and let us know if you try it.

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Vegetable Cheese Soup

This Vegetable Cheese Soup goes back to my childhood. My Mom got the original recipe for this cheese soup from our neighbor, Marianne. When I got married, I knew this was one of the recipes I needed to copy and take with me. Over the years, I have tweaked it to include more vegetables and Velveeta instead of Cheese Wiz.

One of the reasons I like this cheese soup is that it uses Velveeta instead of regular cheddar cheese. Velveeta makes a nice creamy soup. Regular cheddar cheese can separate making the soup greasy.

Chop and dice the vegetables into small pieces that will be easy to eat in one bite. I like to dice the potatoes into 1/4 – 1/2 inch pieces, that way they cook quickly. Cover with water and boil until they are fork tender.

While the vegetables cook, in a separate pan you make a roux with butter and flour. Then add milk. Stir frequently until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon or whisk. Add Velveeta and stir until it melts completely.

When the vegetables are tender and the cheese sauce is ready. Combine the two and stir well.

I can’t wait to serve this on Halloween night in bread bowls. What could be better than a bread bowl full of warm, creamy, cheese soup full of vegetables before the kids head out the door? Hope you like it too. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

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Homemade Apple Cider

Homemade apple cider screams fall! The combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and apple cooking all day in a slow cooker will make your whole house smell amazing. I can’t think of anything more autumn than going to a pumpkin patch or corn maze and coming home to warm, homemade apple cider.

Besides being simple and making your house smell wonderful, this recipe is frugal too. Smith’s has apples and oranges on sale this week (9/28/16-10/4/16) for just .88 lb. Most people have the spices and brown sugar in their cupboard, so for just a couple of dollars you can make a big batch instead of paying $5.00-$10.00 for a jug of quality apple cider at the store.

First, fill slow cooker with 8 cups of water. Next, peel and chop 5 apples. In a medium bowl, combine apples, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and brown sugar. Pour apple mixture into slow cooker. Add a whole orange and 3 cinnamon sticks to slow cooker. Cover and cook 4 hours on high. Uncover and remove cinnamon sticks and orange. Next, mash apples with potato masher.

After mashing the apples, let it cook 1 more hour. Then, pour contents of the slow cooker through a fine mesh strainer. I like to use the back of a spoon to mash the cooked apples to release as much of the delicious apple juices as possible. You can serve it immediately or keep it in the slow cooker on warm until you are ready to enjoy. It will produce approximately 7 cups of the most delicious apple cider.

If you really want a treat, top your apple cider with whipped cream. It is like drinking apple pie a la mode! Enjoy!

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RARE Velveeta Loaf Coupon and Recipes

Anyone planning on making dip for their Labor Day BBQ’s this weekend? Here’s a nice printable coupon we don’t see often valid to save $1 off ONE Velveeta Cheese Loaf. Smith’s has the loafs included in their Buy 5 Save $5 Mega Sale for $5.99. Drop them to $4.99 after coupon and mega savings discount!

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On a side note, Checkout all these AMAZING looking recipes for Velveeta Cheese Loaf found on yummly.com Who knew you could get so creative? I’m betting the Mac & Cheese one is super creamy and delicious