Food Porn Friday: The Best Things I’ve Made Recently

So I realize I’ve really dropped off with the Food Porn Fridays. Sorry ’bout that. One day I swear I’ll try to do a legitimate food blog post where I take step-by-step photos of my cooking and the beautiful finished product. But since it’s more challenging than it sounds, and because usually I’m really hungry, these surprisingly beautiful pictures of my suppers will have to suffice.

A few weeks ago, I made this Broccoli and Spinach Soup with Garlic from Bon Appetit. It was such a masterpiece with its fried garlic chips and garlic oil, even if it was shockingly bright green. Like whoa, green. I wasn’t sure Charlie would even want to eat it. Not to mention it was meatless. You’ll notice if you click the link for the recipe that I didn’t mention anything about cilantro, one of the main ingredients of this soup. That’s because I didn’t use any. Because Aldi doesn’t sell cilantro…

And I didn’t really miss the cilantro, despite the fact that it probably would have made the soup taste a little more vibrant and fresh. This soup was a delicious, if somewhat healthy-tasting, hearty meal on its own. We should really use garlic chips as a garnish more often. The broccoli was roasted beforehand so it was super savory, and I pureed some of it to thicken the soup, as well as dropping it on top as instructed by the recipe. I do love that immersion blender – it’s so convenient!

I know, right? What a beaut.

While the soup may have been the prettiest, the best meal (by far) of the past few weeks were the Slow Cooked Pork Tacos I made with this recipe from Just a Taste.  I know, I know, (again, assuming you clicked) it looks like a ton of ingredients. At least I thought so while I dumped beer, orange juice, lime juice, and salsa into my Crock-Pot before work one morning and rubbed the pork with cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder, and cocoa powder before leaving it to its own devices.

But guess what? SO. WORTH. IT. Magically (it seemed), I came home to some ridiculously good meat!

That hunk of pork butt (also from Aldi, a super cheap three pounds) pulled apart so easily and was SO flavorful. I only shredded part of it to make tacos, saving the rest for later, and then made some quick pickled red onions which made the perfect accoutrement. Charlie tasted the pork on its own and actually said, “OH MY GOD, we have to make this ALL the time!”

So, alternatively, you could just eat a handful of pork for dinner – it really was that good.

Yeah, that one got a lot of Insta likes…

We shredded the other half of the pork the following night to make homemade “burrito bowls”… and I went a little crazy trying to make mine just like my Chipotle order. It ended up being about three pounds. Check out the lovely iPhone photo below.

So try these recipes out for sure! You won’t regret it. The pork is especially phenomenal.

I’m headed to the beach this weekend for the Beaufort Wine and Food Festival, so get excited for some crazy good food posts to come! It’s one of my favorite days of the year!

And happy mother f’n Friday, you guys!