Hey there!

I don’t know about you, but my go-to carb meal is always pasta.  Always.  Even though I’m Italian (and should be okay with eating pasta 24/7), I get tired of having it several days in a row sometimes.  This week was jam-packed with projects, tests, and all of that other end-of-they-year-stuff.  How do I de-stress?  As I mentioned yesterday, eating is mandatory- so we might as well make it a study break.  🙂

Wednesdays are my long mid-week run, so Tuesday’s dinner needed to be filled with carbs.   Because I was also going through a crazy-busy week, I  needed to have a dinner that was filled with comfort foods.  I had pulled pork in the fridge and, because I’ve loved pulled pork & BBQ ever since I can remember, it seemed like the perfect choice.

So Tuesday was pulled pork night.  I turned it into pulled pork sliders, served with a side of roasted sweet potatoes and an asparagus salad.

my kind of comfort food

This dinner was perfect for a busy night- it involved hardly any work.  Here’s what I did:

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Pulled pork (as much or as little as you want for a sandwich)
Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce
Brownberry Sandwich Thin

The pulled pork was already cooked and came from Q-BBQ in LaGrange, IL.  I love this place and highly recommend that everyone in the area check it out!  Unfortunately, it’s too far for me to go to while I’m at school (3+ hour drive with no car = impossible) buttttt buying it and freezing it definitely makes enjoying this a possibility 🙂 Because it was already cooked (and fully thawed)  I only had to heat it up in the Sweet Baby Ray’s for a few minutes.  Put that on a toasted Sandwich thin and… you’re good to go 🙂

smoky + saucy

Sweet Potatoes
1 Cup Diced Sweet Potatoes
2 TB of olive oil
Salt, Pepper (to taste)

Heat oven to 375.  Put diced sweet potatoes, salt, pepper and olive oil in a ziplock bag and seal.  Shake until sweet potatoes are evenly covered in oil and seasonings.  Take sweet potatoes out of the bag (hang on to the bag- don’t throw it away yet!) and place sweet potatoes on cookie sheet.  Bake for around 25 minutes, or until slightly brown.

sweet + salty

Asparagus Salad– definitely the highlight of my night!
1 Cup Chopped Asparagus (about 1 inch pieces)
1 tsp olive oil
1/8 cup dried cranberries
1 Mozz Cheese Stick
1/8 lemon

Heat oven to 375.  Put chopped asparagus and olive oil into ziplock bag (use same one the sweet potatoes were in!- take advantage of that leftover olive oil in there 🙂 ).  Shake until asparagus is well coated in olive oil.  Bake for about 5 minutes, or until a fork can easily enter the asparagus.  While this cools slightly, slice mozz cheese stick into small slices (about 1/2 cm thick).  Add cheese stick slices and cranberries to asparagus.  Squeeze juice from 1/8 of a lemon over salad.  Enjoy!

asparagus + craisins = ❤

Hopefully my comfort dinner helps give you ideas for your next carb-night…or whenever you’re  craving  tasty, comforting (and quick!) food.

Gotta go run!  Later ‘gators 🙂