When Life Gives You Lemons . . .

A second post about our wealth of California citrus this time of year . . . we are pruning some fruit trees and I had Meyer lemons to use up.  I made a new muffin recipe (pictured above) that was honestly, just meh.  So, instead of sharing it here, I looked back to see what better muffin recipes I had forgone to make the Meh Muffins and realized I have a ton of lemon recipe ideas on the blog.  If you have some lemons to use, click the "lemon" label on the side or click the link here to see some great options.

Tonight I'm making Big's favorite meal - the Lemon Olive Chicken.  Even though it's in regular rotation, if I say there's chicken for dinner, she immediately asks "lemon olive chicken"? and when I serve something else, she says "You know what would make this better?  If it was lemon olive chicken."

Taco Tuesday

#32 - Big's first season of basketball just ended

The little girls maximize our time running errands in the afternoon

Homework in Zeus's playpen

My three enormous humans!

When the girls got home one night recently and asked, "What's for dinner?"  When my reply was, "well, it's Tuesday!"  They yelled "Tacos!!"  Tacos are a go-to in this house (although it's not often actually on a Tuesday) and my usual recipe is ground beef and hard shells.  I've been looking for a shredded beef recipe and this one did not disappoint!  The rub & combination of orange juice and beef broth was delicious.  The last photo above is some of the citrus that the girls picked in our yard and our neighbor's yard so I used fresh squeezed juice.  We all have our own topping preferences so the most "work" involved in taco night is getting out all the toppings and putting them away.  I usually make a big taco salad for myself with black beans & I use the salsa as dressing.  

If you don't have an instant pot, this could go in the crockpot for 8 -10 hours.  I would usually sear the beef first if I wasn't going to pressure cook but it's probably not necessary.

Instant Pot Shredded Beef (serves 6)

from 365days of Slow & Pressure Cooking

1.5 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp cumin

1.25 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1 T olive oil

2-3 lbs beef chuck roast trimmed of excess fat & cut into 4 equal pieces

1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1/2 cup beef broth

1 yellow onion, quartered

4 garlic cloves, minced

In a small bowl, stir together the spices and olive oil to make a paste.  Rub this mixture over the 4 pieces of beef.  Add the orange juice & broth to the pot. Lay the pieces of beef in the liquid and spread the onion slices on top.  Sprinkle the garlic on top.

Make sure the valve is closed and set the manual / pressure cook button to 50 minutes on high pressure.  I used a full natural release but you can move the valve to venting after 15 minutes if you want.

Remove the beef from the pot and shred.  I also fished out the cooked onions and served them as a taco topping.