Pork Roast Pasta and Some Hair...

I'm not a New Years resolution type of person.  I never stick to them so I never make them.  But when the new year comes around, I do reflect on the past few years to determine which areas of my life needs more paying attention to.  And starting this Monday, Chris and I are back onto our healthy living routine.  We've slacked off the last few weeks due to the holiday season (and my waistline is really mad at me) so tonight is the start of our new Biggest Loser game work out routine on the Kinect.  I'll be back with a special blog about that later when we've actually tried it a few times, but tonight, I bring you a quick and simple recipe.

This past weekend, Chris' mom made a pork pot roast.  Cooking with pork is so simple because you really don't need many seasonings but salt and pepper.  Slow roasting the pork itself brings out its natural juices and flavors.  My mother-in-law roasted the pork with celery, potatoes, and carrots.  We had some leftovers so I decided to turn this into a quick and easy pasta dish.

First I chopped up some onions and jalapenos.  Now if you know me, you'll know that I cook with onions and jalapenos a lot.  I love these two veggies combined together, plus they're healthy so you'll see these two ingredients a lot.

I chopped up the pork roast into bite sized pieces.

Sautee the onions, jalapenos and pork together in some Pam (if you have it) or vegetable oil.

Next comes the sauce.  My favorite premade sauce, believe it or not, is Prego.  If I had time, I'd choose to make my own pasta sauce, but that takes forever!  So Prego is the next best thing.  I dumped this sauce into the sauteeing onion, jalapeno and pork mixture above and let everything simmer.

I always add my own ingredients to premade sauces.  I typically put Italian seasoning, a dash of Johnny seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne pepper for spice.  I don't use measurements and never have.  Just taste and adjust based on your liking.

This little thing is the secret to my pasta sauces.  When I cook pasta sauce for people, they always ask what that little extra hint of something is but they can never put a finger on it.  It's star anise!  I know it's unheard of to put star anise into tomato sauce, but if you think about, it makes sense.  I'm not a huge fan of licorice, but putting one of these in will give your sauce that extra little something.

Tonight I used a whole wheat macaroni...because that's all I had.  I don't eat any non-whole wheat pasta anymore so this elbow macaroni is one of my favorites.  Whole wheat takes less time to cook and these little babies took about 3 minutes for my el dente taste.

Once the pasta was cooked, the sauce was ready as well.  Tonight, I let the sauce simmer for about 20 minutes.  If I had the choice and time, I'd let it simmer for about 40 minutes.  The more you cook tomatoes, the tastier it gets, so don't be afraid to simmer your sauces.  Throw some Parmesan cheese on top and voila!  Dinner in less than half an hour!

Now that I'm done with dinner and feel plump for the night...I feel like I want to shower and style my hair!  I've recently purchased a Herstyler clampless curling iron and might I just say, I love it!  I've always been a klutz when it came to curling my hair, not to mention my Asian stubborn tossels never want to stay curly if I'm using a conventional iron.  I know friends that use their straightener, which works fine because it's made from ceramic, I never could curl mine using a straightener without it kinking.  So, after reading some reviews online, I decided to try the Herstyler out, which is also made with ceramic.  I bought mine from Amazon and it came with changeable wands in three different sizes.  For now, I only use the largest size for a more natural looking style.

 So here's my usual straight style...

And here it is styled using the Herstyler...

Here's another look.  What do you gals think?  I just love it!  It took some adjustment (and some burning on my right cheek...ouch!!!) but I finally am able to curl my whole head in 10 - 15 minutes!  Has anyone else tried this type of hair curling iron?  What do you all think?

Have a wonderful night, everyone!