Settling in at Home with Help from Shipt

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I returned from Europe last week, and I came back to an empty fridge. This meant that I had a lot of stocking up to do and that is challenging when you don’t have a car. Luckily, I was able to partner with Shipt to restock my home with essentials, and to buy groceries for a small dinner party that I was having so that I could catch up with my friends.

I have tried other grocery delivery services in the past, but I never really loved any of them. It seemed like the shoppers were never able to find all of the things on my list. With one service I would have people calling saying that they couldn’t find basic items at the store – it was like they weren’t even looking. I always ended up going to the store myself to buy the things that they couldn’t find. I am thrilled to say that Shipt is different.

Shipt is a membership-based grocery marketplace that delivers fresh food and grocery essentials, and they saved me a bigtrip to the store. The yearly membership fee is $99, and the membership includes free deliveries on all orders over $35. The membership is an investment that will save you hours of time throughout the year.

The best part is that Shipt shops at Target and then delivers to your home. You know that this is going to save you money because it is basically impossible to walk out of Target without making an additional $50 of unplanned purchases. Shipt saves you time while preventing you from buying things that are not on the list. It’s genius!

You can order online either with your computer or via the mobile app. I ordered a mix of everyday essentials like paper towels, laundry detergent, and dishwasher pods along with groceries for a dinner party. I ordered all of the heavy and bulky things I just can’t carry home, and it felt like an accomplishment to have this chore out of the way.

The thing that I really loved about Shipt was the level of communication that I received from my shopper. He let me know when he had arrived at Target, and if he had any questions about what to buy he reached out. He made sure that I got everything on my list – or something similar. And the delivery came right in the one-hour delivery window that I had chosen.

I really wanted to test Shipt, so I ordered things like fresh strawberries to see if the shopper would pick out perfectly ripe berries. I asked for 2 quarts of strawberries and both were perfect. The same goes for tomatoes, I ordered both cherry and roma tomatoes for the dinner party and they were all ripe.

I used all of those tomatoes and strawberries to cook up dinner for my friends Jenn and Bob. I made my sister’s incredible slow cooked pork and mozzarella sandwiches and strawberry shortcakes. The shortcakes were made using this recipe (link to previous blog post), and the recipe for the slow cooked pork and mozzarella sandwiches is below!

The total preparation time for these sandwiches is about 4 hours – which sounds nuts. I promise that there is hardly any active preparation time. The secret to creating all apart tender pork chops is letting them simmer in the sauce for 3 hours.

I chose to make the tomato sauce from scratch by roasting tomatoes and then pureeing them. You could use your favorite store-bought tomato sauce if you want to save yourself time. To prepare the pork, I quickly seared both sides before letting it simmer in the sauce for 3 hours. Once the pork was fall apart tender I assembled sandwiches with fresh mozzarella, spinach, and plenty of the roasted tomato sauce. It’s one of the best sandwich recipes out there, and it’s a perfect meal for a low key dinner party with friends.

If you don’t want to let the pork simmer in the sauce on the stovetop, you could use a slow cooker or probably even an Instapot.

Settling in at Home with Help from Shipt

Yield: 8-19 servings

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Ingredients

• About 5 pounds of Tomatoes (Roma and Cherry)
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 White Onion
• 3 cloves of Garlic
• 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
• ¼ cup Fresh Basil
• 1 (6 ounce) can of Tomato Paste
• 10-12 Boneless Pork Chops
• Bread (I sliced up a loaf of Ciabatta)
• Slices of Fresh Mozzarella
• Fresh Spinach

Instructions

First you want to prepare the sauce. Heat your oven to 375 degrees. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half, and slice the roma tomatoes into wedges. Arrange on parchment lined baking sheets, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 25 minutes.

While the tomatoes are roasting, finely chop the white onion and yellow bell pepper. Crush the garlic. Find a large pot, and pour in just enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the onion. Let the onion simmer for 4 minutes, and then add the garlic. Let simmer for 2 minutes, and then add the yellow onion. Let simmer for an additional 3 minutes. Then you can turn the heat off until you start adding the pureed tomatoes.

In batches, place the tomatoes and all of their liquid in a blender and puree. Add the basil in with one of the batches of tomatoes. Add the tomato puree to the pot with the onions and garlic. Stir in the tomato paste. Bring to a steady simmer over medium low heat.

Now it is time to sear the pork. Season pork sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet over medium high heat and add just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the skillet. Add as many pork chops as will fit in the skillet, without crowding the skillet. Brown each side of the pork chops, and then add them to the sauce. Continue browning the pork chops in batches, adding more olive oil to the skillet as necessary.

Now that all the pork chops are simmering in the sauce, reduce the heat to a very slow simmer, and cover the pot and let the pork chops slow cook for 3 hours.

Once you are ready to make your sandwiches, heat your oven to 350 degrees. Slice the bread and place it on a parchment lined baking sheet. Spoon some of the roasted tomato sauce onto the bread, and then add a pork chop and some of the sliced mozzarella. Place in the oven to bake for about 6 minutes, until the cheese has melted. Then add a lose handful of the fresh spinach, and serve the sandwich right away.

Did you make this recipe?

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This blog post was sponsored by Shipt. Thanks for supporting the brands that make The Kittchen possible.