Ellie’s Week

This week’s menu is inspired by Ellie Krieger’s cookbook The Food You Crave. I borrowed it from the library!! Have you ever done that? I love the chance to dig into a cookbook before I commit to making a purchase.  I am looking forward to trying a bunch of her recipes. All of her recipes are super healthy and most of them look great. I am going to try two this week. We will see how it goes.

Monday: Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin (p. 197), Brown Rice, and Bok Choy

Tuesday: Chicken Fingers (p. 200), Broccoli, and Sweet Potatoes

Wednesday: Fish Tacos (Clean Eating, Fall 2008, p. 35) and Refried Beans

Thursday: Pizza and Salad

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Party!!

Sunday: Tomato Soup and Cheese Sandwiches

Tonight we had the Teriyaki Pork and I almost followed the recipe. Just two little changes, instead of the chili flakes I used chili garlic sauce and I cooked down the marinade to serve on top.

Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin

4 Servings

4 Points/Serving

1 pound pork tenderloin, fat removed

¼ cup Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp brown sugar, packed

2 Tbsp sherry

2 Tbsp rice vinegar

2 garlic cloves, pushed through he garlic press

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

¼ tsp chili garlic sauce

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a large Ziploc bag and squish around. Marinade in the fridge for 30 minutes to 4 hours.
2. Preheat the broiler. Place the pork under the broiler pan for about 15 minutes depending on thickness turning once about halfway through cooking. An instant read-thermometer should read 155 degrees.
3. Let the meat rest for 10 minutes.
4. While the meat is resting pore the marinade into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook until it is thick and saucy.

I know some are iffy about used marinade but I think if you boil it you are cooking it like you would cook the pork so…I think it is just fine.

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Cooking for Mom

My mom is one of the best people to cook for. She and I know each other’s tastes so well I just know what she is going to love. When I arrived at her house on Thursday evening she was not home from work yet. So I started poking around in the fridge. I knew we were going away for the weekend so I used up all the fresh food I could find.

I love it when things come together. How beautiful is that plate?

Simple pork chops and spinach toped with mushrooms and onions and dill carrots on the side. Wow. Just sitting in the fridge waiting for me. I didn’t follow an exact recipe for this but I will share my process and approximations.

I started by heating a pan over medium heat and spraying olive oil into it.

While I heated the pan a put the baby carrots into a small pot and covered with water and put it on the stove to boil. I boiled the carrots until they were fork tender.

I added the thick pork chops to the pan and cooked till they were almost done. Then I put them on a plate and covered with aluminum foil.

Then back to the pan. I added one small sliced onion the sliced mushrooms and sautéed until they were caramelized. Then out of the pan for mushrooms and onions and in with the spinach, just wilting the spinach adding vinegar and plating it.

While the spinach was wilting I drained the carrots and sprinkled them with sprinkle butter and fresh chopped dill.

Now here is the confession…I usually get the thin chops and mom got the thick ones so the cooking time was all screwed up. Everything had to sit and wait for the chops to finish cooking with a lid on over low heat and a little balsamic vinegar in the bottom of the pan.

It was so fun to have mushrooms all over my plate yum. I think this was a very low point meal. I counted it a 4 points.

Thanks Mom, for letting me raid your fridge. I love you.

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Pork Finally!!!

If you remember our impromptu vegetarianism a few weeks ago you know I was planning on making pork tenderloin but the pork was bad. So I tried again. One of the best recipes I have ever used for pork is from Cooking Light. It is their Pork Tenderloin with Paprika Spice Rub. The recipe is simple once you make the Paprika Spice blend. You just pop the tenderloin in a very hot oven for 20 minutes and then let it rest. But, I live in Southern California and heating an oven to 500F is rarely a fun thing unless you want the AC to work overtime and the paprika tends to smoke like crazy in the oven so I usually do it on the grill. The pork gets this wonderful blackened crust from the paprika burning and the heat from the grill keeps the meat pink in the middle. Yum! I love pork I think is probably my favorite protein. There are so many things that come from this wonderful animal. I also think pigs are kind of cool looking.

Thank you Clipart Guide.

I served the pork with peas and sweet potatoes cooked in the Crockpot. Thank you Gina! Her most recent post was for baked potatoes in the Crockpot and I thought it would work the same for sweet potato. Boy was I right I washed and dried the little beauties then wrapped them in aluminum foil and put them in the pot. Turned it on high for 4 hours and presto! David raved that these were the best sweet potatoes. They were so tender from being cooked slowly and basically steamed in the foil wrappers. Again a wonderful thing when turning the oven on sounds like a fate worse than death. Late Friday night we made my famous oatmeal cookies for David to take to his Kung Fu picnic. They turned out great but I want to tweak the recipe a little before I post it. I am considering making them vegan. Any thoughts? Look out they are on the way.

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Happy Memorial Day!

Yesterday afternoon David (the husband) and I made an amazing late lunch. After church we stopped by his sisters house but, we left just before food time. We went home and started cooking straight away. We started with a recipe from Clean Eating and added our own twist. We exchanged yellow bell peppers for the green and we added our own spices. I added my favorite coriander and in a moment of genius added a dash of cinamon. David said that the cinnamon made the recipe Mayan. I don’t know where he comes up with these things but I’m going with it. So here you go. Our recipe for Mayan Pork Fajita Casserole.

PS Gini, I know the list of ingredients is long but it is totally worth it.

Mayan Pork Fajita Casserole

Serves 6
4 Points/Serving

1 tsp olive oil
1 red onion, cut in half and then sliced into half moons
½ red bell pepper, sliced into fajita strips
½ yellow bell pepper, sliced into fajita strips
1 lb. lean pork, cut into fajita strips
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 tbsp cumin
2½ tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground black pepper
1 dash cinnamon
3 medium whole-wheat tortillas, cut each tortilla into 6 pieces
15 oz black beans, rinsed and drained
8 oz diced tomatoes with green chili
2 cups of baby spinach, loosely measured
2 oz soy cheddar cheese, grated

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. When the oil is hot add the onion and peppers, cook about 5 min. Add the pork, garlic, and spices and cook another 8 min.
3. Start layering the casserole in a pan. (The original recipe suggests an 8×8 baking dish but just use what you have.) Spread 6 of the tortilla pieces around the bottom of the pan (it should cover the bottom with only a few slivers of space.) Then add 1/3 of the pork and vegetable mixture, 1/3 of the black beans, 1/3 of the tomatoes, and 1/3 of the spinach. Continue with the next 6 pieces of tortilla and the same order of ingredients. Finish with the last layer of tortilla and ingredients and top with cheese.
4. Bake for 20-25 min.
5. Remove from oven and cover with aluminum foil for 5-10 min.
6. Scoop out the servings with a big spoon and serve with corn on the cob and spinach. The corn adds about 1 point and the spinach is free.

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