Zesty Pork Tenderloin

Zesty Pork Tenderloin

Filed under: Cooking — dawntexas @ 4:04 am Edit This

I love preparing pork tenderloin. When done well, it is tender and juicy. It’s one of the simplest roasts for me to prepare. I have had great luck getting it cooked so that it’s moist and tasty. When I saw the recipe for this pork tenderloin on Eat Better America, it caught my attention, and decided to give it a try.

I am not a huge ketchup fan, so that was a knock against this recipe, to be honest. I dutifully prepared the marinade and let the roast marinate all day. It smelled yummy when I opened the marinade bag, and I loved the smell of the garlic as it hit my nose.

I could smell the aroma as it cooked, and when it was done, it tasted as good as it smelled. It did have a vaguely sweet, citrusy flavor, but that was due to the Hoisin sauce. EatBetter america says of the Hoisin sauce:

Hoisin sauce, often referred to as “Chinese barbecue sauce,” fuels an explosion of flavor from soy sauce, garlic, chili peppers and various spices. Get it in the Asian foods aisle. Recipe is from http://www.eatbetteramerica.com

So, without further delay, here is the recipe:

Zesty Pork Tenderloin

prep time: 5 minutes

start to finish: 1 Hr 35 Min

makes 6 servings

Ingredients

1/4cup ketchup

1tablespoon sugar

1tablespoon dry white wine or water

1tablespoon hoisin sauce

1clove garlic, finely chopped

2small pork tenderloins (1 1/2 lb)

1. In heavy-duty resealable food-storage plastic bag, mix all ingredients except pork. Add pork, turning to coat with marinade. Seal bag; refrigerate at least 1 hour but no longer than 24 hours to marinate
2. Heat oven to 425°F. Remove pork from marinade; discard marinade. Place pork on rack in shallow roasting pan. Roast uncovered 27 to 29 minutes or until pork has slight blush of pink in center and meat thermometer inserted in center reads 160°F

Roo's Bothering Me!

Do those words sound familiar?

Who is Roo? Roo is a stuffed animal. To be more specific, Roo is a stuffed Kangaroo, Roo from Tigger and Poo, sold by the Disney store. I am now talking to stuffed animals. And, as if that’s not bad enough, I am now busting fights between feuding children and their stuffed animals. I have clearly gone over to the other side and lost my sanity. I doubt I’ll ever regain it, that’s just one of those things “They” never tell you about when you have kids.

So, I was sitting on the futon policing the two kids that need to get on a bus so they get themselves ready faster than, say, molasses. This is when Christopher walks out of the bathroom. I heard him talking, and since he doesn’t need to be on a bus, I tuned him out. He gets my attention, and our conversation was as follows:

Christopher: Mom, Roo’s bothering me. (and he walks towards the stairs)

Me: (exasperated) Roo, please leave Christopher alone.

Christopher: (at the stairs, turns to look at me, with a devilish grin) Oh, it’s OK Mom. I like it.

GAHHHHHH!!!!!

I can’t decide who is insane–my son for fighting with a stuffed animal and liking it, or me for getting drawn into love triangle with a 4-year-old and his stuffed animal.

Cooking With Dawn

I have been inspired by my friend Gigi and her http://networkedblogs.com/p27456199 to not only cook at home more, but to cook healthful, tasty foods. In the past I have found it difficult to find tasteful foods that were healthful. If I did find something, it was either expensive to prepare, or it took too long. Being a Mom of three young boys, finding time to prepare meals with lengthy cooking times is difficult.

I recently stumbled across the website Eat Better America (www.eatbetteramerica) and found a wealth of information on their site. I have also found a great stash of recipes. I have moved several of them into my “favorites”.

Tomato-Basil Chicken

http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/whole-grains/tomato-basil-chicken.aspx

Tomato-Basil Chicken was a huge hit at our house. My oldest son, who can be picky, told me it was my “best meal ever”. He also gave me two kisses and told me to cook it every week. (My son is a lover, but he has never before kissed me about anything I’ve cooked.) My husband loved it, and I was giddy the next day at the thought of eating leftovers – and I usually do not like to eat leftovers for lunch. The great thing was that I bought all the supplies I need for this for just under $13, to serve a family of five with leftovers.

I did cook the recipe as provided by Eat Better America.

“Healthified” Cheesy Pizza Pasta

http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/special-occasions/healthified-cheesy-pizza-pasta.aspx

My kids loved this! My oldest wanted seconds, and my twins loved that there was sausage in here. Philip told me the mushrooms “looked funny and smelled bad”, but he hates mushrooms. He did eat everything else and ask for seconds as well. The recipe called for me to use turkey Italian sausage and turkey pepperoni. I used regular Italian sausage and regular pepperoni, simply because I forgot to look for “turkey”. It tastes like pizza, with noodles instead of crust. I also used whole-grain wheat pasta.

Thai Scallops and Noodles

http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/30-minutes-or-less/thai-scallops-and-noodles.aspx

The Thai Scallops and Noodles was an OK dish. I used the bay scallops, so by the time it was cooked, they looked like marshmallows, so that was unappealing to me. The recipe as it is written came up with a very strong peanut butter flavor. While I love peanut butter, it was overwhelming. I really want to like the recipe, so I’m going to try it again sometime and use the larger sea scallops instead of the bay scallops, and try to reduce the amount of the peanut butter used to see if I can improve the flavor.

Howdy, y'all!

Welcome! Pull up a chair and have (another) seat. Sorry I moved on you. The WordPress site just was not working out very well for me.

Her Own Wings is a novel I have been working on for about a year actively. It was a work in thought for a while prior to that. I have already written several chapters of the book; however, I am only putting the first chapter up for now. I would like to have my friends and family read it, and let me know, honestly, what they think. I hope that, if they like it, they share it with their friends, and those friends comment. So, feel free to share!

I have also been inspired to up my cooking game by a friends blog. So, I am also going to start blogging about that as well.

Make yourself at home! Follow the blog so you know when there is new content