Easy One Pan Pork with Roasted Veggies

 

At the beginning of the year we went over to Costco and dropped a good chunk of change to stockpile up on meats for dinners. I thought the big buy would last us a month, but we actually still have some stuff in the freezer lingering waiting for us to cook.

Last week I pulled out one of the pork tenderloin that I had seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper, defrosted it and looked around for what else I had in the house to cook as a side. I was rushing around and didn’t want to really spend too much time cooking for the night. So I grabbed some carrots and broccoli that I had on hand cut them up and threw them in the pan with the pork and was pretty much ready to go. Below is the recipe, try it out and enjoy.

20150129_200841

1 pork tenderloin

4 carrots

1 small bunch of broccoli

¼ cup olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cloves of garlic

1 Tbsp Thyme

1 Tbsp Rosemary

Preheat oven to 400˚. Let pork sit for 30 minutes to come to room temperature. Cut veggies and garlic. Poke holes into pork about 2 inches apart and put garlic in. Pour olive oil over meat and veggies. Rub the oil onto the meat and then season with salt, pepper, thyme and rosemary. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and allow meat to brown, usually 20 minutes. By covering with foil it keeps the meat much more moist and flavorful and the veggies don’t get singed and too burnt.

20150129_184206

 

20150129_200815

 

Champagne Fruit Salad

 Just before going on our trip to Big Bear I was home from work one day watching my favorite, the Pioneer Woman, on the Food Network and she was making brunch for the ladies in her family. It was a cute episode with great breakfast ideas. Especially ideas for preparing the night before. One of the sides she made was Champagne Oranges and I thought that it would be perfect for our weekend of drinking up in the mountains. After all, the best way of getting over a hangover is having a drink…. Right?

Well I am not sure if that’s exactly true but my version of Champagne Oranges was pretty delicious for our brunch. Here is my simple take on the Pioneer Women’s boozy fruit salad.

20150221_190110

3 lbs of fresh strawberries
3 lbs of fresh blackberries
4 navel oranges
1 bottle of champagne

Simply wash and cute the fruits and place into an oversized mixing bowl. Pour entire bottle of champagne into fruit and ensure all of the fruit is submerged. Allow to sit overnight and in the morning sprinkle sliced almonds on top prior to serving.

Valentine’s Pretzel Bites

20150115_185246
This is one of my favorite treats my mom makes for the holidays. Usually she makes them during Christmas time with Rolos and pecans and it is the perfect mix of chocolate and salt with a little caramel. But I like these little bites because you can customize them for any holiday or occasion. Today I am making my Valentine’s version of pretzel bites for Chris to bring to work for a little treat for his co-workers. It’s great because they are quick and easy and require literally zero baking talent, which is perfect for me! Enjoy!

Medium Pretzels
Caramel Chocolates
Valentine’s M&Ms

Preheat your oven to 350⁰ and layer parchment paper onto a cookie sheet. Lay pretzels along the parchment paper and place a caramel chocolate centered on top of the pretzels. Pop pretzels with caramel into the oven for 5-7 minutes and allow the caramel chocolate to soften. Pull out of oven and lightly place one M&M on top of each pretzel bite. Allow to cool and after a half hour pull parchment paper off of cookie sheet and place on plate into the refrigerator. Don’t remove pretzels from parchment paper until the bites are fully cooled down. Enjoy.

20150115_165929 20150115_165941

 

7 Layer Dip

I absolutely love football season, and as much as it is disappointing when football season is over, it means it is the Superbowl! One of my favorite sports time of year. Today everyone will be sitting around the TV wearing jerseys, yelling at the refs, watching some of the most expensive commercials ever made, and eating a ton of food. I, however, will be at work, so here is a recipe for you to enjoy of one of my favorite football foods. Let me live vicariously through you.

20150119_223009
2 vine tomatoes
½ jalapeño (whole Jalapeno if desired) 
¼ head of iceberg lettuce
Avocado
8 ounces sour cream
Small can of slices olives
28 ounces pinto beans
2 cups Mexican cheese
¼ cup whole milk

Empty can of pinto beans into saucepan and simmer on medium heat. Mash beans with a potatomasher. Simmer for 5 minutes and allow to thicken. Add Mexican cheese and milk to beans. Cook on low for another 5 minutes mixing milk and cheese into beans. Stir regularly to ensure beans don’t burn.When consistency is as desired turn off and allow to cool. Cut lettuce, tomatoes, and jalapeño and setaside. Beans should cool within a half hour. After a half hour build dip. Layer beans ½ in layer of beans along the bottom of 9×9 dish. Layer on sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, jalapeños and olives. Put dip in refrigerator and let sit. When ready to serve cut avocado into chunks and layer desired amount on topof dip. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy.

Homemade Bruschetta

In the past 6 months or so I have become fanatical about vine tomatoes. I find any excuse to use them in my cooking or as a side to a meal. This summer I started making homemade bruschetta out of vine tomatoes and I am obsessed. I make it whenever we have friends over for dinner or even if it just the two of us. I have really started paying attention to making things that we don’t have to finish in one sitting or throw away. Instead, the bruschetta I can just cover up and keep eating for up to a week. Beside eating the mixture on the normal baguette, you can also pit on top of a slice of Italian bread and make mini pizzas or even on top of chicken and bake it. But here is my favorite way of eating it.

20141120_192334 Continue reading