Recipe: Cinnamon Pork Tenderloin with Potatoes and Carrots

1 Pork Tenderloin
2 Sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 large white potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 lb. bag baby carrots
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
2 apples, peeled and cut into chunks
1/4 cup Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 Cup balsamic vinegar (optional)
4 shallots (or 1 onion), diced

Place all in dutch oven or heavy lidded pot and bake at 375 for 1.5 hours or until pork is cooked through.  Next time I might try adding a couple tablespoons of maple syrup.

This is really easy recipe to make.  I'm thinking about taking out the balsamic next time and maybe substituting apple juice or just leave it out altogether. 

The kids loved the pork and ate a couple of helpings each.  The potatoes are great fuel for my marathon training (15 mile long run this week!)

Approximate cost:  $3.05 per serving

Taste:  8/10
Effort v. Payoff:  4/5
Kid-Friendliness:  2/3
Bonus health points: 1
Total:  15 points (4 Stars ****)

Apple Chicken with Vegetables

4 Skinless, Boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks (I used whole skinless thighs because I had some in the freezer)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. minced ginger
2 carrots, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 zucchini, cut into chunks
1 medium onion, diced
1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets
1 Cup apple juice

Place chicken in dutch oven or heavy lidded pot.  Drizzle with olive oil and toss in garlic and ginger.  Stir to coat chicken with oil, garlic and ginger.  Add vegetables.  Pour apple juice over all.  Bake at 375 degrees until chicken is cooked through. 
If you are using diced breast it should only take about 30 minutes.  The chicken thighs too closer to an hour.

Makes 4 servings

I am so excited about this recipe.  Thanks to Gillian McKeith for the recipe idea.  www.gillianmckeith.info. 
Mine has a few adjustments.  I left out a couple of ingredients that I didn't have and added zucchini because I had some on hand.   You can pretty much use whatever vegatables you have on hand.  The flavors of the apple juice, garlic and ginger really get into the chicken and veggies as it steams.  There is virtually no sodium in the recipe except for what small amount might be in the chicken already.  But the juice, garlic and ginger give it so much sweetness and flavor that you really don't miss any salt at all.  The juices make a great tasting broth.  You can really use whatever veggies you have on hand.  I wish I had taken a picture but we had gobbled it up before I remembered to get my camera out!

Rating
Taste: 8/10
Effort v. Payoff: 5/5
Kid-Friendliness:  1/3
Bonus health points:  3
Total:  17 points (four stars ****)

Cost Breakdown
Chicken thighs:  2.75 on sale
Onion:  .35
Carrot:  .25
Broccoli: $1.00
Red Pepper:  $1.64
Zucchini:  .75 (mine was FREE from the garden!)
Apple Juice:  .10
Garlic and Ginger:  .15
Olive oil:  .5
Total cost:  $7.49
Cost per Serving:  $1.88

Recipe: Chickpea Burger Salad

Okay...I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that this is the world's most delicious meal....'cause it's not.  But it is super-healthy and really inexpensive to make.  I personally love the taste of the chickpea burgers, and AJ ate half of hers.  Mia didn't like it, but Chris was able to scarf down two of them. 

Ingredients
15 oz. can Chickpeas (low sodium)
15 oz can Kidney Beans (low sodium)
1 large carrot, grated
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 large handful cilantro leaves, chopped
1/2 vegetable or chicken boullion cube, crumbled (low sodium if available)
1/4 Cup sunflower seeds
2 Tbsp. Tahini **(Optional, see note below.)
Mixed salad greens

At the grocery store, I saw that a tub of Tahini was about $7.00.  I thought that was too much money to spend for something that will go bad before I use it up, so I decided against buying the Tahini.  I have made this recipe without the tahini before, but I wanted to think if possible substitutions.  If your grocery store sells nuts and seeds in bulk, you could just buy a small amount of sesame seeds and make your own tahini.  But the store I was at didn't offer sesame seeds by the pound.  I figured that cashew or almond butter would be okay, but those were also really expensive.  Then I remembered that I had some trail mix at home...walnuts, cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds....so when I got home I picked out the fruit and tossed a couple of handfuls of nuts into my coffee grinder.   I had to process it a couple times and stir it up, but after a couple of minutes it was nut butter (tasted pretty good and actually kind of close to tahini.)  So I used that as a substitute in this recipe.  But as I said before, I've made it before leaving this out altogether, and it was still fine. 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly grease two cookie sheets.  Mix all ingredients together.  Process with food processor or handheld blender until blended but still fairly coarse.  Form into patties approximately 3 inches across and 1/2 inch thick.  I used a 3 tbsp ice cream scoop to measure.  Bake in preheated oven for approximately 18 minutes. 

Place patties over salad, and add desired dressing. 

Makes six servings.

Cost Breakdown: 
Kidney Beans:  .75
Chickpeas:  .75
Carrot:  .15
Onion:  .35
Cilantro:  .50
Boullion:  .30
Tahini or nut butter:  .40
Salad greens:  2.00
Salad Dressing:  .35
Total cost:  $5.55
Cost per serving:  $0.93

Rating:
Taste:  5/10
Effort v. Payoff:  4/5
Kid-friendliness:  1/3
Bonus health points:  3
Total rating:  13 - (***)

Monday Activity: Krispie Treat Snowmen

Today was too rainy to go to the park, so for a fun project we decided to make Krispie Treat Snowmen.  I'm not sure if this was just an excuse to buy fun candies to decorate them or not...but we did have fun.

Just make the Krispie Treats per the normal recipe, but instead of spreading it into a pan, form it into ball shapes.  I used my ice cream scoop.  After they cool off a bit they might look more like saggy lumps than balls, so you might need to roll them back into ball shapes.  Once cool they will maintain their round shape. 

Stack three balls to make a snowman figure and let the kids decorate with candies. 

We had so much fun making (and eating) these. 

This week's menu

Monday - Chickpea burgers with Spinach and cabbage salad with low-fat dressing
Tuesday-leftovers from Monday
Wednesday-Steamed Apple Chicken
Thursday and Friday - Braised Balsamic Pork Tenderloin with apples and potatoes

Also, I only spent $93 at the grocery store this week!  I think it will get us through the week, but I might need to make another small trip for lunch items. 

Busy week

So this week has been kind of crazy...The new puppy and a trip to Story Land has kept us pretty busy.  The puppy is doing great.  He likes to nip and chase the girls a little bit, but I'm hoping he'll grow out of it.  He is doing GREAT with his housetraining.  He's only had a couple accidents in the house.  On Thursday he was home alone for 8 hours and he held it the whole time!  He is such a little darling (when he's not chewing on something.)

And Mia has been too big for her toddler bed for quite awhile now.  She is constantly rolling out of it.  We'll find her laying fast asleep with her head on the ground and her feet still up in the bed.  I wanted to get a bunk bed so when AJ is big enough she can sleep on the bottom and it will save a lot of space in their room.  I found a great deal at Big Lots...$250 for the bunk bed and only $100 for the mattress.  It's a really nice bed, too.  And it's tax-free weekend here in Massachusetts, so we saved on the sales tax.  Chris is upstairs assembling it right now and Mia is overseeing his work and is very excited to sleep in her new bed tonight. 

Panko Breaded Pork with Vegetable and Black Bean Ragout

I got the base idea for tonight's dinner from brokeandhealthy.com.  A link to the original recipe below:
http://www.brokeandhealthy.com/panko-breaded-pork-with-lime-over-black-beans-rice-96

I changed it up quite a bit.  My variation follows.  I thought it was pretty good.  The vegetable bean ragout definitely gets bonus points for health.  I really liked it but the husband and kids thought it was just okay.  Everyone liked the pork.  I got corn on the cob instead of rice because it looked really good at our local farm stand.  One thing I didn't like about the recipe was the pan frying of the pork.  It used a lot of oil and was pretty messy.  Next time I would do it in the oven...maybe put the pork on a baking rack over a cookie sheet or something to avoid sticking without using oil.

Panko Breaded pork medallions

1 pork tenderloin, cut into medallions (I used tenderloin because it was on sale, but you could use chops)
1.5 Cups Panko Bread Crumbs
Oil
Vegetable Bean Ragout
1 zucchini, diced
1 summer squash, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 can low sodium black beans
1/2 jar of your favorite salsa (I used a peach-pineapple...my favorite)
small amount of oil

Cooked brown rice, for serving.

For vegetable bean ragout:  Heat a teaspoon or two of oil in a medium pot.  Add zucchini and squash.  Cook until it just begins to soften...don't over cook.  Add drained can of beans and salsa.  Cook until just heated through.  Cover and keep warm while preparing pork.

For Pork:  Cut tenderloin into medallions.  Coat well with panko crumbs, pressing down so it sticks.  Toss in heated and well oiled pan and cook for a couple minutes on each side (depending on how thick it's cut...if you're using chops you'll need to cook it longer.).  Should be golden brown.  Again...next time I'm going to try oven cooking it to cut out some fat.. 

Makes six servings.

Taste:  5/10
Effort vs. Payoff:  3/5
Kid friendliness:  2/3
Health bonus points:  3/3
Total rating:  3 Stars ***

I'll re-evaluate after oven cooking the pork next time. 

Cost Breakdown: 
Tenderloin:  $4.95 on sale
Zucchini:  .60
Squash:  .60
Pepper:  .70
Corn on the cob:  $3.00  (would be even less if I'd used rice)
Panko Bread Crumbs:  .75
Oil:  .25
Cost per serving:  $1.81