Marinated Pork Tenderloin!

The diet has not been going so well. There is WAY too much good food out there!

This is a pork tenderloin recipe that first I made last summer. It was good. I followed the suggestions on the website I got it from and was not as happy with the results.

This time I followed it as written, I did over cook it but MAN was it amazing!!
Dale is not a fan of most pork. He likes bacon & sausage (who doesn't) and loves to smoke pork shoulders. Even Dale said this was good and gave me the go ahead to make it again!

Here is what I started with. I think the marinade cost around $2. I did double the recipe but a single amount of marinade is more than enough for the 2 pork tenderloins that it calls for.

I found Pork Tenderloin on sale at Sprouts a few weeks ago, it was in a vacuum sealed bag so I knew it would keep in the fridge for a bit.

We paired it with grilled zucchini, frozen peas and smashed red potatoes.

Here is my estimated costs: We served 6 adults and 2 kids.

Marinade $4

Pork Tenderloins $10

Red Potatoes $3

Zucchini $2

Peas $0.50

Total: $19.50 or $2.44 per person!

Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Via, allrecipes.com
Ingredients
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons sherry
1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced onion
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pinch garlic powder
2 (3/4 pound) pork tenderloins
Directions
Place soy sauce, brown sugar, sherry,
dried onion, cinnamon, olive oil, and a touch of garlic powder in a large
resealable plastic bag. Seal, and shake to mix. Place pork in bag with
marinade, seal, and refrigerate for 6 to 12 hours.
Preheat grill for high heat.
Lightly oil grate. Place tenderloins on
grill, and discard marinade. Cook 20 minutes, or to desired doneness. Slice
into medallions, and serve.

If you find it on allrecipes.com, the reviews say to make a batch of the marinade, simmer it until it makes a sauce. We did this last time and there was SO much sugar in the marinade that it made a caramel sauce. Not good on PORK! The meat needs the sugar in the marinade, it gives it a nice crisp outside, it does not make it sweet. The sherry is also an important ingredient as well, please do not try to sub it out with something else. The bottle I bought was $3 at fry's, It will last me a while.

Now I get to find other ways to use it! Also, remember, it is a liquor, so they will card you if you try and buy it!

"White Girl" chilaquiles

I love that the boys at work like to cook food for us. I have a favorite, chilaquilies! Oh man, can they make some yummy stuff! I was first introduced to these at a local mexican restaurant. Theirs are pretty good but they go NOTHING on my boys at work.

I went to work yesterday and I talked about the dinner that I was planning to make. I was so excited! I love my Doritos Casserole! Sounds weird, Doritos in a casserole?

I got the recipe from my cousin Kelly Cook. Yep, her last name is cook, so let her do it!

So, I made dinner last night, it was as good as I remember. It has been a while since I made it.
I took the leftovers to work with me today so that they could try it and Tracie said it tastes like "white girl chilaquilies" So that is what I will rename it!
I have been making this for YEARS!!!!
We love it, I make 2 changes; I use less chicken, who needs 6 chicken breasts? I also add the green chilies to the layers. My kids are not huge fans, so I make half with and half without.

Green Chilies Casserole

4-6 chicken Breasts, cooked and chopped
2 cans diced green chilies
2 cans cream of chicken soup
16oz Sour Cream
3/4c Chicken Broth
14oz bag doritos, smashed into small pieces
1pound Cheese, grated

In a large bowl combine Chilies, Soup, Sour Cream and Chicken Broth.
Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
Layer 1/2 crushed chips, 1/2 chicken, 1/2 soup mixture, 1/2 cheese. Repeat.
Refrigerate 30 minutes to 2 hours. This is important, it allows the chips to soften.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
I like it with sour cream!

I have made this with cream of mushroom soup and ground beef. It is a bit different but still good.

Since the canned items are in 2's you can make a half recipe of this!

Crock Pot Tacos

I have heard many people talk about the website crockpot365.com
I decided to try a recipe.
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2010/10/crockpot-tex-mex-pot-roast-recipe.html

I made tex-mex pot roast.

It was good. Not amazing but good. We used it for taco filling. I hoped it would take on more flavor from the rotel and the chipotle. It really just tasted like tender pot roast.

Now, I used the juice from the meat to make some rice-a-roni. That was good! I used 2 cups of the juice and veggies. I also added 1/2 cup of water to the rice pilaf flavored rice-a-roni. I followed all the directions on the box.

Enjoy.

Tex-mex pot roast

2 pounds boneless beef chuck roast
1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
1 (15-ounce) can chili beans, undrained
1 (11-ounce) can corn with peppers, undrained
1 (10-ounce) can Rotel (tomatoes and chiles), undrained

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. This is a super simple dump and go
recipe--my favorite kind! The meat was frozen solid when I put it into the
cooker.
After your meat is in, add the chipotle chile powder and all the
canned ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, or on high for 4 to
6. I like to cook it long enough that the meat falls apart--but you may take it
out whenever it reaches your preferred desired tenderness.

1-2-3 cake

I like Pinterest. I am not into it as much as other people are. I like the funny quotes that friends post and the delicious looking food!

I have "pinned" many things. This is the first thing that I have made, I think. Have I talked about it before? No wait, at work one day we had a surplus of Bananas. A friend pinned these chocolate dipped peanut butter banana things. She asked me what to do with them, I said, "That thing you pinned on pinterest" she replied, I don't know how to make them, they just looked good."

Well, we came up with our own version, not as pretty, AT ALL but still tasted good!

Now back to this 1-2-3 cake.

http://thehiddenpantry.blogspot.com/2011/11/aunt-bettys-1-2-3-cake.html

^This is the link to it.

Here is what you need:

1 gallon baggie

1 box Angelfood Cake mix

1 box Cake Mix, any flavor

1 coffee cup

1 tablespoon to measure.

water

Here is what you do:

Mix together the box of Angelfood Cake mix with the box of ANY flavor cake mix. a

Spoon 3 Tablespoons into a microwave safe coffee mug. Add 2 Tablespoons water, stir well. Cook in the microwave for minute.

Allow to cool slightly then eat.

The blog explains why this works but here is the simple version: Angelfood Cake is sugar, flour and egg whites. The angelfood cake mix replaces the "egg" in the regular cake mix.

After reading the comments on the blog, I decided to reduce the Angelfood Cake mix to 1/2 of the bag. This is where my food scale came in handy!

I followed the directions as listed except used only 1/2 the box of angelfood. I made Chocolate.It was very yummy. A nice treat!

It does not replace a slice of baked chocolate cake! However, if you tend to have chocolate cravings and do not want to bake a whole cake, it will most likely satisfy you.

Remember back in the 80's when you could buy the Microwaveable cakes? I think Pillsbury made them, there was a chocolate cake that came with a plastic bunt pan. Does anyone remember these? I do fondly!

I found a video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waiAcbUcoK0&feature=related

I was hoping this would taste like they did. It has the same texture but not the same richness.

I used Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Cake mix. It was chocolatey but not over the top.

KWIM?

So, since I had a half box of angelfood cake left over, I also tried it with Lemon cake mix! I don't think I mixed it very well because it tasted to eggy.

I will try it again and let you know.

The good points:

**Cost:

Angelfood Cake mix $3.59, not on sale.

Chocolate Cake mix $1.25

Lemon Cake mix $1.25

Total: $6.09

Chocolate cake was $3.04 to make 21 "cup" cakes = $0.14 per cake

Lemon Cake was $3.04 to make 24 "cup" cakes = $0.13 per cake

**It will keep for a while, as long as you store it in an air tight container, such as a baggie!

Keep it in your desk at work, if you want a treat, mix in some water and have a treat!

**Calorie count:

3 Tablespoons of the Chocolate cake mix has 116 calories and 1 fat gram!

3 Tablespoons of the Lemon cake mix has 120 calories and 1.75 fat grams!

**You can make 1 cake at a time! I made 4 tonight since we were all home but I can make them just for the kids if I want!

So my final review:

They are easy make, a good for a quick snack or craving. I would prefer a home made chocolate cake instead, I make a pretty good one:)

Oh, here are a few pictures I took with my phone:

This is the batter before I cooked it. I looked like really thich Hot Chocolate!

This is the cooked cake. Kind of spongey.

15 Pounds?

How the heck did I loose 15 pounds?

I didn't follow the "plan" that they set out for me. I ate a bit less but still ate what I wanted when I wanted.

I drank a wee bit o' wine too!

Not really sure how that happened.

My clothes fit me again. I can wear anything in my closet, that is a good thing.

I found a dress for the GLS school auction in May. I want to loose 20 more pounds so I can get a smaller size.

I WILL DO IT!

Who knows, maybe I will drop a few more.

So I have not really made any new recipes this past few weeks. I will tell you about an amazing soup I made...Sorry, no photo :(

Remember when I posted about the yummy chili I made a few weeks ago?
http://kerrysgettingskinny.blogspot.com/2012/01/chili-cauliflower-popcorn.html

I had some left over. I put it in the freezer. I needed room for a bag of ice so I took the chili out. I also grabbed a couple of chicken breasts and put it all in the fridge to thaw.

Again, I am not a recipe writer, If I was, I could write a pretty good cook book, but I regress.

I took the 2 pieces of chicken and seared them in my dutch oven with a bit of Olive Oil. Not EVOO, just plain old OO!

After I got a nice sear on both sides, I covered them with a quart of chicken broth. I let them simmer with the lid on for 25 minutes.
I took them out of the broth, let them cool on a plate for a few minutes and then I went to town breaking it into pieces.
I added it back to the broth and dumped in the left over chili with beef and beans and all! I added a few more sprinkles of the homemade chili seasoning and let it all simmer for about 20 more minutes.

IT WAS DELISH!!!
It tasted like a chicken tortilla soup. I will make it again, but it will be after I have made chili and then have a couple of chicken breasts to use up. Maybe I can develop a recipe for the soup with our using leftovers, but WHY?

Hey, did I mention my 15 pounds???

diet is a flop!

Dale & I decided that our don't eat diet is not going to work with our schedules. We are however going to take this weight loss challenge seriously.

We will be counting calories, taking daily walks and eating when we want to.

My biggest issue with the weight loss plan was that we need to spend 30 minutes eating. Now I don't know about you, but I don't have the flexiblity in my schedule to eat when I want and spend 30 minutes doing it.

We both realized that since we could no stop in the middle of our work day to sit down and eat a meal when we were hungry, we were eating once a day. I am pretty sure that I only ate about 500 calories on Tuesday. That includes the H2Orange drink I was drinking.
I have not been a fan of the HCG diet. I don't think that people were loosing weight from the HCG, I think they were loosing weight b/c they would eat 3000 calories a day and witht the HCG diet, you are limited to 500.
One of the topics in the video we watched said not to begin working out while starting this plan. The reason for that was that your body would go into shock and store fat instead of burn fat.

My plan is to track my calories, move a bit more, (if that is possible!) and enjoy eating what I want.

Too often people eat "low-fat" foods thinking they can eat as much as they want.

My idea is simple. Burn more calories than I put into my body. If I do this I will loose weight. I want to get healthy, I want to climb a staircase without getting out of breath, I want to work an 8 hour shift and not have sore knees and feet.

That is it. No recipe tonight. just some thoughts.