What's for Dinner? #1

I hear three words more than any others in my house.

"Jen, I'm huuuunnnggryy"

There is a great need for a "whiny" font.

But I digress. Here's a dinner we had this week that everyone loved.



To start with, I made an applewood smoked bacon wrapped tenderloin. It may sound complicated, but Sam's Club sells them preseasoned. And this is one of the easiest things to cook. There are many ways to cook them, but here's how I did this one:

Preheat oven to 275
Line 11 x 13 baking dish with foil
Place entire loin in dish and cover with foil
Bake 4-6 hours, or until fully cooked and tender

If you don't get a preseasoned loin, follow the same instructions above, but add half a stick of butter, one onion sliced, and season to taste (rosemary and some Mrs Dash are my choices).

In our house, pork comes with one of two things; Green Box Pasta (aka the Rice a Roni in the green box) or mashed potatoes. We went with taters this week. Mashed potatoes are pretty standard, but I usually try to mix things up a little bit by adding sour cream, chives, ranch dressing, cheddar cheese, or something like that.

Now, on to the veggies. With four kids, it's impossible to find a vegetable they will all eat, so we do offer a choice of fruit in place of the veggie du jour. This week we had cheesy broccoli. I make cheesy broccoli by cooking my broccoli (steam over boiling water until tender) then adding cheese soup and a few dashes of salt. The fruit option was apples that night, but that just means more broccoli for the rest of us!

When cooking a large tenderloin, there are always leftovers. This is one of the best things to have left over because you can make a completely different meal with it.

Take your leftovers and shred with a fork. Put the shredded pork in the crockpot with your favorite bbq sauce and let simmer on low heat until hot throughout. Serve on hamburger buns.

Stay tuned for more delicious dinners from our table to yours!