Cranberry + Herbs Pork Roast, Italian Kale, Steamed Carrots

Dinner tonight was fabulous!!  Steph and I made something similar the last time she was out for a visit, and we made a few slight modifications this time, but kept the delicious, perfect heart of the meal.  We made a cranberry and orange infused pork roast, with a side of Italian Kale, and steamed carrots.

For the pork roast we started with about a cup of dried cranberries and soaked them in orange juice and some hard apple cider for a couple of hours before starting the roast.  Then we rubbed dried rosemary, thyme, some cloves, salt, and pepper into the roast and let that sit for a while.  When we put the roast in the baking dish we packed onions around it, stuffed some of the cranberries into it, layered jellied cranberries on top of it, and poured the oj/cider/cranberry mix over it.  Flavor.explosion.yum.

I would make a couple of changes to the kale.  I overcooked it, so I'll adjust that a bit next time.  I would also adjust the recipe by reducing the balsamic vinegar (maybe even down to 1/2 T) and I tossed in some extra garlic.

It was a lovely dinner and part of a fun trend (twice is a trend, three times is a tradition?) of cooking pork roast with Aunt Steph.  We subbed the veggies in for the previous starch of potatoes and I thought the flavors all worked well together.

Ginger Citrus Salmon, Apples, Asparagus

My Aunt Steph is here for a visit and we are having so much fun cooking together.  She has been so helpful in figuring out new and fun plans for the basic meat, vegetables, a little fruit that we've been eating lately.  I had a salmon filet that my grandparents had shared with me, so we thawed that out and put it in a ginger citrus marinade overnight.  The next day we cooked the salmon on the George, and sauteed some zucchini in the remaining juice, which was delicious.  We steamed some asparagus and apples to finish off the meal.  It was wonderful - easily a recipe to repeat.  

Tilapia, Blueberries, Brocolette, Cottage Cheese

I cooked up some of the frozen Basil Pesto Tilapia filets from Costco (I had a friend convert to these after having one for dinner the night she watched Sophie - they are delicious!)  Steamed brocolette, dollop of cottage cheese, blueberries.  Simple, tasty, awesome.

The portions are small here, but it worked well for dinner.  We had a little white wine with the meal, then had some beef jerky and cashews later in the evening for a snack.

Taco Salad, Asparagus, Blackberries, HAM

I had some lettuce and taco meat leftover from our Community Group contributions, so I fixed that up, steamed some asparagus, rolled up some ham, rinsed some blackberries.  Culinary genius. 

Coconut!

I bought some dried coconut at Costco - it seemed like a nice little snack and I'm liking the coconut oil that I'm cooking with lately.  It looks good, right?!

Then I notice this little gem of a tagline at the top.  Memories of Cebu, you say?  Sign me up!!  A sweet snack and sweet memories.

I should have purchased two bags.

Hamburger, Rainbow Chard, Cottage Cheese

This meal is easily a favorite - tasty, filling, and it's so easy to prepare.  I buy frozen Angus hamburger patties at Costco and they are pre-cooked, so I microwave them to thaw and heat a bit and then put them in the oven, or I put them directly on the George.  Love it.  The rainbow chard is sauteed in coconut oil with garlic and just a hint of ginger and it turned out great.  Tim had a bunch of pickles; I had just a few and the glob at the top of the plate is some avocado.  A little cottage cheese to finish it off!  

Chicken Skewers, Turkey Bacon, Spinach with Lemon Juice, Grilled Zucchini

Dinner tonight was an A, A+, A, and a B-.  The B- is the spinach - too much lemon juice!  I was going to cook up the rest of my spinach, but realized at the last minute that it would be good to have some for a scramble in the morning and I held out some spinach, but should have reduced the lemon juice already added to the pan.  It was still edible (and pretty) - just too lemony.

The turkey bacon was great - loved it grilled.  Grilled zucchini is always good.  The chicken skewers were amazing.  I picked them up at Whole Foods, already skewered, and in a chili garlic marinade.  They had a little heat on them, which tasted great.  They were labeled as "great for satay" which I think would involve peanut sauce, which would have been a great combination and I'd love to try it some day.  They were great on their own too though.

Sophie got the last of the rotisserie chicken and some more green beans and banana.  She was completely not into the banana tonight - no idea what that was about.  She had a little of the spinach too, but I think she also found it to be too lemony.

Grilled Tri-Tip Steak, Grilled Onions, Sauteed Spinach

Dinner tonight was tri-tip steak, with sauteed spinach and grilled onions.  Success!  I picked up 4 oz steaks at Whole Foods and cooked up an onion to go with them.  I sauteed spinach with a little grapeseed oil - something new that I was trying out in place of my olive oil standby.  I thought it was great.  Really mild and light - the spinach shone through with no problem.  I put a steak rub on one side of the meat and pepper on the other side and cooked it on our George Foreman grill.  It turned out to be a great dinner.

The carrots and chicken on the side are for Sophie.  She got to have a little bit of everything from our dinner tonight, except for steak, which she can't chew with her three little teeth, and she also got the steamed carrots and grilled chicken from last night's dinner.  Then she at an .entire. baby yogurt.  Without stopping.  Lot's of good food to help our girl grow!

no photo: fish, asparagus, broccoli, apples

I wish I had taken a picture of dinner last night, but I was too hungry!  Down the hatch it went.  Really, I just forgot.

We had pesto basil tilapia, steamed asparagus, steamed broccoli, and steamed apples with cinnamon and cloves and a little banana.  It was amazing.

I'm working on revamping some food ideas, continuing to cut out grains and looking at reducing/eliminating dairy.  I'm loosening up a bit on some veggies and fruit like carrots, but still keeping an eye over all-over carb intake.  I looked for some new blogs to freshen things up and I'm enjoying the influx of ideas.  I'm amazed though at how much info is out there.  I could easily spend entire days sitting and reading what people have to say about food and exercise, health and wellness.  I have to budget my time, as well as budgeting my focus and attentiveness, so that I don't become obsessed with appearance or the physical over other concerns. The inward is always more important to me.  But I've neglected the outside for a while - so it's time!

Tonight is chicken caesar salads, light on the dressing, and no croutons!  I bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco and Sophie and I had some for lunch, but there is lots left - I'll add some lemon juice and pepper, then re-chill it before adding it to the salad.