Quick and Easy Dinner #1: Pork Tenderloin with Grilled Sweet Potato

I don't know about you, but the last thing I want to do after a long day of work is to spend more than 15 minutes in the kitchen getting dinner ready. That's why I'm going to be posting "quick and easy" dinner recipes throughout May. In the spirit of the weather warming up, my first dinner recipe is all made on the grill and only takes 5-10 minutes of prep time: pork tenderloin and grilled sweet potato.



Ingredients
1 pork tenderloin (you can find this in a cylindrical package in the meat aisle)
1 peeled sweet potato
Olive oil
Italian seasoning
Lowry's seasoning salt
Black pepper 


Special ingredients: a grill (if you don't own a grill, no worries, you can also make this in the oven)


Directions

The meat on the grill, uncooked, with seasoning

1. Lightly coat the outside of the pork tenderloin with olive oil. Then sprinkle with Italian seasoning (you can really use whatever you want, basil, thyme, rosemary, whatever you have in your cabinet).
2. Place pork on grill over medium heat for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through. (Often times the meat package will contain directions about how to cook the meat, follow these if they are different. This will also include instructions about baking in the oven rather than the grill).

Seasoned sweet potato wedges before cooking

3. While the meat is cooking, cut the sweet potato into wedges and place on a piece of aluminum foil. Once all the wedges are cut, sprinkle about 1 Tbsp of olive oil over the wedges. Then season them with Lowry's and black pepper. (Again, you can season them with whatever you want, but I really like the taste of Lowry's and black pepper)

The wrapped up sweet potato wedges

4. Wrap up the sweet potato wedges in the aluminum foil and place on the grill over medium heat when there are 10 minutes left for the meat. (If you're making this in the oven, bake the wedges on a cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees or until soft)


5. Once the meat is done, remove it from the grill and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing. It will look something like this:

 6. Periodically check on the sweet potato wedges. They should take 10-15 minutes to cook. You'll know they are done when you can easily stab them with a fork. When they are done, remove them from the grill.

7. Slice the meat and serve with sweet potato wedges and fruit or veggies. I had strawberries in my fridge, so I decided to have those.

The finished product. Enjoy!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

So I'll admit it, the Hellman's commercial got me...it looked so good, I just had to try it. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

4 tsp Italian seasoned bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425

2. Combine mayonnaise and parmesan cheese in a bowl.

3. Arrange chicken in greased baking dish and spread mayonnaise mixture. Then sprinkle with bread crumbs (like below).

4. Bake 20 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Here's how it looked when I took it out of the oven.

5. Serve with veggies or pasta on the side.

Emily's Thoughts

So I know what you're thinking...a dish based on mayonnaise doesn't sound very appetizing. But I don't think this really tastes like mayonnaise. And you can thinly spread the mixture on the chicken to have a lighter taste to the dish. 

Salade Chevre Chaud

I spent a semester studying abroad in France and one of my favorite salads I had there was Salade Chevre Chaud (or Salad with warm goat cheese). Now before you give up on this recipe because you don't like goat cheese, I would recommend at least trying out the dressing. It's delicious. You can buy goat cheese at the store in a package like the one to the right. 

Ingredients

1 roll of goat cheese

4-5 slices of sandwich bread

1 bag romaine lettuce

1/3 pound (150g) toasted walnuts

3-4 slices bacon

Olive oil

Dressing

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Chop walnuts coarsely
2. Cook bacon slices until crispy. Let cool and them crumble coarsely.
3. Slice the roll of goat's cheese and cut each slice of bread in half. 
4. Lightly brush olive oil on bread then place a slice of cheese on top of each piece of bread.

5. Grill in oven for 5-10 minutes at 425 or on broil
6. Mix the dressing in a small bowl until ingredients are all combined.
7. Pour the bag of lettuce into a small bowl and toss the salad with an appropriate amount of the dressing.
8. Place salad on a plate and sprinkle with walnuts and crumbled bacon.
9. Top with 1-2 slices of goat's cheese toasts.


Emily's Thoughts
If you want the final salad to look a little "prettier," try using french bread or cut the bread into a circle or square. And try out the dressing on other salads too, it's too good not to :)

Recipe adapted from Honest Cooking.

Apple Turnovers

I had some leftover pie crust in my fridge, so I decided to make up a recipe for apple turnovers. I think they turned out quite deliciously :)...They're very easy, so give them a try!
 

Ingredients

Turnovers

1 sheet of refrigerated pie crust (like Pillsbury)

1 Tbsp softened butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 large granny smith apple, peeled and diced

Frosting

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp milk

Directions

1. Unroll pie crust and spread most of the butter on the crust (save a little to spread on the top of each turnover).

2. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle half of the mixture on top of the pie crust.  

3. Cut pie crust into 4 pieces (i.e. cut in half and in half again)

4. Peel and dice up the apple and toss into bowl with remaining sugar and cinnamon mixture. Make sure to coat all pieces with the mixture. 

5. Evenly divide apple pieces into piles on top of pie crust quarters. Fold crust over apple pieces to make a triangle shaped turnover. Like so:

6. Spread remaining butter on top of turnovers and cut two small slits on the tops of each to allow for venting while baking.

7. Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes until crust is a light golden brown.

8. While turnovers are baking, combine all frosting ingredients in a bowl and mix together. After removing turnovers from oven and letting cool for a few minutes, drizzle frosting on top of turnovers. 

Yields: 4

Now enjoy these delicious treats!

Emily's Thoughts

These were really easy to throw together and I didn't need anything special in terms of tools. You can get fancy apple peelers out there, but I don't own one, so I used a potato peeler to peel my apple. If you don't have one of those, use a knife. It may take longer, but it will be worth it.