Pork Tenderloin with Plum Sauce

This was a very successful and "fancy" Saturday night dinner for Ed and me from my Cooking Light cookbook.

Ingredients 
1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 1/2 tablespoons minced shallots (about 1 medium)
2 cups chopped, peeled ripe plums (no plums at the store, so we used plum jam)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon butter (we didn't use this, but didn't miss it)
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon chopped walnuts, toasted

Polenta
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup polenta (cornmeal)
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup parmesan
4 tablespoons cream cheese

Asparagus
1 lb asparagus, trimmed
olive oil cooking spray
salt and pepper, to taste

I started by preparing the polenta, a food that Ed and I had been excited to try, ever since we had amazing creamy polenta while we were in San Francisco.

The recipe I used was a combination of a few different ones I looked at. I started by boiling 4 cups of chicken broth with 1 tablespoon of butter. Then, I added the polenta, a little at a time, wisking it in as I went. It was amazing how quickly the polenta soaked up the liquid! It cooked for 25 minutes on low heat. Then, I added the parmesan and the cream cheese. I didn't really time this correctly, though, and next time won't start this until after I got the tenderloin going. 

Next, I combined the grated ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1/8 tesaspoon of pepper in a small bowl. 

Then, I rubbed in on my tenderloin, which was cut into 7 pieces (the recipe calls for 8, but one of my tenderloin's ends was pretty thin, so I went with 7)

Let the meat sit for 15 minutes. (Next time I'll do the meat step first, then prepare the polenta). 

To make the sauce, heat the oil in a large, nonstick skillet over medium heat (I used a smaller pan, which was fine). Add shallots; cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. 

Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, plums, sugar, and ground ginger. Cook 8 minutes or until plums are tender (We skipped this step, since we started with jam instead of plums). Stir in wine and vinegar. Reduce heat, simmer 10 minutes. Add butter, stir until butter melts (again, we left this out, which was fine).

To prepare the meat, heat a large nonstick pan over medium high heat. Cook pan with cooking spray. Add pork to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness (I didn't put the pan heat high enough, and it took a lot longer, about 6 minutes on each side, to cook). Serve sauce over pork. Sprinkle with walnuts. 

For asparagus, I placed trimmed asparagus on a foil lined pan, and then sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, and then roasted the asparagus in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees. 

Finally, I put everything together, paired it with a glass of red wine, and it was ready to enjoy :). 

Flank-Steak Fajitas with Spicy Garden Vegetables

I have been doing some running lately, though not as much as I would like! Work has been busy, and I apparently have this wedding coming up, that needs some planning :). Ed and I took his mom up to Mt. Tam last weekend for a wonderful hike, and as soon as I get photos I'll share about that. For now, I'll share what I made for dinner while she was visiting!

Flank Steak Fajitas with Spicy Garden Vegetables

Ingredients
Marinade:
1/3 cup minced fresh cilantro
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/3 cup water
4 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
5 cloves of garlic, minced

Fajitas:
1 cup vertically sliced onion
1 (1 - pound) flank steak, cut into strips
Cooking Spray
1 cup red bell pepper strips
1 cup julienne-cut yellow squash
1 cup julienne-cut zucchini
1 cup fresh corn kernals (we used frozen, which worked fine)
Corn torillas
2 cups chopped tomato (we substituted tomatillo salsa and mango peach salsa)
low-fat sour cream

Directions:
To make the marinade, combine the first 9 ingredients in a small bowl.

To prepare the fajitas: Combine 1/3 cup marinade, onion,

 and steak in a large zip-lock plastic bag; seal. (The 2nd time I made this, I only marinaded the meat, so that the onions could cook longer.)

Marinate in refrigerator 1 hour, turning occasionally. Remove steak mixture from bag; discard marinade.

Place a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until hot. Add the steak mixture, and stir-fry 5 minutes. Place the steak mixture in a large bowl, and keep warm.

Add bell pepper, squash, zucchini, corn,

 and remaining marinade to skillet; stir-fry 5 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender.

 Add to steak mixture; toss gently.

Warm tortillas according to package directions (we warmed them in the microwave). Arrange 1 cup of steak mixture with condiments

and roll up. Enjoy!

Pizza and a Night in the City

After our wonderful run on Valentine's Day, we decided on a romantic dinner of pizza.

With such great results the last time we used Trader Joe's pizza dough, we were excited to try again with a new kind of pizza. This time, we went with white dough to go with a BBQ chicken pizza, inspired by my favorite "California Pizza Kitchen" dish.

This was such an easy pizza to make - we topped it with Trader Joe's BBQ sauce, mozzerella cheese, and chicken that had been sauteed and then covered in more BBQ sauce. We also sauteed some red onion to top the pizza and then, after it cooked, we liberally sprinkled it with cilantro. 

Cilantro has to be my favorite herb, which is funny because I hated it as a child. I always ordered the BBQ chicken pizza without the cilantro, and even got a free pizza once when they accidently put cilantro on it. Now I can't get enough of it :). 

We both loved this pizza! It wasn't the healthiest (5 WW points, or about 250 calories a slice, with the pizza cut into 8 slices) but it was divine.

Next time we'll have to try the whole wheat dough!

_____

To keep our celebration of love going, we embarked on part 2 of our Valentine's Day, by traveling up to San Francisco for a mini vacation in the city to see "Wicked".

We left for the city around 3pm, but unfortunately hit some traffic once we got close. Our trusty GPS directed us on a detour that got us safely to our hotel. We were staying at "The Phoenix," which would have looked more in place in Palm Springs than in the middle of San Francisco. It had a tiki/60s vibe, with a beautifully tiled pool and bamboo lounge deckware. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was a fun place to stay.

After settling into the room, we began searching for a place to eat dinner. We had tried to do this before we arrived, but we couldn't make a decision, so now we were in more of a time crunch. We made a couple calls without success, but then stumbled upon "Indigo," a small, intimate restaurant blocks from the theater.

They had a 6 o'clock reservation open and a wonderful "Prix Fixe" deal: $34.95 for an appetizer, entree, and dessert. Ed and I entered the restaurant, excited about its appearance and already looking forward to the meal.

(photo courtesy of google search :) )

It was a softly lit restaurant, full of happy diners. Ed and I both went for the mixed greens with blue cheese and toasted walnuts, which was delicious, and a fabulous pork tenderloin, in a red wine sauce, served over creamy polenta, with green beans. It was amazing! I am now inspired to make polenta :). We paired it with lovely glasses of Shiraz. For desert, I had panne cotta, and Ed had a trio of sorbet. 

Sufficiently (or perhaps more than sufficiently) full, we headed for the theater. We took a round-about route past city hall that eventually got us to Market Street (apparently we aren't the best at following directions), but got to the theater at the perfect time - about 15 minutes before the play. 

(Photo courtesy of tasithoughts.wordpress.com)

The sign outside was brightly lit and the front was teeming (to use on of my students' vocabulary words) with people. 

We pushed our way inside and headed to our seats. They were way up high, in the 2nd balcony, but we were in the center, with a nice (albeit far away) view of the stage. 

The Orpheum Theater (where Wicked is playing) is gorgeous - with an intricately decorated ceiling and a huge light centerpiece. I enjoyed looking at it as I waited for the show to start. 

(photo courtesy of "flickr.com/photos/ 88077630@N00/3339886669")

The stage itself was surrounded with a scaffolding of gears, and a huge dragon towered over the stage. 

(photo courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/ krissatin/2385008200/)

I was very excited to see this play, as I had been really into the music for a while in college. I know all the songs by heart, but didn't know the story line that tied the musical together. Ed was fairly unfamiliar with the musical, so for him ti was all new. 

Overall, it was a great production! The performers were excellent and the set was well made and enjoyable to watch. I was happily surprised by the ending (which I won't give away). It was so much fun to have an evening out!

We had a lot of fun living the city life for a night, but it does feel nice to be back to our quiet reality :)

Oven Puffed Pancake

Ed has been craving pancakes lately, since there has been a definite lack of pancake-y breakfasts since I started eating healthier.

I decided to do a bit of research and came up with Cooking Light's, "Oven Puffed Pancake," a lower calorie and delicious alternative to the traditional breakfast treat. As an added bonus, it's much easier to make than a normal pancake and it also a bit more fun.

Oven Puffed Pancake 
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c. fat free milk
2 T granulated sugar
1/4 t salt
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 T butter
Powdered sugar (optional)

Nutritional Information

(serving size - 1/4 of pancake)

Calories:

141 (28% from fat)

Fat:

4.4g (sat 2.3g,mono 1.4g,poly 0.4g)

Protein:

5.2g

Carbohydrate:

19.9g

Fiber:

0.4g

Cholesterol:

64mg

Iron:

0.9mg

Sodium:

222mg

Calcium:

48mg

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through egg white); Stir until combined. (Edited: On making this again, I used a wisk instead of a spoon and it was easier to combine)

Melt butter in a 10 inch cast iron skillet or other oven safe pan (we used a stainless steel pan).

Pour batter into pan. Cook over heat for 1 minute. Do not stir!

Transfer pan to oven and bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes, or until golden.

Ours barely made it 15 minutes, and was very poofy and golden brown.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar using a sifter (if desired) and cut into fourths (kitchen shears worked the best for this!). I had a little over 1/4 (the serving size) and Ed had the other 3/4's.

We topped ours with cut strawberries and just a touch of low calorie maple syrup. The pancake would also be lovely with honey, jam, or even plain, as it is sweet and delicious on it's own!

Happy Breakfasting.

(Edit: I've just made this recipe again, and have to say, I love making it from my blog with the pictures! It was easy to follow :). Good motivation to post more recipes)

Vanilla Cupcakes

With all my healthy eating, treating myself to cupcakes was not high on my list of dessert options. However, Ed and I had been feeling a little bored with our pudding and ice cream treats, and thought that this would be a fun treat.


The recipe is officially titled, "Hungry Girl Fluff Cakes," and is a lightened version of the traditional cupcake, that can pack a mind boggling 348 calories and 14 grams of fat. This version has a much more respectable 164 calories and only 3 grams of fat. It tastes lighter, but it still really enjoyable! To see the original recipe, click here.


Light Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 9 - 10 Servings


For Frosting
1 1/4 cups Cool Whip Free, thawed
1 1/2 tbsp. Jell-O Sugar Free Fat Free Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix


For Cupcakes
Half of an 18.25-oz. box (about 1 1/2 cups) moist-style yellow cake mix (I used my food scale to measure out 9.15 oz of cake mix)
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup Sprite Zero (or another diet lemon-lime soda), room temperature (I used Fresca)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 egg whites


For Topping

3 tbsp. rainbow sprinkles


Directions:


First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 


You'll want to make the frosting first, because it needs time to sit in order to reach it's full potential :). 


To make the frosting, place your Cool Whip in a bowl, and then add the pudding mix. Mix until smooth. Then, take plastic wrap, and press into the top of the frosting until covered, press into sides of bowl and over the top. Place in fridge and keep there until needed. 

Next, I took a large bowl and put my sifter over it. Into the sifter, place the cake mix and baking powder and sift so that there were no lumps. Then, add the soda and vanilla extract, mixing until smooth. The batter will be fizzy! That's okay :). Once you've finished this step, set it aside. 

In a smaller bowl, whip egg white with a handheld mixer, set on medium speed until fluffy, 1-2 minutes. (This part was very cool, as I've never whipped egg white before! They got very fluffy. I whipped mine for about 1 1/2 minutes). Gently mix egg white into the cake batter until thoroughly combined. It took longer than I expected to mix these together, but they got there.




Now, it's time to get the pan ready. Line 10 cups of a 12 cup muffin pan with baking cups (the recipe says it will only fill 9, but ours filled 10 with a little to spare). Evenly distribute the batter among the cups (start with filling 9 and then add to the 10th if you have enough batter). The cups will be VERY full - that's okay! All of the cups on ours will fill to just above the brim, which was perfect. 

Bake for 15 - 17 minutes (ours baked for 17) until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out fairly clean. Your cupcakes should be slightly golden and poofy. 

Remove the cupcakes from the pan using a knife and your hand to carefully lift them out and onto a plate. This will help them to cool faster. Once the cupcakes are cool (it takes what feels like a long 20 minutes, with the cupcakes removed from the pan) frost with your reserved frosting and add sprinkles. The frosting is delicious and we'll need to make a bit more to frost the last of our cupcakes, but if you do a thin layer yours should cover all of them. We only frosted the ones we were eating so that we could leave the cupcakes out overnight and have freshly frosted cupcakes when we're ready for them!

Enjoy!


Makes 9 - 10 Servings

"Homemade Pizza"

While this isn't really a recipe, it's a good reminder that making "homemade" pizza can be a quick and fun activity, and is infinitely superior to the boxed variety.

Heirloom Cherry Tomato Pizza

*Trader Joe's Pre-made pizza dough, fresh herb (sold in small bags in the refrigerated section of the store.
* Tomato sauce (we used Classico's Red Bell Pepper and Roasted Garlic)
* 1/2 an onion
* 2 zucchini
* 4 artichoke hearts, (canned in water)
* minced garlic (to taste)
* Fontina Cheese (about 2 cups)
* Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes (also from trader joes)

Ed and I were in the mood for pizza and, since we were given a very nice toaster oven for Christmas, from Ed's Brother Tom, that promised it could cook a 12 inch pizza, we decided to give it a try.

We began by pre-heating the toaster oven at the "pizza setting". We realized afterwards that this setting is probably for frozen pizza and wasn't quite hot enough for ours. Next time, we'll set it at 450 like the dough packaging recommends.

Once the oven we going we started cooking the onion and zucchini. I like crisp zucchini, so I cooked the onion first, until it was slightly caramelized, and then cooked my zucchini over a higher temperature, sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. Once they were cooked, we put them aside.

Next, we took the artichoke hearts and cut them into bite sized pieces. Then, we put them in a pan with some minced garlic and cooked a minute or two, until slightly browned.

Once the "cooking" was done, we were ready to assemble the pizza.

The fun part was making the crust. Ed and I took turns turning and stretching it until it reached the 12 inch size needed to cover our pan. Once it was made, we put down a thin layer of tomato sauce, and then covered with our onion, zucchini and garlic artichoke hearts.

After our layer of veggies, we coated the pizza with a layer of fontina cheese.

Next, we put down a layer of sliced heirloom cherry tomatoes, face down.

We put the pizza in the oven for about 20 minutes.

It was very delicious and fresh tasting, and we especially loved the dough. We topped it with some parmesan and red pepper flakes to give it some spice. The dough wasn't quite as crispy as we would have liked, and next time we'll pre-heat the pan to see if that helps.

All in all, though, a very successful meal of pizza!

Raw

Well, I had a new experience last night (and a very berkeley one at that) by going to a Raw Food restauarant called 'Cafe Gratitude'. A very cool, very hippy place with shared tables (we sat with two very nice guys who, I think, work there) and were asked by our waiters after sitting, as part of the communal vibe, what our friends love most about ourselves as a way of introduction. From what I understand, everything there was organic vegan and nothing was heated above 110 degrees (except maybe the soup). All the foods are essentially affirmations, so you're saying something positive when you order :)

For instance, I ordered I am Accepting which was: stir-unfry - Steamed Bhutanese red rice tossed with raw vegetables (nori, cucumber) sprouts, avocado and Asian sesame dressing. I had never had this kind of rice, which is almost black in appearance. I liked the nori (Seeweed) better than I thought I would, and overall it was yummy (though definitely tasted 'healthy') For dessert we all shared I AM DEVOTED live coconut cream pie - Rich coconut cream pie in a coconut date crust and another dessert whose name I can't remember, but was a blueberry, strawberry and apple cobbler, which we got a la mode (so that I could try their soft serve made of nut milk, dates, and vanilla bean...very good!). Overall yummy and not too pricy (though definitely a 'nice' dinner out by college standards).

The concept of 'live' food was interesting, and not something I was familiar with before. Overall, though, I don't think I could ever be vegan! I love dairy products, and I enjoy my meat too much :)

A fun restaurant though, and one anyone in the bay area should check out at some point!

99 days!!

According to my TRT countdown, I'm now less than 100 days from my first 50K. I'm also 51 days from San Diego RNR Marathon and one month and one day from college graduation :) Lots of good stuff coming up!

Today was a great day. I turned in my second paper, and am reveling in having no homework assignments hanging over my head. My thesis still needs a lot of work, but I nevertheless have 40 pages written and plenty of ideas to talk about :)

Went for a very nice run after class up on the firetrail. I felt out of shape for the beginning (the hills didn't help) but it was such a beautiful day that it was impossible not to feel great out there. It was one of those perfect bay area days, 60s temperature and crisp clear sky. From the trail I had an amazing panoramic view of berkeley, the bay, mt. tam, the golden gate, and san francisco. I felt so lucky to have been able to be out there!

With my newfound time I was finally able to get back to the gym to do strength training after work, and it was really wonderful. I walked at a slight incline on the treadmill for 2.1 miles while reading Running Times (forgot my book so I decided to buy a magazine and this seemed like the best choice), did lots of stretching and relaxing (they have a room just for stretching at the gym in one of the raquetball court rooms where the lights are off. Its really nice!). Then I did 100 crunches and 40(!) pushups :) Considering about a month ago I could barely do one, this is great progress. Granted, it was 5 sets of 8, so not 40 at once, but its still a very exciting step. Push-ups make me feel strong! Then I did my normal 6 weight lifting things. All in all spent about 2 hours there, and it was great.

I decided to celebrate having such a great day by stopping by the store and picking up some salmon. Had salmon, lots of zucchini and squash, 1/2 an avocado, and cherry tomatoes for dinner. Absolutely heavenly :)

And I get to sleep in tomorrow

Life just doesn't get much better!

Mmm...Best Meal Ever!

So, while I'm sure the amazingness of this meal had a lot to do with how hungry I was when I made it, it still deserves to be noted, because it was really great (and healthy!)


1 c. Brown Rice (cooked)
1/4 c. Water chestnuts
1/2 c. Snap Peas
1/2 c. Assorted Broccoli, Cauliflower, and broccolini
Red Pepper flakes (to taste)
Garlic (to taste)
Lemon Juice (to taste)
Soy Sauce (to taste)
4 oz. Chicken
Lots of Pickeled Ginger


I get the boil in a bag rice, which makes for easy cooking there. I steamed the broccoli mix and added it to the chicken, water chestnuts, and snap peas in a skillet. I then added a generous tablespoon full of garlic, a sprinkle of the red pepper flakes, the juice from half a lemon, and some cooking spray and sauted it all together. After I got the flavers going, I sprinkeled it all with soy sauce. Then I just mixed it all together and added a large portion of pickeled Ginger on top. Added some extra soy sauce, and it was ready to be eaten.



It made a ton of food, was super filling, and was nice and healthy. In all regards, a success :)