Category Archives: recipes

CSA Cleanout Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

This one is a recipe of necessity: my CSA veggie boxes have taken over the fridge! The counters, the fridge…everywhere I look there are veggies that need a home: in our BELLEHS. It also didn’t help that I spent part of the evening Sunday night trying to figure out which potatoes survived the house turning into a fridge for a few days (the answer: NOT the new potatoes or the red potatoes, sadly). We also have a week coming up where generating leftovers is a bad idea.

Thus, many of the items in this dish came from our CSA veggie boxes, specifically: the onions, sweet potatoes, apples, carrots and honey. The bulk of the prep time in this dish, well – ALL of the prep time, really, came from the chopping that takes up steps 1-5, below. The rest of it is about a 5 minute process. So, if you want to do any of this the night before, I’d recommend going for it.

We have large plastic containers in our house for just such a reason – so the onions, sweet potatoes, shallots and apples were all prepped the night before. TIRED ME, I put the apples on the top of the container with the sweet potatoes. Were I being smart, the apples would’ve gone on the bottom of the container so that I could’ve just upended the thing right into the crock pot and had them in the order I wanted. (I prefer to put onions and the root veggies at the bottom of the crock pot so that they can take the bulk of the heat – they tend to stand that much better than, say, apples, which would just turn straight into applesauce.)

The carrots were cut up in the morning too, only because I was out of energy by the time I was done with a long day that I capped off with prepping onions, potatoes, shallots and apples for the next morning. And, really, if your fear is that the apples might turn brown as they oxidize: feel free to let go of that fear. First, if you have the lid on your container fairly tight, that problem may be minimized. Second, if they’re going in the crock pot, you’ll never notice whether they turned brown overnight or not.

This dish came out sweet and yummy. We didn’t pair it with a starch, but you certainly could serve this with some rice or couscous. The sauce is plentiful and light in nature, and it lends a nice sweetness to the whole thing. Because we let it go for longer than the required cook time, the pork just fell apart on us (never a bad thing), and both the sweet potatoes and apples just fell apart on the tongue. Again, this is a good problem to have.

I would say that this is a recipe that could easily be done with chicken instead of pork BUT I would then adjust the cook time down to 6-8 hrs.

 

CSA Cleanout Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin

Porktastic!

Prep Time: 30-40 min
Cooking Time: 8-10 hrs on LOW
Serves: 4

Ingredients
2 small (or 1 large) yellow onions
2 large sweet potatoes
1 shallot
5 medium empire apples
6 medium/large carrots
1-1/2 lbs pork tenderloin
14-1/2 oz can low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup apple juice
2 Tb cider vinegar
2 Tb wildflower honey
1 Tb brown sugar

Make it Happen
1. Peel and thinly slice the onion(s); place in the bottom of a 5qt oval crock pot in a single layer. They should cover the majority of the bottom of the crock pot.

2. Wash and chop the sweet potatoes into pieces no more than about 1/2″ thick and 1″ wide. Place the sweet potatoes in the crock pot.

3. Peel and mince the shallot. Sprinkle about one-third of the shallot on top of the sweet potatoes.

4. Peel the carrots and remove the ends; chop into small rounds, no more than about 1/3″ thick. Place in the crock pot. Sprinkle about one-third of the shallots on top of the carrots.

5. Wash the apples; slice in half, remove the core and then cut the apples into roughly 12 slices. Place the apples in the crock pot; sprinkle the remaining shallots on top of the apples.

6. Place the pork tenderloin on top of the apples. Pour the broth on top of the tenderloin and pour around it, on top of the apples and veggies.

7. In a measuring cup, pour the apple juice and the cider vinegar; pour this combination on top of the tenderloin and then around it, on top of the apples and veggies.

8. Drizzle the honey on top of the tenderloin, using either the flat of the spoon or a brush to coat the top of the tenderloin evenly with the honey.

9. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of the tenderloin.

10. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hrs.

11. Remove pork from crock pot and cut into 1/2″ thick pieces before serving with veggies, apples & sauce.

Bok-os!

Posted on by — 5 Comments ↓

Problem #1: the week 7 veggie box shows up with just over 2lbs of bok choi in it. Holy carp…what am I going to do with TWO POUNDS of bok choi?

Problem #2: the usual Saturday evening blahs over what to have for dinner on the one unplanned night of the week, and we were missing one of the usual key ingredients. We decided to make tacos, and though it took some convincing, I was finally able to persuade dh that if you have no ground turkey in the house, the taco gods will still approve of you making tacos with diced chicken. [We don’t typically use ground beef – the one exception being the “meatloaf mix” of ground beef and pork that we get from BJ’s a couple of times a year.]

…and then I said, “What if we use bok choi instead of taco shells?” We had taco shells in the house. As a matter of fact, we had two boxes of them, due to a shopping oops on my part a few weeks before. Still, the idea intrigued him. “So, what – it would be like the lettuce cups from PF Chang’s?” he asked. Yep, that was the idea.

So, we created the tacos in the usual fashion (less the ground turkey) and then put them on bok choi leaves instead of taco shells. The verdict? OMG, this may be the only way I have tacos again if I can ever help it. And thus, we proudly present…

BOK-OS!

Note also that this is a bit healthier than using the shells – at least 100 cal less. And, you get all the benefits of the hard shell (crunch!) with the benefit of the soft taco (no breakage!). It’s really a win-win situation.

Bok-os

Bok-os: Crunchy, soft, healthy...what a combination!

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cooking Time: 15-20 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 Tb olive oil

1/2 pkg reduced sodium taco seasoning

2/3 cup water

4 leaves bok choi, washed

toppings of your choice (we went with reduced fat sour cream, shredded monterey jack/cheddar blend, and medium-heat salsa)

Make it Happen

1. Dice the chicken breasts (small pieces) and cook with the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.

2. When the chicken is fully cooked, add the taco seasoning and water; stir to combine and stir frequently throughout cooking to ensure no sticking.

3. Once the majority of the liquid is gone from the pan, remove the chicken from the heat. Serve on leaves of bok choi (one per person), with the toppings of their choice, and fold the leaf as you’re eating it (like a soft taco shell).

Roasted Garlic Eggplant Dip

Posted on by — Leave a reply

First off, let me say that I’m not a fan of eggplant. I’ve tried it in parm form – meh. I’ve tried it in grilled form – meh. I’ve never been a fan of baba ganoush. In other words, eggplant’s just never worked for me. I tried to make things out of it when it showed up in earlier weeks’ veggie boxes, and it just never found a warm spot in my heart.

Until now.

I’ve FINALLY found a way that I like eggplant! My theory about it still stands: eggplant is a delivery mechanism. Just as pita is often a means of delivering hummus, eggplant is typically a way of delivering something else. In the case of the most common use for eggplant (eggplant parmesan), it’s for delivering cheese and red sauce. You might as well be eating cardboard that was breaded and fried – and in some cases, you’d get more flavor.

So, when I got yet another eggplant in the CSA box (albeit a small one), I knew I had to find some way to turn this thing into a delivery of something I wanted. It didn’t exactly help that I’m slightly under the weather and have a completely variable appetite. As I was thinking about what to do with said eggplant, I was struck by the idea of roasting it until it was mushable. Just roasting the eggplant by itself seemed silly and wasteful, though. As long as the oven’s on, why not roast some garlic with it and put them together in a bowl? YES! I would turn eggplant into a roasted garlic delivery mechanism! GENIUS!

How did it turn out? I LOVED IT. Given that it was a small eggplant, it made enough for about one person, or *maybe* two people (if they’re friendly). I saved a small amount for dh, since he was out of the house while this was made. And, now, if I *ever* have another eggplant cross my path, this is the first thing I’ll want to do with it. This could totally be done with a larger eggplant; all of the other ingredients just need to be scaled up proportionately. Given the size of the eggplant that I used, if you got the standard 1lb eggplant, you’ll just want to double the rest of the ingredients and probably add about 5-10 min cooking time, to make sure that you get it to the desired consistency. The eggplant should be browned (not blackened) on top.

The other nice thing about this recipe is that it requires very little “active” time in the kitchen. And it’s easy. I’m a big fan of easy. Note that I don’t use a blender or food processor. For one thing, this was done with a small eggplant, so it was a small enough quantity that A) it wouldn’t have worked well in a machine, and B) I had a sleeping child a few rooms away and was afraid to wake him up! With a larger eggplant, a machine may be employed – but I don’t feel that the dip was lacking because it had a less-than-smooth consistency.

(Apologies for the chip being in better focus than the dip…my camera REFUSED to believe that the dip was focus-worthy. IT WAS WRONG.)

Roasted Garlic Eggplant Dip

My new favorite way to eat eggplant!

 

Prep time: 5 min (active) + 30 min (inactive)

Cooking time: 30 min

Serves: 1-2

 

Ingredients

1 small white/Italian eggplant (about 6oz)

1 small head of garlic (about 4 small/medium cloves)

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp grated parmesan cheese

olive oil

salt

 

Make it Happen

1. Wash the eggplant and pat it dry. Slice it lengthwise and leave it with the insides (meat) facing up. Sprinkle salt over top of the eggplant meat and pat it down gently, to distribute it evenly across the top of the eggplant. Leave it to sit for 30 minutes to draw water out of the eggplant.

2. While the eggplant is sitting, prep the garlic for roasting: slice off the top and a thin layer of the bottom of the head of garlic, so the tops and bottoms of the cloves will be exposed. Set the head of garlic aside on the same cutting board as the eggplant.

3. Preheat the oven to 400F about 15 min. into the eggplant’s resting phase.

4. When the eggplant is done sitting, use a paper towel to wipe off the water and salt from the top of the eggplant. Place the eggplant halves (still meat-side up) on a cookie sheet covered with a sheet of aluminum foil.

5. Lightly brush olive oil on the meat of the eggplant halves.

6. Take a smaller piece of foil and pour a little olive oil on the center. Place the garlic head on top of that olive oil, then lightly pour olive oil all over the head of garlic, until it’s fully coated. Fold up the tin foil around and over the head of garlic, so as to make a closed pouch, then place that on the cookie sheet next to the eggplant halves. Roast at 400F for 30 mins.

7. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and scoop the inside of the eggplant out into a bowl with a large spoon. Mash the eggplant gently with the spoon.

8. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of the skin, then add those to the bowl. Mash those gently, as well, then stir to combine.

9. Add the lemon juice and the parmesan cheese to the bowl; stir to combine.

10. Serve with chips of your choice (or good dipping veggies – like carrots, celery or peppers). I served mine with multi-grain tortilla chips.