Italian style Pork Loin

It was amazing!!! At first, I had no idea what I was going to do.  Since I'm going home for the holidays, soon, I haven't gone grocery shopping in a while and my food inventory at home is really thin.  I had pasta sauce, pork loin and broccoli to play with, so my creation for tonight was to be Italian.  Now, usually I make my own pasta sauce, but since I decided to use what was on hand, I did it this way:

INGREDIENTS!
2 loins
1 medium sized jar of pasta sauce
fresh rosemary
dried thyme
fresh oregano
salt & peppr
olive oil

1.  Butterfly the loins.  Keep them looking like a boat, so the sides are up and not flat.
2.  Rub them with salt, pepper, olive oil and oregano
3.  Liberally rub oregano, thyme and rosemary on the inside, and let it sit for an hour.
4.  Pan sear the loins for 2 minutes on each side
5.  In a baking dish, pour about 2 tbsp of oil, then place the loins.
6.  Pour all the pasta sauce all over and around the pork.
7.  Bake at 425degrees for about 40-45 minutes.
8.  Let it stand for about 15 minutes after you take the pork out of the oven.
9.  ENJOY!

Pork Loin for Moi!

This was the first time I ever made pork loin. MAAAN IT WAS YUMMY!!! What I really like about this diet is that it forces me to think outside the box.  I have to come up with new things to make.  Unfortunately, I once again forgot to take a picture of my yumminess.  I promise, though, it was great,  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 pork loins
complete seasoning (or any other kind of rub)
salt & pepper
balsamic vinegar
olive oil

GLAZE:
1/2 jar of jelly (any kind, I used strawberry)
2 rounded tbsp of dijon mustard

1. rub the loins in complete seasoning, salt and pepper, and balsamic.  Let marinate for an hour.  DON'T TOUCH IT!
2. In a baking dish or casserole dish, pour a few tablespoons of olive oil on it and a few more tablespoons od balsamic over and around the meat.
3. Pop it in the  oven at 425degrees for 20mins PER POUND!

To make the glaze:
In a saucepan, heat up the jelly and the dijon.

*Pour the glaze over the meat while it's cooking in the oven when there's 30 minutes left for baking.

ENJOY!

I made sauteed spinach on the side with cream of onion.  (That, I cheated, my boyfriend made those)

Beer Chicken!

So I decided to cheat in a different way.  I decided to marinate my chicken in beer before baking it.  It came out amazing!!! The recipe's below.  Because beer is still too bland of a taste for chicken, I had to marinate the chicken with much more.

Ingredients:
 4 chicken thighs (that's just what I had)
1 bottle of beer.  I used Coors, but you can use any kind.  The darker the beer, the richer the taste.
garlic salt (I didn't have anymore garlic, so this was my alternative)
fresh rosemary
fresh oregano
salt and pepper
dried thyme

1. pat the chicken dry
2. rub the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic salt, oregano, thyme and rosemary
3. In the casserole dish, pour the whole bottle on to the chicken (yes, the chicken will be swimming... it's okay)
4. bake at 375 degrees for about 45mins.
5. ENJOY!

The thing with this recipe is that you can put in anny kinds of herbs you want.  Chicken is meant to be tweaked with.  I had left over beer from before my diet, and I wanted to do something with it.  I served the chicken with a mixture of sauteed asian veggies that I got at my local oriental store.  I sauteed them with soy sauce, and they came out yummy!!

Unfortunately, I remember about taking the picture after I'd eaten dinner... Oops! Maybe next time!!

Baked Chicken, Cheezy Broccoli and Meringues!

For dinner last night, I made some amazing seasoned baked chicken thighs and cheesy broccoli.  I think it was pretty awesome! Here's the recipe:

4 chicken thighs
fresh oregano
fresh rosemary
dried thyme
low sodium soy sauce
extra virgin olive oil

1. pat the chicken dry
2.  season liberally with all the ingredients
3. in baking pan, pour a few tablespoons of the olive oil and soy sauce over and around the chicken
4. bake in the oven at 375degrees for 45 mins.
ENJOY!

Next, I just put mozzarella over broccoli and for dessert, I made meringues!

The recipe for meringues:

Ingredients:

3 egg whites

3/4 cup sugar (in my case, splenda)

I beat those eggs until they looked silky with stiff peaks.  While beating, I gradually added sugar.

I stuck them in the oven at 325degrees for 25 mins.

http://www.southbeachdiet.com/sbd/publicsite/how-it-works/how-it-works.aspx


How could I miss this?! I've lived in Miami my whole life, so why not try the South Beach Diet? It's a low carb diet that I can follow.