My new favorite flavor combination--Spicy-Sweet Pork Tenderloin

Spicy-Sweet Pork Tenderloin
Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2006 Copyright 2005

1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon bottled minced fresh ginger I used my garlic press and squished a few cloves
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut crosswise into 12 (3/4-inch-thick) slices
1/3 cup bottled salsa
1 tablespoon seedless raspberry preserves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro I didn't use this


Combine first 3 ingredients in a bowl.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Flatten each pork piece to 1/2-inch thickness using your fingertips. Add pork to pan; spoon soy sauce mixture evenly over pork slices. Cook 3 minutes or until browned. Turn pork over; cook 3 minutes or until done. Remove from pan.

Add salsa and preserves to pan; increase heat to medium-high. Cook 30 seconds or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Serve pork with salsa mixture, and sprinkle with cilantro.

Yield
4 servings (serving size: 3 pork slices, about 1 tablespoon salsa mixture, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cilantro)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 169(28% from fat); FAT 5.1g (sat 1.4g,mono 2.4g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 24.4g; CHOLESTEROL 74mg; CALCIUM 15mg; SODIUM 285mg; FIBER 0.4g; IRON 1.7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 5.3g
__________________________

This tasted so familiar when I started eating it that I wondered for a moment if I had already made this recipe. I then realized that it tasted very similar to the Sweet-and-Spicy Chicken Strips I made back in March. This flavor combination is so good! The ginger goes so well wih the spicy tomato salsa. This recipe had a bit more depth that the other one. My only complaint was that there really wasn't much 'sauce'. There was enought to glaze the meat and put a dab on top but it's so good, I wouldn't have minded a lot more of it.

I'm rarely disappointed by a Cooking Light recipe. The annuals seem to have the best recipes but because they're organized by magazine issue, it's difficult to manuever through them unless you know exactly what you're looking for however it's still better than looking through a pile of magazines.

The man at the book stand at the auction last week tried to give me a bunch of cooking magazines for free but I refused them. I could see some old Cooking Light's in the pile and I'm sure they had great recipes but my illness has to stop somewhere. He even offered to trade books with me. Trade? Give up some of my cookbooks for his? GIVE UP some of my cookbooks????!! I nearly fainted at the thought.

They did a story on the news this morning, about the rising costs of groceries. As if anyone who buys groceries hadn't already noticed. They claim that prices have gone up 4 percent in just the past year but it seems like more to me. I went to Costco on Saturday and pork loin wasn't 1.99/lb anyore. I can still get it on sale in the local grocery store for 1.99/lb so I bought the pork tenderloin again. There wasn't much of a price difference in Costco between the two.

Blast From The Past: Apricot Pork Chops from January 2007. Another quick and easy pork recipe from Cooking Light.

Question of the Day: If grocery prices continue to rise will you buy the same groceries, buy less (and eat less) or shop for less expensive substitutes for what you usually buy?