Roasting in the Cold Weather: Roast Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

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Although I have the most kick-butt-can-never-go-wrong-everyone-loves pork tenderloin recipe from the late Craig Claiborne's "Classic New York Times", circa 1970's somewhere-in-time cookbook, I decided to take on another roast pork tenderloin recipe from Giada de Laurentiis for the "I Heart Cooking Clubs" weekly theme.  The theme was "Roasting" and if there is one food that I love to roast, it is a pork tenderloin.  Thank Heaven, that Giada had a recipe for Roast Pork Tenderloin in her extensive repertoire!  And it was widely praised among the family tonight!
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Despite my personal preferences belief that the balsamic/roasted garlic sauce should be slightly tempered down a notch, my family raved about this.  The pork was cooked to perfection, soft and succulent, and with a dip of the pork into the sauce, it was simply divine.  My father is on a restricted soft food diet while he recovers from his health 'challenges' and he ate every bit of his slice of pork and devoured the mashed potatoes that I prepared as a side dish for this Giada entree'!
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So here's the recipe directly from the cookbook "Giada at Home":

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Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

Begin with preparing the roasted garlic:

Roasted Garlic
2 full heads of garlic, cut in half
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Sea salt
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Roasted Pork Tenderloin
1 4-1/2 pound boneless pork tenderloin
Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb salt-free seasoning (I use this all the time in place of salt that is listed in recipes)

Vinaigrette
Roasted garlic (from above)
1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped (this is twice the amount indicated in the recipe)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (I'd reduce this amount to 1/3 cup the next time, it was very potent)
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar (I used 2 packets of Splenda) this is necessary to take the bite out of the Balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. water

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

For the Roasted Garlic
.Cut the heads of garlic in half cross-wise.
Place the garlic halves on a sheet of aluminum foil.
Drizzle them with the olive oil, and sprinkle with the salt.
Fold the foil up and around the garlic halves, making sure that the garlic stays upright.
Seal the foil into an airtight package around the garlic halves.
Roast until the garlic cloves are golden and soft, about 45 minutes (not 60 minutes as indicated or they will turn BROWN).
Keep the garlic halves in the foil and cool slightly.

For the Pork Tenderloin
Thirty minutes after the garlic has started roasting, place the pork in a medium, heavy roasting pan.
Season the tenderloin on all sides (with seasoning of choice).
Roast the pork along with the garlic until an instant-read meat thermometer reads 150 degrees (slightly warmer than what the original recipes calls for because there was still plenty of pinkish-red sections in the pork), for about 40 more minutes, 70 minutes maximum.
Remove the roasted pork tenderloin from the oven and form a tent of aluminum foil over the pork.
Let rest for 15 minutes.

For the Vinaigrette
Open the garlic packets and squeeze the the roasted garlic cloves into a blender, squeezing the base of each garlic half.
Add the parsley and balsamic vinegar.
Pulse until well blended.
Drizzle or pour the olive oil into the blender and blend well again.
Add the sugar or sugar substitute, salt, pepper, and two Tbsp. of water.
Blend until well mixed.

Drizzle some of the vinaigrette over the pork tenderloin.
Slice into desired thickness of slices.
Pass around the remaining vinaigrette in a small 'gravy' type dish.

For this ultra taste filled entree, I chose to serve a more balanced, mild, freshly home-made and heavily buttered mashed potatoes, sprinkled-with-paprika side dish - - which proved to be simply PERFECT to soak up the roasted garlic-balsamic vinaigrette.  I do hope you enjoy this if you choose to prepare this someday!  A special thanks is extended to Giada, especially on behalf of my father, whom my mother and I are having so much difficulty finding 'soft' and yet delicious foods to prepare for him.  He truly did eat one whole slice of this soft and tender pork plus a full scoop of my mashed potatoes with total pleasure! And that is tremendous progress after what he's been through (health-wise) this winter!

There is nothing special about these mashed potatoes:  just prepare your favorite recipe, add some chives (fresh is best, but expensive and hard to find in January), then simply add some good butter to melt all over the potatoes, and sprinkle on some pretty red paprika - - truly that's all I do!  Just make sure that you prepare your mashed potatoes with milk and/or whipping cream and not (ugh) water for the best 'wowza' results from your guests.  This way of preparing potatoes is so nice nestled beside the roast tenderloin from which you can simply dip them into the Balsamic-Roasted Garlic Sauce or drizzle a little bit of the sauce on top of the buttered mashed potatoes.  Either way that you prefer to prepare or serve them, this is pure Italian comfort food for this oh-so-cold month of January ~ ~ no matter where you live!

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Sun~Dried Tomato Pesto Turkey Burgers With Basil Aioli and A Major Southern Snow Storm!

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You know it really is true:  if we plan ahead and go to the market/store with a list of all the ingredients that we'll need for our planned menus, we'll stick to a healthier food plan overall!  Plus, if it snows like it has been doing right here in the South (and subsequently icing up ~ which is even worse!), we don't have to venture out onto uncleared snow-covered roads.

So I followed this healthy rule last week and had all of the necessary ingredients on hand for a week's full of good stuff.  Who would have 'thunk' that this would have been the week that no one was able to drive on ice-covered roads in a state with only 20 snow plow and ice clearing trucks . . . even the National Guard was summoned in this week to help us out!  I don't know about you, but that's a big "Wow" in my book, especially being from the Midwest where roads are cleared in the middle of the night and schools are NEVER closed!

Even our Internet connection has not operated in two days; so this is truly a late recipe for "y'all".  I do apologize, but this recipe is certainly worth the wait!  It is completely outstanding!  No lie, friends!  You've got to add this to your healthy recipes file!  It is truly the best of the last three healthy recipes that I've posted BY FAR!  Once again it is from Cooking Light's "Fresh Food Fast" cookbook, with my own adaptations and additions (that made a big difference!); a resource that is shocking my family and me for the tasty, yet good-for-us recipes that are provided.  I'm just amazed!  You'll never know that this recipe is actually good for you!  And isn't that one of the goals that eating more healthfully is all about:  Enjoyment!?


Sun-Dried Turkey Burgers with Basil Aioli

1 1/4 lb. ground turkey breast
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup (2 oz.) crumbled goat or feta cheese (I substituted Parmesan, cuz hubby hates feta cheese)
1/4 cup chopped and drained oil-packed sun-dried tomato halves (I substituded sun-dried tomato pesto instead)
1 Tbsp. freshly minced garlic (this was my own addition)
Cooking spray
Green leaf lettuce
White-wheat hamburger buns (such as Nature's Own)
4 tomato slices (or more)
Basil Aioli

Prepare grill.
Combine first 6 ingredients.
Divide turkey mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2" thick patty.
Place patties on a grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 8 minutes on each side, or until a thermometer registers 165 degrees.
Place lettuce leaves on the bottom halves of each bun; top each with a turkey burger, and one tomato slice.
Spread 1 Tbsp. Basil Aioli on one side of each bun top.
Place one bun top on top of the other bun half and turkey burger.

Basil Aioli

1/4 cup light mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil (I used more, but that's just me)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 garlic clove, minced (I doubled this amount!)

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.

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Stay healthy, everyone!  And more importantly, stay happy and positive!

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Spa Food: Healthy Spaghetti with Salmon, Lemon and Basil

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As I continue to keep my promise to myself and my family to become healthier not only for a one-time (and very breakable) resolution, but rather for a life-long commitment, I turned to the inspiration from thin, beautiful, and kick-butt chef, Giada de Laurentiis for the "I Heart Cooking Club" for this week's "Resolutions" theme.  If you have her cookbook "Giada At Home", you may find this recipe on page 100; it is also presented on the web on one of the web-sites that feature her. 

My husband and I went out to dinner last night . . .  always a huge threat, tease, or challenge for those of us who have to watch our calories, carbs, fat, or whatever!  But I was faithful to my commitment; I mean, after all, one cannot stay at home and simply eat celery sticks!  I'm social, I love to go out, and I love seeing and chatting with friends and folks in this small little community.  I'm not a recluse, nor do I ever want to be.  So with fear and trepidation when hubby asked me to go out for dinner, I said to myself, "OK, don't sabotage everything that you've done, girl!  Stay disciplined and just order a salad and select a grilled/broiled fish for my entree, and no dessert whatsoever".

I kept my promise!  The grilled salmon was delightful, as it always is from one of our favorite eateries in town.  PLUS, I only ate 4 ounces of a huge salmon fillet, thus leaving me an already prepared, ready-to-simply-heat-up piece of salmon to add to Giada's recipe presented here.

I went to my pantry to see what I had on hand . . . oh good, I had some whole wheat and multi-grain pasta on hand; wow, I picked up some lemons, a new bottle of olive oil, some fresh baby spinach leaves, and some garlic yesterday; thankfully my brain worked this summer and I had frozen some of my garden-grown basil; and finally, YAY, I had a jar of unopened capers in the frig waiting to join the party!  PERFECT!  Everything was here to prepare Giada's recipe.

I made a few adjustments to improve this recipe though, which I've noted below for you:

For the recipe, click on "Read More" beneath my signature below.



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