Monday, May 07, 2007

Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Good!

My menu plan this weekend was thrown off a little bit because I made enough spinach lasagna for two nights and we ate out one night. Yesterday I got around to making a SparkPeople recipe I printed out a couple months ago, and it is definitely going into the rotation.

The dish is called Caribbean Pork Stew with Pineapple; clicking on the name will take you to the SparkPeople page, where you can print it out all nice and neat. I'm also going to print the ingredients and directions here, noting my substitutions.

Ingredients
12 oz. boneless pork loin [I used a lemon-pepper-seasoned turkey tenderloin]
2 Tbsp. flour [I eliminated the flour]
1 Tbsp. canola oil [I used cooking spray]
1 medium onion, sliced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped [I used red]
1 clove garlic, minced [I used 3 cloves]
1 small chili pepper, seeded and minced [I used about a tablespoon of chili sauce]
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. ground ginger [I used minced fresh ginger]
1 can (8 oz.) sliced pineapple in juice
1 large tomato, seeded and diced
1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Directions
  • Trim all visible fat from meat. Cut into 1-inch cubes. Toss with flour to coat.

  • Generously coat deep, medium skillet with cooking spray. Set over medium-high heat. Brown meat, turning it to color on all sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer meat to plate.

  • Heat oil in pan. Sauté onion, green pepper, garlic and chili pepper until onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Return meat to pan. Add 1 cup water, Worcestershire sauce, ginger, salt and pepper. Drain liquid from pineapple into pan. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. [I added a tablespoon or so of cornstarch to the water before I added it to the skillet.]

  • Stack pineapple slices and cut into 8 sections. Add fruit, tomato and cucumber to stew. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. This stew keeps 2 to 3 days, covered, in the refrigerator.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 258.2
Total Fat: 10.0 g
Cholesterol: 41.2 mg
Sodium: 796.9 mg
Total Carbs: 22.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.4 g
Protein: 18.2 g

I served it over rice and we both love it. I think next time I'll throw in an extra onion and cut them into chunks instead of slices. Enjoy!

I'm actually looking forward to my weekly weigh-in tomorrow. I've eaten sensibly and exercised moderately all week. I feel a little lighter, but then we all know that's not a terribly accurate predictor of weight loss. And the number, I keep reminding myself, is just data. Information only. Not a judgement.

It would be nice, though, to get back on the losing track.

I did a weight-training session yesterday. Sunday is a scheduled rest day, but I felt good and decided to throw one in anyway. I'm not OCD – really, I'm not! – but it does give me a sense of satisfaction to see a little foil star in every square of my May calendar so far. Last week I walked two miles and ran 16. That gets bumped up to 22 this week, and that's where it will stay until June.

Maybe. Heh.

3 comments:

Anne M. said...

Yummmy! This sounds delish, Debbi! I love trying new recipes, especially if people I actually know are recommending them from experience. It's nice to see how you changed it up as well.

Sounds as though life is good :)

Faithful Soles said...

Nice post and great sounding recipe! Thought I'd let you know my wife is a native of West Virginia (born in Charleston). We live in Houston now and she loves to go back and visit. I really admire your goals you have set for yourself in running, keep up the good work.

If you get a chance, please visit my running web site, Faithful Soles. I have a categorized and searchable Running Blog Database on there and would appreciate it if you would link your blog to it.

Laura Bora from Bufadora said...

OMG, my mouth is WATERING, that looks so GREAT, I am totally going to try it.

I am also treating my weigh in as data and not a blanket statement about my worth as a person, which is what that used to be.

It's much nicer this way!