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I sent my lens off to Canon last week and hopefully they will be able to send me a new one ASAP.  I am sure missing it something fierce.  I have an ancient piece of crap to work with and I’m trying to make the best of it.  I hope you don’t mind 🙂  I have a great roasted pork loin with POM reduction recipe, along with a new twist on grilled pizza, and my first attempt at making coffee!  

I don’t make pork loin too often, but when I received some free samples of antioxidant-rich pomegranate juice from the nice folks at POM, I knew exactly what I wanted to make!  A lot of this can be done in advance too.

Roasted Pork Loin with POM Reduction

Serves: 5-6

For the marinade in a zippy bag:

• 1 pork loin (mine was on the smaller side)
• 1 cup POM juice
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt + pepper, garlic powder
• 1 tbsp herbes de provence

Marinate everything in a zippy bag overnight.

For the pistachio cous cous:

• 1 cup water + 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup ww cous cous
• sprinkling of salt, AP seasoning
• 1/3 cup chopped pisatchios
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 3 tbsp reserved POM sauce (see below)

For the POM reduction sauce:

• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup POM juice
• 1/2 tbsp butta’

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 325 F.  Remove pork from marinade and sauté pork loin over medium-high heat in an oven safe pan until nice and golden around the edges.  Place pan in oven for about 30 minutes, until the pork registers 150 F.  Take out, cover in foil and let rest.

While the pork is roasting, make the cous cous.  Boil water, oil and spices in a pan; add cous cous, turn off heat and cover for 5 minutes.  Add reserved pistachios, cranberries and reduction sauce (see below).

For the reduction sauce, when the pork loin comes out of the oven, remove the pork and any really dark bits from the pan.  Sauté the onions and garlic in the pan until golden; add the POM juice and reduce down till nice and syrupy (about 15 minutes).  Add the butter and then add to the cous cous.  Serve the rest of the sauce along side the pork.

mmm butta’

These pictures aren’t very pretty but you get the picture, right?

The POM sauce went really well with the pork.

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I also made a great new twist on pizza that would be great to try!

Instead of the usual red sauce, I made a pizza with canned black beans to up the fiber and protein.

Mexican Pizza

Serves: a butt load

For the sauce:

• 1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
• 2-3 tbsp of your favorite salsa (I used TJ’s 3-pepper salsa)
• Favorite toppings: spinach, green onions, tomatoes, mexi cheese, avocado, etc.

Pulse the beans and salsa in a food processor until your desired consistency.

I used packaged pizza dough from TJ’s this time, but if you want to make your own check out my WW pizza dough recipe

Simply roll the dough out, lightly brush with oil, and grill each side.  Then add the black bean sauce, top with salsa and the rest of your favorite toppings and grill until melted.  Easy!

I also made some traditional ones with red sauce, roasted zucchini and mushrooms.

Alongside Chris and I shared this hefe, but I won’t even try to spell it out or pronounce it.  It’s one of our favorites imported from Munich, Germany.  It has a nice, dark and rich flavor profile.  Not very light compared to most hefes.

I want to jump right in!

It was a great dinner to share and I was hungry! 🙂

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This morning, while Chris was still sleeping, I decided to experiment with our new coffee maker and whip up an omelet. I’m not usually much of a coffee drinker because I have a verrrry low tolerance for caffeine.  Just one cup and it’s not too long before I’m zinging and shaking like a crazy person that just won a new Trek Bike.  It also can upset my tummy. I just love the idea of making coffee though, and want to at least have a little bit for fun 🙂

After trying a little sample at TJ’s the other day, I picked up this Bali Blue Moon.  I like it because it’s not too dark and has a nice flavor.  Chris on the other hand loves blacker than black coffee so I’m thinking I’ll get another can of a dark roast decaf and we can mix the two.

Well, my first attempt at making coffee wasn’t too bad.  I even added a little bit of chocolate milk to make a mocha latte thingie 🙂  Chris said that it was ‘weak’, but oh well.  I have a lot more pots to make and experiment with!  I’d also like to throw a cinnamon stick in there too mmm

I’m going to start with having just a small cup.  I think this size is just perfect.

For breakfast I made a simple 2 egg omelet with leftover pork and veggie fillings from the other day.  Alongside I had some cottage cheese and berries.

I managed to up all my weights in body pump this morning!  It felt great.  Since my next century is not for another 3 months, right now I’m going to focus on building strength and being consistent with 2-3 fairly easy base training rides/week.  I’m excited for Viva!

Tonight I’m actually going to a Snoop Dogg private concert at the Palms with a friend!!  I’m super excited, it should be fun.  Hopefully I can stay up and make it to work tomorrow morning 🙂

Happy Weekend!

Any suggestions on a reasonable point and shoot that is good with foodie shots?