Thanks for all the comments! What a great way to start!
This morning I went shopping to buy food for my personal chef client as well as to pick up a few things for us. I spent $11.47 on us. I'll write more about that in another entry.
I highly recommend lean cuts of pork as a healthy, inexpensive alternative to chicken. Today I bought a boneless pork sirloin roast weighing ~ 3 pounds for $2.20 / pound for my clients... and it wasn't even on sale! A four oz. serving has just 2 grams of fat-- better than chicken and in my opinion, far more flavorful and moist.
Apples and sweet potatoes are also inexpensive this time of year (not to mention that they taste great now since they are actually fresh). Sweet potatoes, or more correctly yams, were just $0.44 / pound-- how can you beat that? Here's a recipe incorporating all three:
* 1 boneless pork sirloin loin roast, 3 to 4 pounds, fat trimmed
* 1/3 cup honey
* 1/4 cup orange juice
* 1/4 cup frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed
* 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon brown sugar, packed
* 3 large sweet potatoes, quartered
* 2 large apples, cored and quartered
PREPARATION:
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Coat a large ovenproof Dutch oven with cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. When very hot, add the pork roast. Cook, turning, until all sides are browned, about 6 minutes.
In a medium bowl, combine the honey, orange juice, apple juice concentrate, pepper, and brown sugar. Spoon over the pork roast. Place the sweet potatoes around the pork. Cover and bake for ~45 minutes. Add apples. Cook until meat thermometer registers 160 °.
Let the pork stand for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve pork roast sliced, with the sweet potatoes and apples.
If you're not using a meat thermometer I highly recommend starting!! You can buy a digital thermometer for under $10, and for ~$12 you can buy one that has a digital display that stays outside your oven. Aside from all the food safety reasons, your food will be saved from getting overcooked. I find that the cooking times listed in recipes are often inaccurate.
Pork-- the other white meat
November 11th, 2006 at 09:32 pm
November 11th, 2006 at 10:38 pm 1163284699
November 11th, 2006 at 10:47 pm 1163285228
November 12th, 2006 at 01:55 pm 1163339715
Now, am I reading this correctly that you have a personal chef? I'm jealous.
November 12th, 2006 at 02:47 pm 1163342869
November 13th, 2006 at 05:07 am 1163394467