And a Quick 'Asian' Inspired Dinner Too

I’m all about spring cleaning these days, so I am determined to work through the ingredients I have in my pantry…plus the random assortment I amassed during yesterday’s grocery shopping trip. I don’t have much time to cook dinner during the week. I tend to assemble dinner while I am giving my children a snack, and then pop it in the oven while we play before dinner (or they play and I squeeze in a workout, some emailing, and a phone call if I am lucky). This afternoon, I assembled dinner in less that 30 minutes again and it’s cooling down for the boys. It smells amazing. This time dinner has a little more Asian/SE Asian influence (all ingredients from Trader Joe’s for anyone who would like to try it at home):

Pork tenderloin + TJ’s Peanut Sauce: seared the pork tenderloin in a bit of olive oil, then transferred it to a roasting pan and coated it in peanut sauce; roasted at 375 until it reached an internal temp of 160 degrees. If you wanted to dress it up, you could sprinkle some chopped peanuts and cilantro over the top to make it look pretty...

For one veggie, I tossed a bag of organic baby carrots + a little olive oil (would be great with sesame oil too, but my husband isn’t a fan of sesame) + a drizzle of honey + some grated ginger + kosher salt + pepper and roasted the carrots in the same 375 degree oven until they were crisp tender. If you were using sesame oil, and wanted to be fancy, you could shake some black sesame seeds over the top before roasting them. That would be pretty….

There’s really nothing ‘Asian” about the other veggie side, but everyone likes it and I had all the ingredients on hand: 1 bag organic frozen spinach (thawed) + hearty scoop of organic whipped cream cheese + a splash of half & half + small handful of shredded Parm + lemon zest. Combine all of the above in a saucepan and heat on low until melted/combined.

And pictured above, I combined 1 bag of TJ’s brown rice (from the freezer section, heated according to pkg) + with diced mango + fresh mint + a splash of rice vinegar + kosher salt + pepper.

Have to run because we’re going to sit down to an early dinner. Early dinner + early bath + early bed = relaxing evening for you-know-who.