Pork Loin + Mustard Peach Marinade

It's been a while since a good meaty recipe. Pork loin is back on the menu, but this time with a special sweet marinade sure to blast off your taste buds.

Gather a package or two of pork loin. These are from Sprouts.

With your favorite herbs and spices, sprinkle generously atop and underneath the pork loin, and rub 'em in.

I used onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Prepare a greased cooking pan lined with foil. 

Next, for our marinade, peach preserves were used. I suppose any kind of fruit preserve will work well, like apricot or mango. We would probably avoid jam or jelly. A nice big dab of dijon mustard completes the marinade perfectly.

Mix well, smear onto the pork loin, and sprinkle extra seasoning/herbs if desired.

Preheat oven to 400 F and roast for 40 minutes, uncovered. 

That aroma is incredible. Slice into medallions. Most likely the easiest pork you've ever prepared, right?

All finished!

Enjoy~!

Banana Blender Cheesecake

A scrumptious, not-so-heavy banana cheesecake with strawberry glaze all with a blender?
It's crazy simple and crazy good and crazy quick!

First, you will require: a blender, of course, and a greased pie pan.

Second, two or three bananas. The more ripe the bananas, the stronger and better the taste. These bananas pictured aren't exactly ideal -- you want to wait a bit longer for them to brown some.

Next, two or three eggs.

A cup of cottage cheese.

A cup of plain Greek yogurt.

A cup (more or less depending on your preferred sweet tooth) of sugar.

Half a lemon squeezed or 1/4 cup lemon juice.

Finally, have vanilla extract and honey on hand.

This is the only tricky part of the entire recipe. For amateur hands like my own, separating the egg white from yolk proved interesting and a little difficult. You'll need to ensure you get all the egg white into the blender! Gently roll the yolk from egg shell to egg shell and allow the white to drop.

Next, add the cup of yogurt and cup of cottage cheese. Peel and add bananas.

Add cup of sugar and lemon juice.

Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and 4 tablespoons of honey.

Here is your work in progress! It smells luscious and sweet.

Blend patiently, for the mixture is very thick and will need a few stirs of the spoon to smooth all the banana chunks.

Pour the cheesecake mixture into a mixing bowl. 

Add 3/4 cup flour and stir well.

Finally, pour into your pie pan and pop it into the oven, preheated to 375F. 

Bake for 35 minutes. Do the toothpick test.

The kitchen will be perfumed with a delightful banana aroma! 

Let the cheesecake cool, then refrigerate for at least an hour (but overnight is best). The flavor really intensifies the longer it sets.

Meanwhile, we need to prepare a glaze to further enhance our blender cheesecake! Frozen strawberries are perfect for a strawberry glaze! It's important to let them thaw completely first.

Blend together with 2 teaspoons of sugar to create your own syrup.

And then! The shining moment where you can wipe off all that drool! Cut yourself a hefty slice and drizzle/decorate with glaze and bananas.

Super easy and beyond tasty. All finished.

Enjoy~!

Spaghetti, Squash-style

Yet another shockingly tasty recipe substituting one thing for another!

If the last post convinced you at all that I was a potato fanatic, this is nothing compared to what I feel about pasta. I think pasta flows throughout my body instead of veins. 

I must admit the idea of spaghetti squash as spaghetti pasta passed by a good few times before I had the nerve to try it. In all honesty I cannot tell the difference. And this makes the recipe all the more exciting and healthy for your body!

This is what a spaghetti squash looks like. Easily found in any supermarket. Yellow, chunky, and happy to see you.

Preheat oven to 350F and pop your squash in for about 40 minutes.

The outside 'shell' of the squash will have softened and feel like thick rubber. Knife in half carefully because the outer layer will bend and not slice easily..

When you pry the halves open, it looks a bit like something from a science fiction movie. I inspected the insides for perhaps an hour. Very interesting strings of squash!

There will be a bunch of seeds nestled in the center. You'll have to use a fork to pull away the squash. With two forks as your weapons, fight to rid all these seeds.

Next, scrape up and loosen all the squashy strings from the walls of the outer shell.

Then it's time to make your pasta bowl!

Can you  tell the difference? You seriously cannot. Even in taste!

With a splash of your favorite pasta sauce and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese...

... it's time to settle down and dig into your spaghetti squash pasta! You'll be just as pleasantly surprised as I was after that first bite! It goes especially well with a few crunches of baked pita chips, recipe found here. 

All finished.

It's the real deal. 

Enjoy~!