Apricot and Mustard- Glazed Pork Roast

This one sounds amazing, looks beautiful and tastes great! A great meal to knock the socks off of anyone....and very easy to put together.

Source: Weight Watchers Momentum Cookbook

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbl chopped fresh rosemary or 1 tsp dried

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 (1 1/4 lb) boneless center-cut pork loin roast, trimmed

2 Tbl apricot jam

2 Tbl Dijon mustard

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Lightly spray a roasting pan with nonstick spray.

2. Stir together the garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the mixture over the pork. Place the pork in the prepared pan and roast for 30 minutes.

3. Stir together the jam and mustard in a small bowl and brush all over the pork. Continue to roast the pork until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center registers 160 for medium, about 10 minutes longer. Transfer to a cutting board and let stand 10 minutes. Cut the roast into slices.

Note- I didn't use a thermometer but cooked mine for a little bit longer. It wasn't dry...just needed a bit more time. If you have a digital thermometer that you can leave in the roast, I would suggest one of those vs. a thermometer you keep sticking the poor little piece of meat with. You can also add some some sliced potatoes. Just toss them with the same garlic-rosemary mixture.

I also had leftovers and ate them cold...VERY YUMMY!!

Honey-Mustard Pork Chops

Every once in a while, it’s good to vary protein choices and get out of the chicken rut. Pork chops are a good alternative and this recipe is a quick and easy one and the majority of the ingredients will probably be in your pantry already!

Source: Weight Watchers Jan/Feb 2011 Magazine

Ingredients: serves 4, 4 points plus
¼ c Dijon mustard
4 tsp honey
1 tsp apple-cider or white-wine vinegar
¼ tsp black pepper
4 (5 oz) bone-in loin pork chops, about 1 inch thick

1. To make marinade, whisk mustard, honey, vinegar and pepper in a cup.
2. Transfer marinade to a large zip-close plastic bag; add pork. Squeeze out air and seal. Turn to coat and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.
3. Spray broiler rack with nonstick spray. Preheat broiler.
4. Remove chops from bag and discard marinade. Place chops on broiler rack and broil 5 inches from heat until browned and cooked through, about 6 minutes per side.

Serve alongside a nice steamed vegetable or side salad and maybe add a small baked potato or some wild rice.

*As you can see, I did not use bone in chops and mine weren’t an inch thick either…feel free to use what you have. Still turned out great and required less cooking time. And next time (when the weather warms up) I will probably throw these on the grill for those pretty grill marks.

*If you don’t have either one of these vinegars, I would suggest buying apple-cider. I think is it used more often than white-wine.

Gingered Pork Skewers

This was truly an all around wonderful meal.

Here we go!

Source: Weight Watchers

Ingredients: serves 4, 5 pts each
2 T low-sodium soy sauce
1 t ginger root, freshly grated *see note below
1/2 t mined garlic
1 1/2 cups canned unsweetened pineapple chunks or 16 fresh chunks
8 oz lean pork tenderloin, cut into 16 chunks
1 med sweet red pepper, cut into 16 chunks
3 cups cooked while wheat couscous
1/4 cup scallions, sliced

-In a Ziploc, combine soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Finely chop 2 pineapple chunks and add to bag. Add pork, seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.
-Preheat outdoor grill or broiler. If using broiler, line broiler pan rack with foil for easy clean up.
-Alternately thread 2 pieces of pork, 2 pieces of pepper and 2 pieces of pineapple onto each skewer. If you are using wood skewers, make sure you have soaked them in water for a min. of 20 minutes.
-Grill or broil skewers, turning once, until pork is just barely pink in center and pepper and pineapple are lightly charred and tender, about 6-8 minutes (depending on how thick your pork chunks are). Remove from heat. Combine couscous with scallions.

We absolutely loved this dish. We don't care for couscous so we had wild rice instead (points value will change). Also served with grilled okra. Grilling okra was a first (thanks Zane) and we will never fry again. So yummy, easy and healthy!

*Ginger root. A wonderful ingredient to so many things Asian. Found on the produce aisle normally on the top shelf. It normally has all these weird nobs on the sides. It's perfectly acceptable to break off a piece of the entire root they are trying to sell you. To prepare....peel the skin and grate the root. If you have a micro plane, use that. If not, use the smallest cheese grater you have.