Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Meal Swap - Pork Tenderloin with Pears

For the last meal swap I made Pork Tenderloin with Pears for the crockpot. This is a yummy, easy meal and I love cooking with pears!

Here are the ingredients:
4 - 1" thick slices of pork tenderloin (about 1#)
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 15-oz can pears with syrup
2 t. minced garlic
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup balsalmic vinegar
1 T. olive oil
1 t. thyme
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. ginger
1 t. salt
1 t. black pepper

DD1 was a big helper with this meal. We made seven portions and she divided our Costco-sized can of pears equally into seven bowls.

I put the meat into ziploc bags, then we added the pears, onions, and other ingredients to the bags.

The finished product, marinating in yummy pear juice and basalmic vinegar marinade.

The cost breakdown is a little hard to figure this time because so much time as passed since I purchased the ingredients (pre-baby) and the large amount of spices, so these are complete estimates:
Pork Loin - $1.99/lb ~ over 7 lbs = $15.00
Pears - $6ish for Costco can = $6.00
Basalmic Vinegar - $4.00
7 onions - $3.00
2 cups dried cranberries - $3.00 (bought in bulk $2.25/lb)
Various spices - $1.00?
Total Cost = $32.00 Each meal = $4.50ish
This dish can be cooked in the crockpot for 4-6 hours on low heat or it can be baked covered in a 325 oven for about 2 hours.
Katie



4 comments:

  1. What about the wine? I rarely cook with it since even cheap wine ends up costing me 6 bucks or so. And I never end up "using" it all, as DH always drinks it :)

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  2. Oh, I forgot about the wine! It was about $4 at Top Foods with a coupon, so another $.70 per meal.

    Kracinda, I'd just substitute white grape juice (or diluted apple juice in a pinch) and I'm sure it'll still be yummy. My DH doesn't drink wine so if I didn't use it for cooking we'd probably have that bottle going rancid in the fridge door.

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  3. Often, chicken broth is a fine substitute for white wine in recipes.
    Have you ever heard of "Two Buck Chuck"? It's Trader Joe's Charles Shaw brand, which is a very decent wine at $2 a bottle! A friend served it at a wedding even :)

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So, what do you think?