Garlic and Rosemary Pork Tenderloin

I find that it is easy to get stuck in a food rut. I tend to make the same things over and over because they are easy.

I've had my eye on this recipe for awhile, and I finally made it.

I am so happy I did! It is DELICIOUS!

I got the recipe from OurBestBites

My boyfriend said "this is like the best steak I've ever had, but better".

It doesn't really make sense, but it was so good that it didn't matter :)

Here's what you will need

• 1 pork tenderloin (my pork tenderloin package had 2 inside, so I prepared one and stuck the other in the freezer)
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. chopped rosemary leaves (strip them from the woody stem first)
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. coarse mustard
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• salt & pepper

It is so easy to make!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (or whatever the pork tenderloin package tells you to do).
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Rinse pork tenderloin in cool water and trim any excess fat or the silvery membrane on the meat. Pat dry and place on the prepared baking sheet.

In a small bowl, combine olive oil, rosemary leaves, mustard, and garlic. Salt and pepper the pork tenderloin and then carefully rub the olive oil mixture all over pork roast, particularly on top. Place in heated oven and cook for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Perfect Vanilla Cupcake

I have been gluten free for about 5 years now, so I'm fairly accustomed to this lifestyle.

But, I must say, whenever other people get to eat desserts, and I don't, I get jealous.

I've made red velvet cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes, and chocolate cupcakes with great success, but I wanted just a basic vanilla cupcake.

I found what I was looking for...

Not only was this a delicious gluten free cupcake, but it might have been the best cupcake I have ever had!

Recipe from A Gluten-Free Guide

Please try it. Yall will thank me.

You'll need

• 1 package Gluten Free Pantry Old Fashioned cake mix (don't follow the directions on the package)
• 1 package Jello vanilla instant pudding
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 extra large eggs room temperature
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 3/4 C orange juice
• 1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons good vanilla extract
  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the wet ingredients in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients and beat on high speed for two minutes.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Fill liners 2/3 to ¾ of the way full.

Bake for about 18 minutes, or until the cupcakes are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.


These cupcakes are perfection.

I gave some cupcakes to 5 people (who are not on a gluten free diet) for Valentines Day and 3 of them asked for the recipe!


Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken

My friends finally convinced me to make a pinterest account!

I saw this recipe and I instantly wanted to make it because

1) I love Chinese food
2) I have a minor obsession with the slow cooker

It’s okay, we all have our quirks.

I looked at the directions, and then went off into the kitchen without checking them again. I made some mistakes, but they were delicious ones!

Here's my first pinterest recipe!

I found the recipe from Six Sisters' Stuff

This is the recipe the way I made it :)

• 2 lbs chicken cut into bite size pieces
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour (obviously, I used gluten free flour)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons of sesame oil (you can use vegetable/canola)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  
• 2 tablespoons of ketchup
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tablespoon of minced ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon (heaping) of red pepper flakes
  
• 1/2 cup of cashews
  

Combine flour and pepper in resealable food storage bag. Add chicken. Shake to coat with flour mixture. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Brown chicken about 2 minutes on each side. Place chicken in slow cooker. Combine soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes in small bowl; pour over chicken. Cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours. Add cashews and stir. Serve over rice. Makes 4-6 servings.

It was good! I'll enjoy finding more recipes off of pinterest!

Yall enjoy!

-Anita

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Recipe from Our Best Bites

Yall know me, I love any sort of Chinese food.

I actually don’t know if lettuce wraps are Chinese food, but I love them anyway!

I was craving some lettuce wraps, and found a recipe I wanted to try from Our Best Bites!

These are SO good! My mom loved them so much that I actually made them two days in a row!

Enjoy!

Note: this recipe is a bit time consuming. These will probably take 45-60 minutes to make! My advice is to be organized and gather all your ingredients before you start cooking! :)

Ingredients

· 2 tsp canola oil

· 4 cloves garlic, minced

· 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

· 1 lb ground chicken* -I used ground turkey

· 3 ounces mushrooms, finely chopped (about 8 small mushrooms)

· 1/2 tsp kosher salt

· 4 C bagged coleslaw mix or thinly shredded cabbage

· 1 8oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained, rinsed, and finely minced

· 1/2 C thinly sliced green onions

· 4 Tbs soy sauce

· 1 tsp sesame oil

· 1 lemon, zested and juiced (about 3-4 Tbs juice)

· 1/2-1 tsp sriracha or other hot sauce

· 1/3 C roughly chopped cilantro

· 1-2 heads iceberg lettuce

Here’s what you do!

*To prepare your own ground chicken, cut boneless skinless chicken breasts into large chunks and pulse in a food processor until ground.

Dipping/Drizzling Sauce

· 4

· 4 Tbs soy sauce

· 4 Tbs rice vinegar

· 3 Tbs water

· 2 tsp honey

· 1-2 tsp finely minced fresh ginger

Heat a very large skillet to medium-high heat on the stove top. When hot, add vegetable oil and then garlic and ginger. Saute for about 30 seconds, until fragrant, and then add ground chicken, chopped mushrooms, and kosher salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until chicken is cooked through. (*At this point, sometimes I have some extra liquid in the pan from the chicken. If it’s quite a bit, I tilt the pan and spoon it out so the chicken can cook and not boil.) Add cabbage/coleslaw, water chestnuts, and green onions. Cook for about 2 minutes, until cabbage starts to wilt. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, the zest from the lemon and the lemon juice, and hot sauce to taste. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

To prepare dipping sauce, combine all ingredients and whisk to combine.

To serve, carefully remove the individual leaves from the head of lettuce. (The closer you get to the center, the easier it becomes!) Place chicken mixture in the leaves and serve with sauce.

Yield: about 5 C chicken mixture. Makes 14-16 lettuce wraps.

Yall enjoy! These are delicious!

Restaurant Review: Mellow Mushroom

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to post on this blog every week. Well, I’ve already failed, but I can keep trying.

Since I’ve been pretty busy lately, and I’ve been living off of bowls of gluten free oatmeal, chex cereal, tacos, food my parents give me when I go home, and those baked taquitos I keep talking about.

But, a resolution is a resolution. And I’m going try to stick with it.

So, instead of a recipe, I’ll give you a review.

The other day, my boyfriend and I decided to go out to eat in the middle of the week (not exactly a common occurrence, considering we almost never eat out…) and we went to our favorite Thai restaurant right here in Denton, but it was closed. They were doing maintenance and had to close it down that night. They opened a Mellow Mushroom almost right next to it, and I had heard from a friend that they had gluten free pizza, so we decided to give it a try.

It was a really fun atmosphere! They seemed to have a huge beer/bar selection, but we didn’t try anything from the bar because, like I said earlier, it was in the middle of the week. Our server was nice, but his service was pretty slow. He did not seem very knowledgeable about the gluten free menu, so I was a little nervous to start eating. We ordered the vegetarian gluten free pizza.

It was really good! The crust tasted like normal pizza, and it didn’t fall apart. One thing I noticed about the pizza was that the vegetables were different on almost every slice. They need to evenly distribute the vegetables over the pizza. It didn’t bother me, but I thought it was pretty funny. :)

It was really tasty, so me and Daniel were feeling pretty good. We thought we found a new restaurant to eat at!
When we got the check, we were a little annoyed. It was around $23.00 for one medium vegetarian pizza.

And I understand, we would pay that much at another restaurant, but at least at other places we would get two entrees.
Even though it was good, I certainly do not think that pizza was worth over $20.

If you are not a poor college student, and you are allergic to gluten, I would definitely recommend the place. It was really good, but at this point in my life, I cannot order a pizza for that much money.

It was fun while it lasted Mellow Mushroom, unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be coming back any time soon.