Sweet & Sour Pork

Chinese food is a "red light" food for me, meaning, if I start eating it, I won't stop. Deep fried meat covered in sweet, garlicky sauce? Pork fat and meat mingling with ginger and garlic, wrapped in pasta dough and pan-fried? Who would not eat a great potsticker put in front of them? Even green beans can be deep fried and still appear to look healthy.

On a completely different note, I'm about a pound or so away from hitting forty pounds lost. I'd gotten really close 10 days ago, then gained a bit (.8 lbs). Today I got on the scale to find I've gone up even more...so I need to get my nose back to the grindstone.

So why on earth would I make sweet & sour pork for dinner? Oh so many reasons. Because pork is a nice, sweet meat. Because I could. Because I wanted to take something really bad, and make it good. And I did.

Angelic Sweet & Sour Pork

2.5 lbs Pork Top Loin Roast, trimmed of fat
4 large red bell peppers (substitute up to one yellow or green)
1 large yellow onion
20-oz can pineapple chunks in sweetened juice
4 scallions, sliced in 1" pieces
Garlic powder
Dried ginger
Soy sauce
cider vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp ketchup
Red pepper flakes

Heat oven to 325; season pork with salt & pepper, cook in roasting pan, dry (no liquids, lid, etc), about 25 minutes a pound, until meat thermometer is about 143. Allow meat to rest, at which time thermometer will rise to 150-160 degrees.

While meat roasts, chop peppers and onions into large chunks. Heat pan on medium-high, add 2 tsps canola oil. When hot, add the onions. Stir fry until fragrant and still crisp. Remove (adding to roast pan is fine); add peppers to pan and stir fry, keeping crisp. Add a generous dash of garlic and ginger powders, and a liberal shake of soy sauce. Remove the peppers to the same pan as the onions. Add approximately three tablespoons of cider vinegar to pan, ketchup, sugar, and chili flakes, heat to boiling. Remove from heat, add pineapple with juices. Heat through. Add scallions.

Adjust sauce seasonings to taste, and salt onions & peppers. Toss with pineapple. Slice pork into generous slices (no wimpy thin pieces!) and serve.

Goes well with brown rice or quinoa.

Eating for life

Fall is finally here. I'm wearing a fleece jacket and am thinking the Baby needs to put on his sweater. Today I'll take him to the playground and I'll think that if I were on the East Coast, the leaves would be starting to change. Here by noon it will be in the 80s and blindingly sunny. Am I complaining? No, just procrastinating.

I need to make a meal plan for the week. One that Juiceboy can make some of the dinners, and not one where we will resport to going to Subway every night to avoid. Real food, healthy, easy to make. And I've got writer's block. Cook's block.

I look at all the recipes I've tried here over the past few years. No wonder I got to be the size I am. My eating habits were horrendous. In the past for Sunday brunch I'd have made a huge calorie-laden dish, like chilaquiles, and had two servings. Today, I had 27gm of Crunchy corn bran with 1% milk and 67 gm of strawberries. I know the weight only because I don't trust my eye in determining what an appropriate portion is.

I've lost 33.8 pounds total. I'm 28% to my goal--so I'm obviously in this for the long haul.

So--look for some changes in the future. I'm going to reorganize the blog to include the old, really successful recipes (I get hundreds of people every week just here for the into on how to make cream cheese wontons), but it's going to now focus on light, fresh, healthy foods. Organic whenever possible, and as seasonal as I can get.