Pork, Pasta, and Pesto, oh my!

A little later on I started making one of my favorite recipes. I was going to use white beans in the reduction, as mentioned before, but then I realised I only had kidney beans so I decided on them instead. I made my pork meatballs out of fresh and dried herbs, garlic, and lean pork tenderloin. Of course I wanted to use tenderloin instead of fattier pork sausage, but I still wanted “meatballs”, so I used my mini-food chopper to give it a nice grind. Alongside I also had some of my fresh homemade pesto (made with basil from my AeroGarden) tossed with some whole wheat penne pasta. I would usually use linguine, but then I got to thinking about how penne rigate has nice ridges and pockets to help the pesto adhere. I think I liked the switch of pasta shapes – it really worked with this recipe. Sadly, my pictures are nothing to brag about. I’ll try to get them in better lighting next time.

The Pork...

And the Pasta...

 

Well nonetheless, here’s the recipe so you can try it yourself at home! It’s taste will redeem it from these crappy snapshots.

Pork Meatballs with White Bean Reduction and Pesto Pasta

First things first, you will need to make the pesto. This is probobly one of the easiest parts. Just get out your food processor and go!

• 1 cup packed fresh chopped basil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 tsp ground sea salt or kosher salt
• 1/2 oz. parmesean cheese (use a good quality one here)
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 oz. walnuts (or pinenuts)

Just chop that all up together, beginning with the nuts and garlic, and ending with the basil and oil of course. You can add more EVOO if you like your pesto to be thinner, alhough I usually thin it out in the end with a little of the leftover pasta cooking water. This makes about four tablespoons, which will feed 4-6 people. I usually make 1-2 oz. (dry-weight) of pasta for each person, so you can decide on that depending on how many servings you are making for dinner.

Now for the pork…

• 1 lb. lean, trimmed pork tenderloin
• 2 tsp fresh herbs (your choice)
• 1 tsp salt-free Italian seasoning (I like Mrs. Dash’s Italian)
• 1/2 oz. parmesean cheese (optional)
• 1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs (I use stale, crumbled Ezekiel bread)
• sea salt and black pepper to taste (don’t taste the raw meat! Hahah.)

For the sauce…

• 2 cups cooked white beans
• 1 cup diced, not-salt-added tomatoes
• 1 cup garlic pasta sauce (I like Classico)

Just combine all the meatball ingredients in your handy dandy food processor or chopper until the pork looks like ground beef and the herbs are well incorporated. Then, in a deep nonstick skillet or sauce pan, brown the meatballs slightly on both sides. Then add in the beans, tomatoes, and sauce and simmer covered over medium-low heat for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat and serve hot with fresh Italian bread or the pesto pasta! This recipe makes about four servings at about 430 calories each. I usually have a side salad and some green beans or peas on the side as well. Gotta have my greens!

I really do hope you can all try this sometime soon. The pictures DO NOT do this recipe justice, so please don’t let that stop you.

 

A little snackage…

As promised, I’m back for dinner with a new recipe and photos. The latter didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped, but at least the food TASTED good. It’s what’s on the inside that counts.

Around 3:30 I had a snack consisting of a few of my favorite things…

And an Ezekiel pita bread! I toasted it of course.

Just as a word of warning – I have a LaraBar everyday so get ready for em’! Luckilly I have a Whole Foods, Fresh Market, and lots of other retailers nearby that sell them, so I have every single flavor availible to me anytime! Eventually I will get around to posting reviews and photos for each of them – I guess Cashew Cookie will be the first!

My own little “PB & Co.”

I suppose this would be my first “real” post, other than my previous introduction earlier today. I was feeling nutty this afternoon and unfortunatley, I also realised that I’m now out of almond butter for my afternoon snack. I know a lot of you guys swear by Barney Butter, but I’ve yet to try it. I just can’t seem to find it here in the midwest, although my local Fresh Market said that they’d be carrying it within the next month! I’ll definatley try some to see what all the hubba is about.

Anyway, getting off topic here. So – I decided to make a DIFFERENT nut butter. A homemade one at that. I have had this package of raw shelled peanuts for a few months now in the back of my pantry and well, they were just begging to be eaten and turned into something delicious. What did I do with the little buggers? Peanut butter of course!

Just pre-heat the oven to 350.

Then place your raw peanuts on a parchment-lined jelly-roll pan…

And bake em’ for about 20-25 minutes, stirring every few minutes.

You don’t need much to make PB perfect – maybe just a little salt and peanut oil. I used a food processor for quick working.

And they’re ready!

After about 30 seconds they turn into a “peanut meal” like this.

And then after (quite a few) minutes of blending and pulsing, you should end up with something like this. I didn’t end up needing the oil since they were already oily enough on their own.

And enjoy!

 

Ah… sometimes the best things in life are the simple ones. I may end up adding in some whole roasted peanuts to make it “chunky-style”, or I may even add some raisins and cinnamon a la’ PB & Co. Possibilites are endless when you DIY with nut butters. You can either add oil and salt, or have them be pure and plain… and of course a little honey makes everything better. And since they aren’t packed with additives and lots of sugars, you can use them to make peanut sauces for Asian stir-fries or pad Thai. Expect to see something like that later this week!

Coming up for dinner – herbed pork meatballs in a tomato and white bean reduction served with whole wheat linguine with homemade walnut pesto (felt the urge to make some up since I had a boatload of basil and the food pro’ was out). To quote Veggie Girl, HOLY YUM. I am really looking forward to this dinner. Hope you can join me!

Finally, My First Post!

Welcome one and all to my long-awaited food blog, Foodie on a Mission. I have been waiting and waiting to start a blog for nearly a year now and have just never gotten around to doing it. I’ve been reading several others to get a good idea of how I want mine to be, and I’ve taken the time to plan out how I’d like to do my daily posts. My camera has been getting a little more exercise recently too, so hopefully my photography won’t be too embarrassing. That’s right – there will be pictures, and with luck, lots of them! I am very excited to become a part of the blogging community and I hope that I can both learn from and teach my fellow bloggers some new recipes and techniques. I’ll admit, I’m an amateurat this, but I’ll try my best to make the blog as helpful and interesting as I can.

I want my blog to be dedicated to living a healthy lifestyle and forming a healthy relationship with food as much as possible. I may be only fourteen, but I hope that maybe even I, at a young age, can inspire and educate other teens my age to make the right choices in what they put in their mouths, and their minds. As a teen with a former eating disorder, I know what it’s like to go through the emotional and physical stress that such illnesses can cause, and now I feel that I should do my best to keep other teens off the same road that I stumbled on to.

Of course, that’s not the main reason I’m blogging. I simply LOVE to cook! Along with that also comes the burden of loving to SHOP though, and with the economy in its current state, and our family budget, I can’t always source out the most “gourmet” ingredients. With that in mind, I’ll also try to share some money-saving tips and “frugal foodie” recipes for when you’re eating on the cheap. I look forward to hearing from everyone, and I’ll try to have a nice “real” first post up by later today.

I’m a Foodie on a Mission and these are my goals.

((Note: my “About Me” page, as well as my “Favorites” and “Recipes” are currently under construction. Check back later for the finished work!))