Stuffed Pork Tenderloin Dinner (3 Recipes!)

Since this Friday was a holiday, I thought we could up the ante and do a fancier dinner. Sort of our own Easter dinner to ourselves. We've had a pork tenderloin in our freezer for a month or so and I decided this would be a great time to use that. Stuffed pork tenderloin is usually my go to, and today was no different. I wasn't feeling quite ambitious enough to make stuffing from scratch so we bought a "Stovetop" box. Totally ok! We had an abundance of carrots in our fridge from my random decision to start Juicing this week and roasted Cauliflower is always a good side and goes with pretty much everything. I like to use one or two spices that are the same in each dish to tie it all together. The bonus with this dish is that you can cook everything together in the oven at one temperature for the same length of time.

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

1 pound Pork Tenderloin, (1 or 2 pieces)
2 Cups (one box) prepared stuffing
1 Tbsp butter - Melted
1 Tbsp olive oil
Fresh or dried Thyme Leaves
Dried Onion Flakes
Salt
Pepper
Garlic clove - Grated
1 Tbsp Roasted Red Pepper (I used Epicures dried)

Roasted Carrots

10 - 14 carrots peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 Tbsp butter - Melted
1 Tbsp oil
Fresh or dried Thyme Leaves
Dried Onion Flakes
Salt
Pepper
Garlic clove - Grated

Roasted Cauliflower

See Recipe here

I left out the cheese and chickpeas this time.

Directions:

Pork - Preheat oven to 425 º

First, you have to open your pork up to pound it out a bit thinner. Do do this you slice it length wise down the middle until almost through, about 1/4 inch left. Then, slice each half length wise down the middle leaving the same amount of space till the bottom. Cover with saran and pound out with a meat mallet until about 1/4 inch thick. If you have two pieces, do this to both. Having 2 makes it a little easier to wrap up because its more of a sandwich than a jelly roll.

Mix last 8 ingredients under pork together. Brush onto inside of the pork. Leave a bit for the top.

Season inside of pork with salt and pepper if desired on top of butter mixture.

Spoon stuffing onto one side of pork spreading to about 1/2 inch away from edge of meat, you can pile it up.

Layer other piece of pork, inside down, on top of the stuffing. Tie together with kitchen twine or use toothpicks. If you have one piece of pork you will roll up like a jelly roll and secure together.

Place in roasting dish, (wait to put in oven with vegetables) cook in preheated on bottom rack for 15-20 minutes and place on top rack for last 5-10 minutes of cooking. Temperature should register 160º.

Let sit for about 10 minutes before slicing. Serves 2-6 depending on loin size.

Carrots

Mix all ingredients together in a dish, coating carrots. Spread on baking sheet with cauliflower and roast on top rack of oven for 20 minutes, switching with pork for last 10 minutes.

Bacon Jalapeno Deviled Eggs

This was my very first pin on my "Appies" board on Pinterest, it's been a long time coming! I finally got the chance to make these for our Easter dinner appetizer. I have to say I'm pretty impressed with how they turned out. I changed the recipe a bit to fit what I had around the kitchen, but not too much. The hardest part about these is peeling those eggs. Any tips would be much appreciated. If you want to pipe the filling in with a star tip (like I tried to do) you're going to want to really crumble that bacon or it will get stuck in your star tip and you will have to jab it out dangerously with a knife. Otherwise a zip-lock bag will work just fine (I switched). I put this recipe into a calorie counter (just to see!) and they're about 75 Calories/half. You can certainly knock that down with less bacon, but why? Its Easter!

Bacon Jalapeno Deviled Eggs
(Adapted from here)

Ingredients:

12 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
1 dash rice vinegar
3/4 cup light Miracle Whip
1 Tbsp Bacon Mustard (Or Dijon)
2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped fine
6 pieces bacon, crispy and chopped or crumbled
paprika for topping

Directions:

Cut the peeled eggs in half, lengthwise

Scoop out the yolks and place in mixing bowl

Mash the egg yolks till crumbly with a fork

Add the miracle whip, vinegar and mustard to the mashed egg yolks and stir until well combined, add more mustard if the mixture needs to be looser.

Mix in 3/4 of the jalapenos and bacon, setting aside 1/4 of each for topping.

Put the mixture in a zip-lock bag and cut a small part of the corner off of the bag

Fill each egg hole with the mixture

Sprinkle with paprika and remaining bacon and jalapenos

Chill until ready to serve

Bacon and Potato Frittata

My mom bought me a new piece of Le Crueset to add to my collection for Easter, a tarte pan! I wanted to try it out with a baked frittata for Easter Brunch. This was a recipe I pinned pretty recently, it has a lot of good for you ingredients to fill you up first thing in the morning or into the afternoon. It was a bit heavy in preparation though, so I would recommend precooking the bacon and potatoes or at least having everything cut up and ready to go if you want it early. It took a little over an hour from start to finish. It turned out great, especially for the first frittata I've ever made. It served 4 nicely but could probably be stretched to 6.

Bacon & Potato Frittata
(Adapted slightly from here)

Ingredients:

8 large eggs
4-5 leaves chopped fresh basil
3+ Tbsp grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 slices bacon, chopped
4 medium potatoes peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 small shallot, chopped fine
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1 - 2 handfuls chopped Spinach
1/4 cup Roasted Red peppers (if desired)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º

Whisk together first 3 ingredients in  large bowl, salt and pepper to your taste levels. I would say a heavy pinch or two.

Cook bacon over medium heat, stirring, until crisp. Transfer bacon to a separate dish and pour off most, leaving 1 Tbsp or so of fat in the pan.

Add potatoes to hot pan and fry over medium-high heat until golden, about 5-7 minutes, stirring. In last 3 minutes, add the chopped onion and garlic to the pan stirring in. In last minute, add the spinach to wilt slightly.

Place all ingredients in tarte pan, covering with the egg mixture. Salt and pepper the top.

Place in preheated over for 20 - 25 minutes, depending on dish size.

Cut and serve in wedges.