Healthy Family Lunch

In my quest to be more French, I have been making a big Sunday lunch so, as a family, we can eat leisurely, spend time together, have fuller bellies, and then enjoy a small dinner later on.  However, Sundays are the earliest day of the week for me as I need to prep my Sunday school classroom and have choir practice all before our 8:30 am church service.  That means if I want to have a nice lunch prepared, I need to pull out my trusty crock pot.  This past Sunday I made Apple-Cranberry Pork Roast that I adapted from my new favorite cookbook, Fix it and Forget it:  Big Cookbook.  I threw everything in the crock pot at 6:30 am, right before I ate breakfast, and it was ready to go for lunch at 12:30 pm!  Right before serving, I quickly sauteed some spinach and garlic for a healthy side dish.  I am sending this recipe over to Michelle at What's Cooking for her Healthy Family Dinners which is the January theme for Monthly Mingle.  Isn't the picture pretty too?  Another one of my hubby's.  Enjoy!

Apple-Cranberry Pork Roast with Homemade Apple-Cranberry Sauce by Joie de vivre.  Adapted from Fix it and Forget it:  Big Cookbook

Ingredients:

2 lbs. pork tenderloin

2 Tbls. olive oil

3 c. low sugar apple juice

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped, or just chopped if you like a more rustic applesauce with the peels

1 c. frozen cranberries

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

Directions:

1.  Heat a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the olive oil and brown the pork tenderloin on all sides.

2.  Add the pork tenderloin to the insert of a 4-5 quart crock pot.  Add all the other ingredients.

3.  Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours.

4.  Remove pork tenderloin and let rest 5 minutes on a cutting board before cutting.

5.  Remove apples and cranberries to a bowl with a slotted spoon.

6.  Mash apples and cranberries adding liquid from the crock pot as necessary to achieve desired consistency.

7.  Serve apple-cranberry sauce alongside sliced pork.

Sauteed Spinach with Garlic by Joie de vivre

Ingredients:

10 oz. spinach, washed and dried

1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1-2 Tbls. olive oil

balsamic vinegar.

Directions:

1.  Heat a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add olive oil and saute garlic for about 30 seconds. 

2.  Add the spinach and stir with tongs until completely covered with oil.  Cover the pot for 2-3 minutes to let the spinach wilt.

3.  Remove the spinach and sprinkle lightly with balsamic vinegar.

Green-Tomato Mincemeat, The Recipe!

After my previous post, a few of you asked what mincemeat was, and a couple of you asked for the recipe.  I was answering these questions one by one, but it may be easier to just post the recipe.  Thank you all for reading my blog and for asking those questions!  

Mincemeat originally was a combination of meat, fruit, and spices (hence the name) but has morphed into a sweeter creation minus the meat.  Some recipes still contain meat or suet, but most don't anymore.  It often has apples, raisins, currents and sometimes nuts, combined with spices.  The resulting mixture is sweet and gooey with lots of spice and texture.  My recipe is modified from my favorite canning cookbook Blue Ribbon Preserves by Linda J. Amendt.  This cookbook is on my counter continuously from June through September as it is just jam packed with great (and safe) recipes for canning produce.

Green-Tomato Mincemeat adapted from Blue Ribbon Preserves by Linda J. Amendt

Makes about 5 quart jars

Ingredients:

8 cups chopped green tomatoes

1 Tbls. salt

4 cups boiling water

10 cups tart green apples, chopped

4 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed

2 cups raisins

2 cups currants

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

3 Tbls. orange zest, finely chopped

1 Tbls. lemon zest, finely chopped

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground allspice

2 Tbls. unsalted butter

1.  Place tomatoes in a bowl and sprinkle with the salt.  Let stand for 1 hour to draw excess moisture out of them.  Rinse and drain well.  Pour boiling water over tomatoes and let stand for 5 minutes.  Drain well.

2.  In an 8-10 quart pan, combine the drained tomatoes and all of the remaining ingredients in the order listed except for the butter, stirring gently after each addition.

3.  Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.  Reduce the heat and simmer until the apples are tender when pierced.  Stir frequently to prevent sticking.  Stir in the butter.  Remove the pan from the heat.

4.  Ladle the mincemeat into hot and sterilized jars.  Remove as many air bubbles as possible.  Leave 1/2 inch head space.  Wipe the jar rims and threads with a clean, damp cloth.  Cover with hot and sterilized lids and apply screw rings.  Process quart jars in a 200F water bath for 30 minutes.

Mincemeat Pie

Last night, we had dinner over at my in-laws so I got a night off from cooking!  My mother in law went all out with a lamb roast, mashed potatoes and lamb gravy, and homemade muffins.  I supplied the dessert.  Last summer, when apples were in season and the last of the tomatoes were hanging green on the vine, I canned some green tomato mincemeat for use in future pies.  It came in handy last night.  After church, I bought a refrigerated pie crust (I know, the shame right?), laid out the bottom crust in the pie pan, scalloped the edges and pricked it all over.  Then, I added the jar of green tomato mincemeat.  For the top crust, I found a smallish cookie cutter (I could only find my little man cookie cutter), cut the top crust into the shapes and laid them over the filling.  To get the shapes to stick together, I gently wet the bottom of the pieces before laying them on top of the other pieces.  This was super easy to do, only took a little extra time, and really upped the wow factor of the pie.