Our son Kevin has come a long way in the last 16 months.  He was just over 120 pounds as a tall 15 year old last summer, even though we cook and serve great meals almost every night.  With all the talk in our house about obesity and diabetes (both run in Russ' family), he looked around, and restricted his calories as a result.

Fortunately this began to change as we worked with him to understand that food is fuel, and was completely resolved when he became an athlete as a rower for his High School's Crew Team.  He both enjoys it and burns a huge amount of calories, which has dramatically increased his appetite.  It is not unusual for him to walk in from crew and eat a small meal just before dinner, and then a full dinner.  He eats a huge breakfast, and packs his lunchbox full of lunch and a pre-crew snack.

On top of this, he's eating a lot of healthy snacks at home (trail mix, nuts, fruit, and healthy home baked cookies).  We rely on the Meal Planner to keep all this food on hand and ready.  Having two teen age boys in the house means that we go through a lot of groceries, and planning in advance keeps us on budget and fully prepared.

Today I’d like to discuss a sticky situation.  You know how sometimes you go to parties or potlucks and just know that for one reason or another there’s really nothing you’ll be able to eat?   The easiest thing to do is offer bring something:  “I’ve got a new recipe that’d I’d love to bring because it makes more than I can eat myself.”   White lies are totally permissible. 

Last weekend I tested 3 salad recipes on my extended family, here they are in all their glory:

The first recipe was  Corn, Black Bean and Red Pepper Salad, this is a really flavorful recipe that is great on day one and excellent on day 2.  I wanted to make it heartier, so I added 1 cup of cooked quinoa (I made 3 cups, but that’s another post), and just increased the vinegar and oil slightly.   I usually add more cumin, because we like the taste.

The next salad was Mediterranean Orzo Asparagus Salad.  This one didn’t get too changed except for instead of orzo I skipped the cucumber, used Barilla Plus Penne, and, I’m not ashamed to admit it, a package of Trader Joe frozen asparagus; the whole package, because I like asparagus.   Also switched the mint for tarragon, because it was giving me a strong French vibe.

Totally new to me was Brown Rice Edamame Salad.  I used 2 packages of Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice.   I have to tell you – if you only eat brown rice once in a while this is the way to go -  I plan on keeping a box in the freezer.  The corn and edamame also came from TJ’s.  I did not put in the walnuts and celery, because in my head it just didn't work.  This salad is best at or slightly below room temperature (but I bet it would be good hot as a side dish with butter instead of the dressing), so that the dressing has a chance to really get everywhere.  Also, it needed salt; I’m stingy with the salt.

All of these salads are dressed with oil and vinegar (I ran out of red wine vinegar and used apple cider and it did not make a difference).  But there really was not a strong vinegar flavor to them.  We ate them over the course of a long weekend and they did not lose their freshness.

If you need to bring a dish to pass, one of these is sure to please, add them to your meal plan!

Because I was suffering from a less than stellar blueberry pie experience, dinner had to be something good.  I had  pork tenderloin, a container of crimini mushrooms, and a head of cauliflower in the ‘fridge.  There are collards in the garden.  Almost exactly the ingredients for Mushroom Spinach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin. 

This is a somewhat involved recipe, because you need to flatten out the tenderloin, which can be a bit tricky, make the filling, brown the rolls, and then finish cooking.  Not something one would typically do on any given weeknight after a busy day, unless, of course, cooking makes you happy.

Collards are part of the cabbage family, really they are a non-head type cabbage.  I picked a good number of them, some sage, and some sorrel.  Sorrel is new to our garden, it has a tart, lemony flavor.  There are warnings about the oxalic acid content, and it not being good for certain people, but it’s not something I would cook in a large quantity like spinach, so no worries.   I sautéed some onion and the  mushrooms, and tossed in the (chopped) greens:

I spread half on each piece of pork, and rolled.  If this meal was being served to company, I would use some twine to keep the rolls round and tight.  It was not being served to company.  I put some olive oil in the same pan, and put in the pork, seam side down.  Browning meat is like playing chicken.  You have to be willing to leave it alone for 3-4 minutes, no matter what.  That includes oil spattering on the burner and setting off the smoke detectors, which, IMHO, distracts you just long enough...   Once everything was looking good, I put the rolls  in a baking pan and popped them in a 400 degree oven to finish cooking along with some roasted cauliflower.

Since I had time, I could have made the sherry cream sauce that goes with the recipe.  I did not feel moved to chop shallots.  Instead, I deglazed the pan with white wine, added some chicken broth, thickened it with Wondra, and seasoned with salt and pepper.  A pat of butter at the end made it silky.  The sherry cream sauce is very good, but I wanted something a bit sharper to echo the sorrel. 

The men folk were happy.  Brian, because  he loves roasted cauliflower, and husband/farmer because so many ingredients came right from his garden.  Me because it distracted me from the pie.   Also because I only had one pan to wash.   Hopefully it goes without saying that it was darn tasty!

Add Mushroom Spinach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin to your meal plan if you need a special meal.  If you’re very very lucky like I was your kids won’t even care that they’re eating…gasp…green vegetables!!!