Pork Tenderloin And Road Rash

Tonight I tried a new recipe (SUCCESS!) and tonight Big A tried riding too fast down the sloped gravel driveway (UNSUCCESSFULLY!).

Part of our new living arrangement is that I do the meal planning, shopping and prep. I don't mind it at all... A small price to pay for what I get in return! The challenge comes in thinking of what to have for dinner and keeping it 'changed up'. I tend to find a recipe that I like then make it over and over until I'm sick of it. No bueno!

So I've been trying hard to come up with different ideas and I've been using the crock pot quite a bit so that I can prepare the meal the night before and my mom can turn the crock pot on the next day. It's a pretty good system when I can keep up!

Yesterday I was searching online for crock pot recipes for pork tenderloin. I'd found one on Pinterest for a balsamic glazed pork tenderloin, but since I had no balsamic vinegar (and was too busy to make a second trip to the store this week) I decided to look for something else. My search let me to Paula Deen's recipe for Slow Cooker Apricot Glazed Pork Tenderloin, a recipe for which I had all of the ingredients at home (or so I thought).


Ingredients:

1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin
2 cups baby carrots
1 medium red onion, thickly sliced
1 cup chicken stock
1 (18 ounce) jar apricot preserves
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper

 

 

Directions:

Line the bottom of a slow cooker with carrots and onions. Season pork tenderloin liberally with salt and pepper and place over carrots and onion slices. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together stock, preserves, mustard and thyme leaves. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour glaze mixture over tenderloin. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, or until tender.

 

 

Turns out that I didn't have a full 18 ounces of apricot preserves but I substituted with a heaping serving spoon full of low sugar orange marmalade. I also didn't use any onion.

Talk about tender! I couldn't even slice because it was so tender. It fell apart like pulled pork. And the carrots? Even Little A gobbled them up! I'll definitely add this recipe to keep pile!

While I was finishing dinner, the kids were outside riding bikes. Grandpa was running up and down the driveway helping Little A practice riding with no training wheels while Big A was riding circles around Little A. (Those of you who've been to our house, know that learning to ride with no training wheels here is a LOT different than learning to ride with no training wheels on a city sidewalk or paved driveway!)

The three amigos came in for dinner but the two little ones headed back out right away when they were done eating, as Little A was very excited to master the new skill . Not five minutes had gone by (in fact Little A had JUST gone out the back door) when we heard screaming crying shrieking coming from the driveway. At first I thought it was the sounds of happy children playing but soon realized that wasn't the case. As I ran out the back door I saw Big A hobbling and shrieking around the side of the van. He was saying he couldn't walk on his left leg and was crying uncontrollably.

By the time I got to him and began to assess the situation, Grandpa was right behind me. We carried him to the deck and started looking him over, starting with his right ankle which was what he told us was hurting him the most. (Let's see how carefully you're reading... Remember I said it was is LEFT LEG he couldn't walk on, but now it's his right ankle that's hurting??) While Grandpa checked his ankle, I began checking out the scrapes on his arms, hands and stomach. (OUCH!!)

Grandpa moved his ankle all around and it seemed to be okay. We had him walk into the bathroom where we washed his wounds and slathered them with Neosporin then we gave him some Ibuprofen and propped him up on the couch.

He's still in pain, but nothing a little Ax Men and the promise of crabbing with Grandpa tomorrow won't fix! We'll see how those feel when he wakes up in the morning... YIKES!