What's for Dinner Tonight?: Slow-Cooker Cranberry Orange Pork Roast
Today was one of my few days at my part-time job. Yes, I have a part-time job that I love! What do I do? I'm a bookseller at a big box store! Think hard, there's only like one of them left! The best part about my job, other than talking about books all day long? The people! In particular one bookseller that I work with often that I ALWAYS talk about food with!
So today, I'm working and I'm like, "What's for dinner tonight?" So that got me thinking, what WAS for dinner tonight? I've had this pork tenderloin in the fridge that I knew that I needed to use, but it was for a slow cooker recipe, so, me being me, I modified it to suit my needs, meaning I did it in the oven.
A new toy that I just got is a meat thermometer that you stick in the meat, put it in the oven and then there's a monitor that sits outside the oven that tells you what the temperature it. It even has an alarm that goes off when you reach the desired temperature! Genius!!! So I got to use it tonight.
I'm including the recipe for the slow cooker version, but I did do this in the oven. I set my programmable thermometer, courtesy of OXO, for 145 degrees and it alerted me when my meat reached the desired temp. It was a perfect pork tenderloin!
I served this with baked sweet potatoes for the boys, leftover orzo for me and the salads that I made yesterday, found under the category salads. It was an easy meal after working today and came together really quickly!
Slow-Cooker Cranberry Orange Pork Roast, courtesy of Kraft
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. oil
1 flat boneless pork loin roast (4 lb.)
1 can (14 oz) whole berry cranberry sauce
1/2 cup KRAFT Classic CATALINA dressing
1 tbsp. lite soy sae
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. zest and 1/4 cup juice from 1 orange
Directions:
Heat oil in large skillet on medium high heat. Add meat cook 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until browned on both sides. Transfer meat to slow cooker.
Mix cranberry sauce, dressing and soy sauce; pour over meat. Cover lid.
Cook on low 4 to 5 hours. Remove meat from slow cooker reserving liquid in slow cooker. Cover meat to keep warm. Whisk remaining ingredients in small bowl until blended; stir into liquid in slow cooker. Cook, covered, on high 10 minutes or until thickened.
Slice meat, place on platter. Drizzle lightly with sauce. Serve with remaining sauce.
Notes:
So I really didn't follow the recipe for this. I was pinched for time so did it in the oven. I set my programmable meat thermometer for 145 degrees and let it go. It was perfect. I put the cranberry sauce on it, just didn't include any orange juice. I wish I would have, it sounds good, but it might have been the second glass of wine while I was cooking that made me forget it. Everyone loved it! I've got leftovers for tomorrow night, which is perfect!
PS The fruit salad that I made yesterday is already gone, that's how good that recipe is!!
