Spicy Pork Stir Fry

I was impressed with the taste and the simplicity of my first recipe from the Weight Watchers cook book so I thought I would try another. One of my favorite cuts of meat is the pork tenderloin. I also love to pair pork with pineapple so I thought this recipe looked perfect.


This looks super simple. The most important thing about making a stir fry is making sure your prep is done and you have read the recipe and understand what you have to do. Stir fries move quick so you have to have everything near by and ready to go in the pan.


You will need pork, pineapple, ginger, oil, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, peppers, tomato and onion.


Chop up the pork, try to make it all about the same size.


Chop up all of your veggies and garlic.


Drain your pineapple. In hindsight I probably would have chopped these chunks a little finer also.

Again, make sure you have everything ready to go...this cooks over high heat and things cook fast.


Once your oil is hot, drop in the pork. Stir fry for about 2 minutes until its browned. Get it out of there but leave the oil in the pan.


Drop in the peppers and cook for about 3 minutes.


Green onions in, 30 more seconds. Keep stirring, there is a reason they call this stir fry!


Pineapple, 30 more seconds of cooking...


Here is where it gets exciting, everything else in the pan, including the pork. Cook it for about 2 more minutes and you are ready to eat. Well, the recipe says sprinkle with cilantro first, but you know that aint happening here!


Absolutely delicious, and fast! You could serve this over some brown rice as well. This is the kind of thing that makes me sad for my husband, I know he would love it if he would just TRY it. But he insists he does not like pork, so he misses out again.

I hope you are all having a great week!

Favorite Things #9 -

I love kitchen stuff. Knives, bowls, Pyrex, gadgets and pans. My All Clad non stick frying pan that I have used pretty much everyday for the last 10 years was starting to have issues with the coating. I decided to look into the ceramic coated pans after seeing them on the Food Network a lot. My brother had got me an Amazon gift card for Christmas so I used that to get the Vinaroz Die Cast Aluminum Ceramic coated pan.

This thing is AWESOME! If someone would like to pay me to be the official spokes person for this company I will gladly accept an entire set of them. They also come in red and I think black.



I have no idea how long the ceramic coating will last, but for now I am in love. The little silent film below was after frying spaghetti and then leaving the pan sit on the stove for a half hour.


It is like magic! I will keep you posted on how well the coating holds up but for now it is my new favorite pan.

Edit: I finally figured out how to add the reply feature to my comments, yes, I am slow. So please feel free to comment and I can actually reply now.

Dijon Chicken with Corn Salsa

I picked up a nice weight watchers cookbook at Goodwill recently and decided to give one of the recipes a try. It was pretty simple and it turned out having a lot of really good flavor. I really need to go through my cookbooks, they are starting to pile up everywhere, but I love them.


The recipe is simple as I said, and pretty darn low in calories.


You will need some chicken, corn, bell pepper, tomato, cucumber (look at the size of that thing!), OJ, red wine vinegar, green chiles, cumin, chili powder, parsley and dijon mustard. If you want you can use some cilantro. I do not want.


Chop up the veggies.


Mix them up with the corn, parsley, OJ, vinegar, cumin, chiles, chili powder and some salt and pepper. My husband was watching me assemble this and seemed really interested until I said it was going with some chicken. He ended up finishing the remaining salsa with chips later.


It really does look tempting, even in a photo!


Preheat your grill or broiler. Chop up your chicken into thin strips.


Smear it with the dijon.


Broil or grill it for 3-4 minutes on each side, and you are ready to eat!


This was super tasty, and so simple. I served it with some tortilla chips, which of course add fat and calories, but I can't have salsa without chips.

Favorite Things #8 - Making Hot Sauce!

My husband, Tom, LOVES hot sauce. Do you ever see those shows where people are trying all the crazy melt your face off hot sauces and living to tell the tale? That is my husband. He has tried ghost chiles, scotch bonnet, habanero, etc and I have yet to see him actually be uncomfortable from the heat. His biggest complaint about the bottled hot sauces is that they just don't have good flavor, they are just trying to make it as hot as possible. My biggest complaint is those little bottles are super expensive! So I have perfected a recipe that he loves and I thought I would share it.

½-2 lbs of whatever chiles you want
1 tbs red pepper flakes
1 16 oz can of tomato sauce
½ of a medium onion roughly chopped
1 clove garlic
1 tsp vinegar (you can add up to 1 tbs for more vinegary sauce)
Salt to taste

Throw the chiles, red pepper, onion, garlic, and salt into a food processor and pulse until its chopped to desired texture. Add in the tomato sauce and pulse a couple of times to combine. Put it in a sauce pan or skillet on medium heat and stir in the vinegar. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Taste and add more salt if needed. Cool and serve!

The sauce I made this time used Thai chiles, which is Tom's favorite for this recipe.


I get the chiles at the Asian market and it is hit or miss as to whether there are red ones in the package. If there are it takes the heat level up a LOT!


Pulsing time!


Tom doesn't like chunks in his hot sauce so I really zap the ingredients.


Add in the tomato sauce and give it a whirl.


After it simmers on the stove with the vinegar it is ready to cool and eat.

The really funny thing about how much hot sauce I have made is the fact that I am the BIGGEST wuss when it comes to spicy food and rarely eat any. I have been trying to enjoy it more and I admit that rush you get when your mouth is on fire is pretty awesome.

I hope you all are having a good weekend!

Hungry Girl Spicy Taco Tuna Salad

I love tuna fish, I don't care if it comes in a can and smells a little weird, I love it. My husband leaves the room when I eat it, but it is one of my favorite things to have when I need something quick and filling. This recipe takes tuna to a whole new spicy level!


This comes from my Hungry Girl cook book and I have made it once already since this initial preparation.


You need some mayo, chili powder, cayenne, taco seasoning, peppers, tuna, salsa, hot sauce and some onion. You probably have most of this at your house already.


Chop up your veggies, I used my awesome (and cheap) Victorinox chef's knife.


Combine the mayo, hot sauce, salsa, and seasonings.


Add in the chopped veggies.


Stir in the tuna and pop it in the fridge for about a half an hour so the flavors have time to really combine.


You can serve this over lettuce, on a taco shell, or with some tortilla chips like I did. I absolutely loved this. You can make it even more low fat by using yogurt instead of mayo if you want. I will be making this again and again I am sure.

Favorite Things # 7 - Arizona

I moved to Arizona from Western Pennsylvania about 15 years ago, I have never once regretted the move. Arizona is so beautiful and it absolutely gets hot, but you don't have to shovel heat!

If you ever have a chance to visit here in the winter or spring, be sure you do it, and let me know so I can recommend some food for you :)

Chicken and Stuffing Casserole

I love casseroles, a lot. My husband used to think that they are gross and evil, but he is slowly coming around. However, there was no convincing him to give this a try because it contains chicken. Some day he might decide chicken isn't totally scary and terrible, but it won't be anytime soon!

This recipe comes from Betty Crocker's Just the Two of Us cookbook. It will be just the one of me this time though.




This is another one of those recipes where you probably have most of the ingredients already, so it should come together pretty easily for you. You need corn bread stuffing, chicken, cream of chicken soup, frozen veggies, milk, onion, sage, paprika and of course salt and pepper.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and lets start cooking!


Chop up your cooked chicken.


Chop up your onion. My mother in law really doesn't like onions, its baffling to me. Anyone else out there not like these tasty little guys?


In a sauce pan over medium high heat bring the soup, milk, veggies, onion and sage to a boil while stirring.


Stir in the chicken and the stuffing mix, this is really as complex as this recipe gets.


Pour it into a greased casserole dish, of course I am using Pyrex. Sprinkle on some pepper and paprika. Bake it for about 15 minutes and you are ready to eat.


This was really good, but I put in too much sage. I will make this again though because the flavors and textures were great and I love how simple it is for a weekday meal.

Favorite Things #6 - Pyrex in my fridge

One of the things that I love to collect is vintage Pyrex. I have been collecting for a few years and still have so much on my wish list. I love to use it whenever I can because it is just so colorful and cheery. So tonight my fridge is packed for the Super Bowl tomorrow and I thought I'd give you a peek.



I always smile when I open the fridge and see Pyrex. Oh and seeing all that beer helps too ;) I hope you have some tasty snacks tomorrow and your favorite team wins, but only if your favorite team is the Giants ;)