Time May Change Me

The time change caught me completely off guard yesterday.  It's surprising how much we judge the time of day by the light, the angle of the sun.  As some of you may have seen my status of Facebook yesterday, I realized that (suddenly!) it was five minutes to six and I hadn't even thought about dinner yet.

Granted my day went south from about 2 o'clock on, when I decided to head home instead of the gym, because I didn't have enough time to fit in my workout before my 3:10 dental appointment.  As I was driving home, I heard a weird noise coming from my front tire. So I pulled into the Husky station to check it out.  Nothing.  Okay, so I continued home, still hearing the strange noise.  When I got out of my car, I thought that I'd best check again.  Oh yeah, there was definitely something amiss. I could hear the air leaking out of my front tire this time.  Sure enough, there was a large screw stuck into it.

I jumped back into the car, phoning Ken, trying to think of the closest shop that could fix my problem.  Canadian Tire - not my preferred vendor, but close enough to drive there before all of my air was gone.  Yes, it was visibly leaking.  Got to Canadian Tire and they told me it would be an hour and a half.  At least my dental appointment was with in walking distance.  I left my car with them and walked.  Boy, was it chilly yesterday afternoon, especially since I wasn't dressed for the out-of-doors.

I survived.  Finished my dental appointment and walked back for my car, settled the bill and was on my way home and onto Facebookland.  Unfortunately, I hadn't even considered what to make for dinner.  Silly mistake.  I usually start thinking about it around breakfast time. :)

Sear your pork first, then finish in the oven.

I knew that I had pork tenderloin in my refrigerator, because I had picked it up the day before.  However, I had not planned on what to do with it or any sides and now it was dinnertime.  My first thought was wraps, as I saw some tortillas on the kitchen counter.  Okay, pork and "what?" inside wraps.  Rice? I prefer brown, but that's going to take way too long.  I looked in my pantry.  Quinoa. (Pronounced, "keen-wah") It's healthy and quick. It only takes 20 mins to cook.  "Okay, so pork and quinoa in tortillas," I say out loud to my daughter, "and what else?" She says that she thinks that would be weird in a wrap, so I nix the tortilla.

I check the vegetable crisper.  I've got bell peppers, some green beans that should have been used last week - tossed those, carrots, green onion, cucumber and a bit of parsley.  Asian flavours... this is going to work!  I diced yellow and red peppers, cucumber, green onion, garlic, ginger and shred the carrots.  Made a dressing from soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, plum sauce (I'm out of sweet chili sauce still and this is leftover from Christmas I think - can't be that good for you then, hey?) sesame seeds, lime juice, a couple of drops of fish sauce, oyster sauce, a dollop of almond butter and bit of olive oil.  Wallah! Asian Quinoa Salad with Seared Pork Tenderloin.

Seared Pork Tenderloin and Asian Quinoa Salad.

Ken and I quite enjoyed it - the kid, not so much. Though she ate it without complaint and only let me know, when pressed, that she thought it tasted weird.  ha ha

Moral of this story?  Pork tenderloin and quinoa are both quick and easy when you are in a hurry for dinner and haven't thought it out ahead of time.  And... always keep a few good vegetable (peppers, carrots, celery, onions, etc) on hand, because they are very flexible and can be pitched into almost any recipe to make a healthy dinner.