Love me tenderloin

Hello again, I lied. I'm too excited about tonight's dinner experiment not to post :) Plus Jamie's hogging the TV watching a Juventus game so that means no fun for me. The onset of fall means football all the time for most people...in this house, it's fútbol all the time. So I had this box of Marrakesh Express Mango Salsa Couscous that was just screaming 'cook me! cook me!' from the cabinet. By far my favorite box o couscous to keep handy. I also knew we had a pork tenderloin hiding in the freezer so I spent most of my afternoon daydreaming about fun tropical recipes. :) While I was wandering the Giant, I saw a small can of crushed pineapple, confirmed we had some hoisin sauce in the fridge and decided that I was going to make a Tropical Stuffed Pork Tenderloin. I know, such a creative name haha. Since this was an impromptu dish, I have a few alterations I'd make given more prep time...I'll add those after the basic recipe.

Not so cute, right? Wait 'til you get to the bottom...

Tropical Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
1 (1 to 1 1/2 lb) pork tenderloin, butterflied
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tbsp chili garlic paste
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp crushed pineapple
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp Maggi Seasoning
1 tbsp pineapple juice

In a pan, heat olive oil and saute onion until translucent. Add pineapple and chili garlic paste and cook over medium low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combine hoisin sauce, garlic, Maggi seasoning and pineapple juice in a bowl and set aside.

Place pineapple mixture on one side of the butterflied pork and bring the other side over to cover. Secure with toothpicks or string and place in baking dish. Coat with hoisin sauce mixture and cover with foil. Bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes and let rest before slicing.

Oh, what is Maggi Seasoning you ask? Eff if I know...all I know is that it makes your meat dishes taste like super delicious. It probably contains MSG. HA. At first I was a little worried that the whole stuffing with squishy fruit was going to be weird, but no. DELICIOUS! However, when I make this again (because I will), I think I'll let the butterflied pork marinate in the hoisin sauce for an hour before stuffing with the pineapple. AND, I might aim for a thicker/sweeter pineapple sauce now that I know the sweetness isn't overwhelming. Ah HAAA.

Pretty stuffing!

On the side? The Mango Salsa couscous of course! With a handful of frozen corn :)

I like how whenever I make couscous, the little bits always end up on top.

And everyone together on the plate: Successful dinner experiment indeed! For dessert: Haribo gummy bears are like my crack. I love them so much I can't even stand it. They were on sale at the Giant so you know I HAD to grab a couple bags :)

OH! While I'm catching up with blogging, Kelly over at She Wears a Red Sox Cap passed a blog award onto me a few days ago (gah! I'm such a slacker)! Yay! As a recipient of the One Lovely Blog Award, I get to name 15 'lovely' blogs. I say 'lovely' because I'm not the type to use the word 'lovely' in a sentence ;p I prefer to say that I'm naming 15 awesome blogs that I can't stop reading! This is just a short list of some my favorite blogs, some old, some new. I'm trying to not repeat what's on my blogroll, but I just updated it last week! Ch-check it out:

The Healthy Everythingtarian
Eating for England
Chicago Marathon Val
Burp and Slurp
Rosey Rebecca
Two DC
My Mantra: Everything In Moderation
On a Lobster Placemat
CAUTION: Redhead Running
She Wears a Red Sox Cap
Trials of Training
We are not Martha
Joe and Betsy
Let's Get Fit

What are some of your favorites?