Dijon Mustard Salad Dressing

Happy Monday, y'all! The summer weather has definitely hit Texas. To celebrate the heat, one of my best friends and I went for a walk after work. LMR is currently fostering an adorable little Pomeranian, so we got a dose of cuteness to counteract the heat. I returned home to do a P90X workout, and then whipped up a hefty salad to stave off my hunger. My salad ingredients consisted of red leaf lettuce, carrots, celery, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and pine nuts. And here's the dressing I whisked together to add some extra flavor...

Dijon Mustard Dressing

2 Tbls Dijon mustard

1 1/2 Tbls extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper, to taste

Whisk the ingredients together in a small bowl, then drizzle over your salad.

I added some chopped prosciutto to make myself feel fancy while I lounged around in my sweats. What a wonderful Monday night!

Summer Salad

Summer Salad

2 cups mixed greens

1/2 cup blueberries

1/4 cup chopped orange bell peppers

1 tsp flax seeds

1/2 cup lemon-herb chicken pieces

Can be eaten without dressing which is what I usually do, or whip up a Lemon Vinaigrette (1 Tbls olive oil, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, lemon zest, pinch of sea salt, 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard).

And in other news, I found this photo I had taken while I was packing up my apartment for my recent move and came across all of the presents that I've gotten from one of my best friends. See the photo below... I bet you can pick up on a theme. Anyways, I've kept them all over the years and for the most part they all get displayed on a shelf together. So all of these presents got packed into a box together. By the time I decided to take a photo of all of these, I had already packed my Nerd Chapstick and OCD Action Figure (still in its original packaging, of course), so sadly those are absent from the photo.

The bricks are "Two senior bricks fighting over a guy," with photos of the two senior guys in question. I believe these were a 16th birthday present, in return for the two bricks that I gave to her.

The cow wrapped in plastic behind Brick David is a stuffed animal that was dipped in scented wax. It can be unwrapped and left out to freshen your room. Obviously, you can see Cow-baby up front, with the cow Eiffel Tower in front of it. The box in the back is a decorated shoebox with a photo of KM and I from high school! On top is a cow planter and hand-standing cow salt and pepper shakers. The notebook in the front is a present from Prague, that KM gave me with the picture frame box just to its right. And on top of the picture box is a cow stuffed animal. Phew. That's roughly 10 years of friendship... in one photo. Amazing!

Easy Roast Pork Loin

I know, I know... It's been a week. I have no excuse. Just my own laziness and tiredness. On Tuesday I got into bed at 7 p.m. and fell asleep by 7:30. Sadly my 9 o'clock "It's time to go to sleep alarm" woke me up. No, the irony of that has not been missed by me. Anyways, it was a wildly busy weekend, and I was worn out by the time my wildly busy week started. Staying at work until 8:30 p.m. on Monday didn't help. On the bright side, I made it to yoga last night and got to chill out a bit.

Anyways... Onward to the food!

Because I've been simultaneously busy and lazy, I wanted something easy to make. And what better than a simple pork roast?

Easy Roast Pork Loin

3 lb pork loin roast, tied

2 Tbls Dijon mustard

2 Tbls apple cider vinegar

1 Tbls olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Heat 1 Tbls olive oil on the stove over medium heat.

2. Season pork with salt and pepper.

3. Brown the pork on all sides (~2 minutes each). Remove the pork from the pan.

4. Whisk together the Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, and pork drippings. Brush over the pork, coating thoroughly.

5. If you weren't already using a oven-safe pan, transfer to a baking dish. Then put the whole thing into the oven. Cook for roughly 20 minutes per pound or until internal temperature is 145 F. I cooked mine for about an hour.

6. Remove from oven, transfer to plate, and cover with tinfoil. Let rest for 10 minutes. Go ahead, put your feet up to relax. Then enjoy your dinner.

For a side, you can toss a sweet potato in the oven 20 minutes into the cooking cycle, allowing 40 minutes to cook your sweet potato. Then slice up and serve with the pork. It makes a sweet and tangy combination.

Chemo - Part 4 - Day 3

Sometimes the cladribine causes a burning sensation in your veins, in particular at the IV site. And what does the doc give you for this? Pepcid. Yes, as in the heartburn medication. I guess the Pepcid "coats" the veins. Rather interesting, if you ask me. And in case you were wondering, things are still going well for us. This is what I made after coming home from the doctor's office yesterday.

Pork Loin in a Mustard-White Wine Sauce

3 lb pork loin (or 3 1-lb loins)
2 Tbls olive oil
1 cup dry white wine (Chardonnay)
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Rinse the pork, then remove the silver skin (the shiny silvery looking part of the pork), and season that bad boy with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a skillet (preferably one that can go into the oven). Once the oil is shimmery, add the pork. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side, 8-10 minutes total, to brown the pork.

While the pork is cooking, whisk together the mustard and wine. When the pork has been browned on all sides, add the mustard-wine mixture to deglaze the pan. Stir a bit and make sure that the pork has been coated. Transfer the whole skillet to the oven and cook for 15 minutes.

If you don't have an oven-ready skillet, just transfer the pork and sauce to a baking dish before putting into the oven. The baking dish may take a few more minutes to cook because it wasn't already hot when you put it in the oven.

Once cooked through, transfer to a plate and cover with tinfoil, letting the pork sit for 10 minute. Slice and serve with the sauce.

Sunburn for the Pale

By Monday evening, I had already managed to get sunburned. It's a really unfortunate sunburn on the back of my thighs and my upper back, so it makes sitting and laying down very uncomfortable. By some miracle, I'm not sunburned down the middle of my back. My sides? Yes. Center of the back where I can't actually reach? Nope. The thing I really don't understand is how I always get sunburned despite reapplying sunscreen repeatedly. I also want to know how my parents are so much tanner than I am. I mean, I am the product of them, so shouldn't my skin tone be at least the same as one of theirs, if not somewhere in between? Ah, genetics... how I don't fully understand you. Yes, I spend a significant amount of time hiding from the sun at work, whereas my mom takes the puppies for walks and plays tennis on the weekends. But even during winter she seems to have more color to her. And my dad? He's just naturally more tan. He's like me and spends an exorbitant amount of daylight hours locked inside an office building and yet, if you take a photo of him and me, you see my white skin boldly declaring my paleness!

Monday night dinner was burgers that my mom had brought. My dad chose to have his with bread, but my mom and I stuck with the Paleo version.  I served mine on a bed of romaine hearts and is topped (from bottom up) with tomato, cucumbers, roasted onions, orange bell peppers, mushrooms, and Spicy Kale Chips (recipe below). These kale chips gave the burger a real kick. I also topped the burger with some spicy Dijon mustard just because.

Spicy Kale Chips

1 bunch kale chips

2 tbls olive oil

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp garlic salt

2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp paprika

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Rip the kale into small one-inch pieces. Place into a gallon size Ziploc bag with the other ingredients and toss to coat evenly. Spread onto greased baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through to make sure that the kale chips don't stick to the baking sheet.

Dijon-Pecan Chicken Breast

Dijon-Pecan Chicken Breast

2 large chicken breasts, sliced open (butterfly-style)
1/2 cup hot Dijon mustard
2 Tbls honey
1 cup pecans, ground
Sea salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking pan with tinfoil for easy clean-up.

Use a blender or food processor to grind the pecans, but don't grind to the point of making pecan butter or flour - texture is good. Mix the mustard, honey, and pecans together.

Before the oven

Spread resulting paste over both sides of the chicken breasts. Sprinkle with sea salt. Place chicken breasts on baking pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the juices run clear.

The first picture shows the chicken plated on a bed of baby spinach and cucumber tossed in a splash of balsamic vinegar and olive oil with a couple shakes each of oregano, parsley, and cumin. It may not look terribly appealing, but it's really good, especially with the hot Dijon mustard.