Crock Pot French Onion Pork Tenderloin

This past weekend, Bryan and I went back to Minnesota for a much anticipated wedding of 2 wonderful friends. Bryan's group of guy friends from college are very close, and it is always a big event when all of them can get together at the same time! It is very hard to coordinate schedules of doctors, lawyers, pastors, PhD grad students, masters students, and crazy busy people to make occasions like this happen, but big events like weddings are quite warranted!

We flew in to MSP Friday night and headed straight to a late dinner with awesome friends Rob and Sarah at The Bachelor Farmer. For those of you who live in the Twin Cities and haven't been there yet - you must go! It was amazing. We even tried something new to the group - pickled duck hearts! I was all for it, others were hesitant, but everyone liked them! After a long and delicious dinner filled with cocktails and wine, we called it a night.

Saturday morning, I woke up at 7am - wide awake - for some odd reason. I decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather that I could see out the window, and I went for a 5 mile run around Lake Harriet.

It was beautiful and invigorating! There were so many people out and about!

For lunch, we met up with the whole gang (minus the bride, groom and one usher) at Maynard's Restaurant, since it was on the way to the wedding. It was so exciting to finally see everyone!! What a fun group :) We missed you William!

After lunch, we headed straight to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

Marc and Taylor got married at a beautiful winery in Waconia, MN. The weather was perfect, the bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome, the ceremony was a success (2 pastor friends officiated!), and the reception was awesome! Since I've been to so many weddings, I've stopped trying to take pictures - I figure the photographer was paid to do that, so I just have fun. It was such a fun night that ended at 2am, and we were all exhausted! Overall, it was a fantastic wedding night!

You better believe that we had brunch plans for Sunday! We headed back to the cities and were super excited to experience Blackbird Cafe again as a group. It's the best brunch place ever! And they handled our large group very well and kept our coffee mugs full! Bryan and I split the special frittata that had yummy cheese in it and the sweet potato biscuits and sausage gravy. YUM!

It was such a fun weekend with everyone and we're excited for the next reunion!!! Congratulations to Marc and Taylor on a fabulous wedding and I wish you a wonderful marriage!

Now, on to describing that post title: Crock Pot French Onion Pork Tenderloin. Speaking of Taylor, I pulled this bad baby off her blog Greens and Chocolate. Since school has been so busy and Bryan works 80 hours a week, there is little time for cooking around here. I've been relying on fast and healthy dinners, focusing on things that will deliver left overs. My crock pot has been used at least once a week! This recipe was perfect for me!! Actually, this week is the second time I've made it in the last month! Set it, forget it, and try not to eat it before the husband gets home... :)

We made one change to her recipe - we placed the meat on buns, topped it with provolone cheese, and broiled the open face sandwich for a couple of minutes to get it nice and melted. Then, we dipped the sandwiches in a ramekin of au jus!

Crock Pot French Onion Pork Tenderloin
From Greens and Chocolate

Ingredients:

2 lb pork tenderloin
1 packet French Onion Soup mix
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup sherry wine (or red wine, which I used)
3 tbsp soy sauce
5 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

Place pork in crock pot. Mix together soup mix, broth, wine, soy sauce and garlic. Pour over pork. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Cut or shred in crock pot. Serve on a plate and pour juice over pork, or serve on a sandwich with white cheese.

Biker Babe

I got a new bike this weekend!!

Bryan and I have been thinking about getting me a road bike for many years now, but it always seemed to be placed on the "back burner" due to many other pressing items that need to be done and only doing what our budget could allow at that time. The time finally came where I needed to get a bike out of necessity to ride to school. I had quite a hard time obtaining a parking permit at school, so we decided that I would be a bike commuter. We searched far and wide on Craigslist and Ebay, but lost out on some opportunities quickly. Bryan found a great bike shop in a nearby suburb that was having a sale last weekend, so we took advantage of that! The bike had to be ordered in and built at the shop.

Meanwhile, I got lucky and got off the extensive wait list for parking at the lot that is close to where I need to be on campus! Parking is super expensive, but it's totally worth it to me (especially when the weather is crappy!).

So, it turns out, I have parking at school AND was able to pick up my new bike this weekend! The bike will just be for fun rides and exercise rather than commuting! Much more enticing :)

I haven't ridden a bicycle since I was about 10, and it was my 21 speed mountain bike that I would ride in the hills I grew up in. I would ride on gravel, trails and go off jumps and have a grand ole time. I've never ridden a road bike, so I asked Bryan to go on the first ride with me, and show me how to have street smarts and teach me a few things. Oh, and I'm waiting to get actual biking shoes until I'm comfortable with my feet in the cages on the pedals.

Today, we went on a 20 mile ride out one of the main biker friendly streets and after a few miles, we were on pretty quiet roads that went through rolling hills and along beautiful tree lines. It was great!! I loved it and will be going on many more rides when I have time!!

Chicken and Vegetable Kabobs

Now that school has started, I've been trying to focus on making quick and healthy meals for busy weeknights. We had some chicken and veggies that needed to be cooked, so I found a great marinade for the chicken and decided to make kabobs!

We ended up going out to eat with some of the other Urology residents that night, so the chicken actually marinated for 2 days. It was so delicious and I'm sure I'll be making this recipe again soon!

I also found a recipe for flavorful rice, which was super easy and delicious! Basically, you add some broth to the water it's cooked in and stir in some parsley. Perfection!

Marinade for Chicken Kabobs
Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup Teriyaki sauce
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:

Mix all ingredients into a bowl or container that you're planning on marinading the chicken in. Cut up chicken breasts into large cubes and place in marinade. Let rest in refrigerator for a few hours, overnight, or until the next day.

When you're ready to grill your kabobs, assemble a variety of cubed vegetables onto skewers with chicken. We added red and green bell peppers, onion and mushrooms to the chicken. Lots of colors going on! Save the remaining marinade to brush onto the kabob skewers when you turn them on the grill.

Grill kabobs for 10-12 minutes, or until chicken juices run clear. Turn and brush with reserved marinade frequently.

For the Flavorful Rice

Place 1 cup of rice in a small pan that you will cook it in. Add 1 cup water and 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth. Cook rice according to the instructions on the package. When rice is done, add a tablespoon of butter and tablespoon of parsley. Also add sprinkle of ground black pepper. Enjoy!

First Week of School!

The first week of school is complete, and it went pretty well! These are the classes I'm taking this semester:

Food Science and Lab
Advanced Nutrition
Maternal and Child Nutrition

It should be a good semester full of studying, loads of journal reading, and endless chapters to be read in textbooks. Bring it on! I'm beginning to transition from a working mindset to a student mindset again. Good times!

I'm super excited for this weekend. We don't have too much planned, but Bryan gets the rest of the weekend off! Days off in residency are so RARE that we are just going to enjoy some time together and keep life simple :)