Honey Herbed Pork Loin

Anyone out there looking for a fun new recipe for pork chops that doesn't traditionally include apples?!?! Well this is one that you will fall in love with after the first bite! It's perfectly juicy with a sweet buttery glaze that you will can't help but scrape every last bit off the plate because it's THAT good. 

It may look like there is a lot of butter on top of the pork loin but most of it will melt off and you'll be left with a slightly crispy sweet herby (is that even a word) crust on top of your pork loin. 

Herb butter topped evenly on the pork loin .... ready to go whenever the guests arrive. (only takes 15 minutes under the broiler)

Done. Let rest for a few minutes before eating. 

Honey Herbed Pork Loin 

Ingredients:

- 4 (1/2 inch to 1 inch in thickness) pork loin

- 1 teaspoon of salt

- 1/2 teaspoon of pepper

- 1/4 cup of soften butter

- 1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley

- 2 tablespoons of honey mustard (I just use 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard and 1 tablespoon of honey)

Directions:
1. Mix together soften butter, parsley, and 2 tablespoons of honey mustard in a small bowl until blended. 
2. Line rack with foil. Place pork loin on rack and season with salt and pepper. Top each pork loin with about 1 tablespoon of butter herb mixture.
3. Place rack about 5 inches away from heat. Broil on high for about 12-15 minutes depending on the size of the pork loin. Insert a meat thermometer after 12 minutes in the thickest portion to see if it registers 155°. If not, please cook until the pork loin registers to 155-165. Set on serving platter to rest for about 5 minutes before serving. 

Quinoa with Corn and Green Onions

For those that don't know what PINTEREST is you should consider yourself a lucky fool. Lucky cause you aren't wasting hours on end like the rest of us pinning things to boards (you'll get what I mean soon). Or a fool because it's a great site to get ideas and inspiration. As I stole the corn and green onion quinoa salad recipe right from someones food board.

The combination of the corn, green onion, and the lemon butter dressing totally brings it all together. We've been eating a lot of quinoa lately and I have to say this is by far my favorite combination for a side dish. This will now be my "go to" salad when people come over as it's easy to make and you can make it ahead of time!

Quinoa with Corn and Green Onion


Ingredients:
- 4 ears of corn, shucked
- 1 tablespoon of grated fresh lemon zest
- 2 table of fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup of melted unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
- 2 cups of uncooked quinoa
- 4 green onions, chopped


Directions:
1. Cook quinoa. 2 cups of uncooked quinoa to 4 cups of water. (Rinse before hand). Place into large pot and bring to a boil. After it reaches a boil, cover, and bring temp to a simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let it sit for 5 more minutes.
2. Place corn in a glass microwaveable safe dish and cover with saran wrap and cook for 3:33 minutes.
3. Once the corn is cool, cut the kernels off the cob.
4. Cut up green onions
5. Prepare the dressing. Whisk together lemon zest, lemon juice, melted butter, honey, salt and pepper in large bowl.
6. Toss quinoa, corn, green onion, and dressing together and serve. Enjoy!

Honey Soy Chicken

Need an easy and tasty idea for chicken?! I sure did yesterday.... I was looking to try something new and I can't believe that I haven't thought of mixing soy sauce and honey together before. Actually it's not that hard to believe as I've always steered away from most Asian food and soy sauce until I found out that my local grocery store had it in stock.

This chicken recipe can be made (marinated) ahead of time up to a few days even and the leftovers would taste great in salads, sandwiches, and wraps. I was so happy that I thought of this ahead of time cause it gave us all evening to play with little Lucy and to do other things around the house rather than prepping and cleaning up the kitchen.

Honey Soy Chicken in foil lined baking pan.

Chicken and truffle asparagus, yum!

Honey - Soy Chicken

- 3 chicken breasts, cut up into smaller slices (you can leave it whole, butterflied, skin on etc)

- 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

- 3 cloves of garlic minced

- 3 tablespoons of olive oil

- 3 tablespoons of GF soy sauce

- 5 tablespoons of honey

- salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1. Prepare chicken in size and pieces that you find appropriate. 

2. Add ground ginger, minced garlic, olive oil, soy sauce, honey, salt and pepper to 1 gallon zip lock bag. 

3. Add chicken. 

4. Toss chicken in bag with marinade to make sure the chicken is coated well.

5. Place in refrigerator to marinate for at least 2 hours (the more it marinates the better it tastes I could even suggest doing it a day in advance if you are doing whole pieces with skin on).

6. Like baking pan with foil. Place chicken and all of the marinade in the pan. 

7. Bake for 12 minutes, flip chicken, and bake for another 12 minutes (more time if your pieces of chicken are thicker)

*For regular chicken breasts that aren't sliced up, please bake for 25 minutes, then flip and bake for another 15 minutes. 

** This recipe can be used on the grill as well, please make sure to look up the appropriate grilling times for the size of chicken you picked.