Pork Loin Stuffed with Spinach

This is a recipe that Darryl found and made several years ago.  I'm not sure why I don't make it more - it's good and it really is easy!  When we both worked full time, Darryl always cooked Friday night -Sunday night so he found it fun to search for new recipes and most of them were good!!

Pork Loin Stuffed with Spinach

1/2 package frozen chopped spinach; thawed and drained
3 tablespoons margarine
1/2 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs
3 pound pork tenderloin
2 tablespoons ketchup
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Saute spinach, butter, onions, and garlic over medium heat until soft. Add breadcrumbs

Cut tenderloin in half (or butterfly it, depending on the size)

Stuff with spinach mixture.

And secure with kitchen twine

IN a bowl, mix ketchup, orange juice and teriyaki sauce.  Baste tenderloin with 1/2 of the mixture.  Sprinkle pork with cumin.  Place in shallow roaster and bake at 350 degrees uncovered for one hour.  Baste with reserved marinade and cook one more hour, covered.  Use meat thermometer to check for doneness (160-170 degrees F.)

Notes:
1) Obviously, I didn't just cut mine in half, I butterflied it, twice, and than spread the filling across the piece of pork and rolled it up - it's prettier :-)
2) Because I made this for Sunday dinner, I pour all of the marinade over the pork roast and covered it.  It cooked while we were at church.  Next time - I would add some chicken broth to the pan to give it extra moisture (if cooking it this way instead of according to the directions)
3) I threw a few whole potatoes in the pan (like I do with a regular roast) so that dinner was basically all in one pan.  I think if I put chicken broth in for extra liquid - I would also throw Carrots in as well so the veggie
was also done at the same time.
4) Another great thing about this recipe is you can make it the day before and just have to put it in the oven before walking out the door to church.

31 in 31 - Day 19

One of the things I enjoy doing is Cooking . . .both savory and sweet!  When I "used" to work - I didn't have the time nor the energy to cook and bake like I do now.  Actually, I seldom baked because I didn't like taking up a Saturday or Sunday afternoon baking.  Same with cooking nice meals - I stuck to the 20 minute meals because there wasn't time to really cook.  Well, today I had to catch up on some baking since I didn't get a chance to go to the grocery store until Saturday night (Usually, I go on Friday evening and bake on Saturday but Darryl worked a double shift on Friday bringing him home later than normal!)  So, today's picture is of my baking :-)

In the back, the cookies are Lime Dime cookies.  (A recipe I saw on the old Martha Stewart show - I kinda miss her old show . . .I actually got quite a few ideas from her!-; than the bread is a Cinnamon Bread - Darryl used to take Pop-tarts in his lunch every day but we are switching to homemade "breakfast" foods for him to take so I found this recipe and tried it - ;  In the 8x8 pan are lemon bars.  I don't make them often but instead of making a big batch of cookies, I went for two small things (the lime dimes and bars); and finally a Strawberry Cream Pie.  Do you ever look at The Parade magazine that comes in the Sunday paper?  I found this recipe in there several years ago and tried it.  It is really good, really sweet, and really runny! LOL  I don't tend to make it for company because it isn't pretty once you cut it but it is pretty good.  Just as an FYI - my normal baking includes a batch of cookies, one dessert, and now, one loaf of bread or batch of muffins.

One last note - it was HOT today and spending hours in the kitchen makes me anxious for fall!!