Well, since my last semi-personal post about my weight in early October, I’ve been doing pretty well, and getting a little bit of weight loss in, but I know I can do better. I’ve been trying to eat well for a long time, but it’s not always easy. Looking back on everything I’ve done, my doctors and all advice-givers have always said “eat your protein first” and I just haven’t been doing this like I should. I’ve really been eating far more carbs than I should have, and it doesn’t keep me full long enough, so I’m eating all the time and not losing weight as quickly as I should.
So, I’ve decided to give myself a kick, and get back on a good, strong low-carb diet for a little while. I’m going back to the same low-carb diet I had to do in order to get my band surgery: 30 grams of carbs a day, max, until Christmas (with the exception of a few days around Thanksgiving - I’m planning on having my Thanksgiving stuffing and mashed potatoes, thankyouverymuch, so I prefer to be realistic about what I can really expect from myself).
The good news is I’ve been on my low-carb diet for 4 days now and I’m down 10 pounds! I know the first week or so of weight loss is all water weight, but it still makes me feel great to see the scale dropping, knowing that it’s never going to go back up!!
Yay me!
The even better news is that my boyfriend is doing it with me! And I didn’t even ask him to! I just told him I was going to do it and he would have to be responsible for his own carb-foods and he asked if he could do the low-carb thing with me. I was so happy! It makes it SOOO much easier to take care of myself properly if I don’t have to worry about doing something different for another person.
So that’s the good news on the diet and weight loss front.
On the food front, more good news! My Costco has packages of pork tenderloin for $2.99 a pound right now, and the moment I saw them in the store the other day, I grabbed a big 5-pound package. I didn’t know what the heck I was going to do with it, but I knew I’d come up with something, and I was right!
I originally planned to make tenderloins stuffed with a mushroom-sweet onion-bacon stuffing, but as soon as I started cooking, I realized I didn’t have any kitchen twine or string in the house. Unfortunately, if you cut open a tenderloin to fill it with stuffing, it’s not gonna stay together on its own, so without string, I knew there was no way that was going to happen.
So, of course, I improvised.
I decided to take the same ingredients I was going to use for the stuffing and turn them into a saucy/gravy/topping of sorts instead. I cooked up all my veggies, added in some flour and butter to make a roux, and ten some chicken broth until it reached a consistency I liked, added in my bacon, and at the very last minute decided to toss in a few drops of lemon juice for a tiny touch of sweetness to cut all the richness.
It was uber delish, so I hope you like the recipe below and can use it as inspiration for a dish of your own!!
Enjoy. :)
Ingredients…
2-3 lbs pork tenderloin
2 tbsp butter (I used bacon fat just cause I had it in my fridge)
½ sweet onion, chopped
8-10 oz mushrooms, chopped
2 more tbsp butter
2 tbsp of flour
½ can of chicken broth
4 slices bacon, cooked
A bit of lemon juice, or lemon zest if you have lemons available
What I did… (with Action Shot photos courtesy of my good friend, Valerie!)
1. I chose to bake the loin, so I cut the silverskin off both pieces…
laid them out in a baking dish, covered them with salt, pepper, and garlic powder…
and popped them into the oven at 350 until they hit 140 in the center (when you take them out of the oven, they will continue to cook and rise to a safe temperature without being overdone and dried out). You could sear them off on the stove first, I’m sure it would turn out even better, but it had been a long day and it was just one step too many for me.
2. While the loins were in the oven, I went on to prepare my topping. I chopped my mushrooms…
onions…
and cooked and chopped my bacon.
3. In a saucepan, I melted two tablespoons of bacon fat (can be done with butter instead)...
added my onions...
and cooked over medium heat until they started softening and getting a bit translucent.
4. I added in my mushrooms…
a little bit of salt and pepper…
and continued cooking for about 10 minutes till everything was nice and soft and well cooked.
5. I added in two tablespoons of flour...
and another two tablespoons of butter...
and whisked for about three minutes to cook the flour.
6. I slowly added in about a half can of cold chicken broth and kept whisking to keep any lumps from forming.
It made a nice, thick gravy of sorts.
7. I added in just a little bit of lemon juice…
And the bacon…
And continued to stir.
8. When the loins hit 140, I removed them from the oven and let them sit for another 10 minutes to continue cooking and let the juices redistribute.
9. After 10 minutes, I sliced the loins into rounds…
covered them on the plate with my sauce, and ate!!
Well, this is the start of my low-carb stretch, and I’ve already got a few meals photographed and waiting to be posted, so hopefully I’ll have some more good stuff up for you real soon.
Enjoy :)
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