I’ve decided to start attempting a once-weekly post which will be themed “Sunday Night Supper”. (Disclaimers: 1. Depending on my weekend plans and how they affect what I actually end up eating for Sunday dinner, this may not actually posted once-weekly. Could be once-every-three-weekly… who knows? 2. Due to my schedule, this attempted once weekly post may not (scratch that… probably won’t) occur on Sundays.)
Okay, now that the disclaimers are out of the way, what is Sunday Night Supper? I go through phases of executing this, but for the most part, for regular weeks, I like to make a big dinner on Sundays, and generally make something that requires much more time than I would prefer to spend making dinner during the week. Sunday Night Suppers usually make 4-6 servings, so that Jarrett and I can eat as much as we want, and still have enough for 2-4 servings of leftovers (for either lunch or dinner) during the week. On weekdays (while I do LOVE to cook), I generally don’t like to spend more than 20-25 minutes making dinner (my commute between DC and Rockville plus my workout schedule usually gets me home around 8pm every night, which is why the leftovers are nice sometimes). So I use Sundays to try out recipes that are a bit more labor-intensive. And I usually have some free time at some point during Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to peruse through my cookbooks for something interesting and go get the necessary ingredients.
For instance, this past Sunday, I woke up a *tad* hungover. I feel that this is totally acceptable as number one, this was the first weekend since June that I was not training for a marathon, and number two, Daylight Savings ended on Saturday night. These two things combined had “party” written all over it, so party we did.
Anywho, I had gotten all of my errands out of the way prior to Sunday, so this week was perfect for a Sunday Night Supper. After lounging on the couch eating macaroni and cheese and watching She’s the Man, Jarrett and I went for a lovely 14 mile bike ride. This is somewhat shorter than what we would normally do, but again, 1st weekend post-marathon: we hadn’t gone on a “real” bike ride since June and were both still somewhat sore. So after spending the day relaxing and getting a little bit of our “sweat on”, it was time to start making Sunday Night Supper!
This Pork and Mango Stir-Fry is a “must” to put in into the rotation. No “specialty” or leftover ingredients (aka hard to find or where I’m asking myself, “Okay… what do I do with the rest of this?”). Also, it’s healthy and reheats well. The majority of the time you spend making this recipe will be on cutting up the ingredients. (Note: I am particularly bad/slow at cutting things up… though things did improve when we got our Shun knives.) But seriously, once everything was sliced and diced, it only took about 15 minutes to cook (not counting the brown rice which I obviously started ahead of time, set the timer, and forgot about until the timer went off). Speaking of the brown rice, this is a good time to point out that I made 4 cups rather than 3, because I like carbs and feel like each serving should get a full cup. Speaking of altering recipes, this is a good time to bring up that when I post recipes, to the best of my ability, I post what I did/used. I substitute as I see fit for my tastes and/or what I have on hand and encourage you to do the same. I do always include links/directions to the original recipe (but that’s mostly so that my ass doesn’t get sued if I become wildly famous from blogging).
Pork and Mango Stir-Fry
Ingredients
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons cornstarch
4 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 pound lean pork tenderloin, thinly sliced
1 medium red onion, sliced
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 pound snow peas (I had bought one package of “fancy” snow peas, so I don’t actually know how much I used… or what makes them “fancy”)
1/4 cup dry white wine (original recipe calls for Chinese cooking wine (Mirin) or dry sherry, but I couldn’t find either)
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 1/4 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 large firm but ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and cut into chunks
4 cups cooked brown rice
Directions
1. In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth and cornstarch until the cornstarch is dissolved.
2. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a wok or very large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook, stirring occasionally, until just cooked through, about 4 minutes. Transfer the meat to a plate.
3. Heat the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil in the same wok or skillet. Add the onions, peppers, ginger, and garlic and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are softened, about 3 minutes.
4. Add the snow peas, cornstarch-broth mixture, wine or sherry, soy sauce, Chinese five-spice powder, and red pepper flakes and toss to combine. Cook until the peas are crisp-tender and the sauce thickens slightly, about 3 minutes.
5. Return the pork to the wok. Add the mango and heat through, about 2 minutes more. Serve over rice.
*Original Recipe from Ellie Krieger’s So Easy.
Tapioca Pudding
Go to store. Purchase Kraft Minute Tapioca (unless you already have some in your pantry as I do). If you’re reading this blog, you probably cook and therefore, should already have milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla in your fridge/pantry. Follow stove-top directions on box. (It’s like chocolate chip cookies; there’s no better recipe than the one printed on the bag of chocolate chips, so why mess with it.)
Lastly, Sunday Night Suppers are best consumed with a bottle of wine:)
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