Wicked Cheap Wednesday Carmelized Pork!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  How is your week so far?  You making it?  We're almost to the weekend!  I can't wait - I get to see a good friend's new house, sleep, clean, cook, and watch figure skating!  Woohoo!  Or am I boring?;) 

Anyway, I'm still researching meals for our Celebrate the Olympics fun-ness that will be February 12-28 (and I hope you will still give me some suggestions!) but tonight was all about a fave of mine that I probably haven't made in about a year or so - carmelized pork!  Easy easy easy, and will keep your house smelling yummy all night long!  Adapted from my Betty Crocker cookbook:)

You will need:

• 1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 1 inch pieces or slices
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped to a size you like
• Pam spray
• salt and pepper
• 3 tbsp orange juice
• 3 tbsp maple syrup or molasses
• 3 tbsp brown sugar

Heat a fry pan over medium high heat, spraying with Pam Spray just before you add the meat.  Add the pork and garlic to the fry pan and cook, turning occasionally, and cook for about 9 minutes, or until pork is just pink on the inside.  Salt and pepper the pork and garlic while turning, just one time.

Add the orange juice, maple syrup, and brown sugar to the pork and garlic.  Stirring frequently, continue to cook until pork is cooked thru and the liquids have merged together, forming a sauce that sticks to the meat.

 

Look, how yum-looking is this!?!

Tonight I paired this with some mixed veggies in a cheese sauce and ....ooops...fries - I felt like them!  Normally I'd pair this with onion-soup mix roasted potatoes, but not tonight:) 

I didn't realize how much I missed this meal!  It's so easy and non-time consuming, and so tasty!  I love making pork, because I love how tender it stays if cooked just right.  The best part - cheap!

• 1 lb pork tenderloin - $7
• garlic - $1

Umm...I had everything else!  So I spent $8 on this meal!!  $8!!  If you had to purchase the other items it would cost as follows:

• pork - $7
• garlic - $1
• small carton of OJ - with some leftover for you to drink! - $1.00
• small amount of brown sugar - .50
• small amount of maple syrup - $1.00
• veggies with cheese sauce, bagged - $1.75
• fries - $2

= $13.25!  And again that's if you didn't have a lot of these ingredients already!  What a steal!

I hope you will all try this out and let me know what you think, and comparing it to my other pork recipes, which do you prefer?  I'm off to post on the foodbuzz (I'm a new member - friend me!) and the other fb, facebook, and to catch up on Project Runway!  Have a great Wednesday night, and keep thinking of Olympic meals!  Talk to you tomorrow night:)