Italian Bacon Sandwich

Here's another tasty breakfast alternative!

• 2-3 slices of center-cut bacon (Different brands vary on serving size. Check the nutrition information to see what a serving size is, and go with that.)
• 1/2 cup spinach sauteed in olive oil and garlic
• 1 oz. part-skim mozzarella cheese
• light English muffin

Toast the English muffin; melt the cheese on both halves of the muffin in the microwave. Place the bacon on half of the English muffin. Top with the spinach; top with the other half of the English muffin.

BLT 2.0

This has been a favorite lunch lately, a lighter version of the classic BLT:

• 3 slices center-cut bacon (Center-cut bacon has less fat and fewer calories than the regular variety.)
• 1 cup lettuce (or spinach)
• Tomato slices
• Light English muffin, toasted
• 1 T light or fat-free mayonnaise

If you want to get in a dairy serving, you could omit the mayo and melt 1 oz. of shredded cheese on the bun.

Latin Pork Fried Rice

So I took the partial pork loin I slow cooked in my post below and used it to make a Cuban-influenced fried rice. To do this, I made a big batch of instant brown rice (6 servings of rice), and let it cool for a few hours. Then, I heated 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauteed some onion and garlic in the oil. I added the rice, and then a can of black beans (liquid and all), followed by the pork, which I had diced earlier. I seasoned the mixture with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, garlic powder, lemon juice, and a bunch of fresh, chopped cilantro.

I think next time I'll get adobo to use, but all in all, not bad. I ate the remainder of my shrimp and grits last night, so I'll be dining on this fried rice creation tonight. Be back with a pic later!

Getting the Most for Your Money

My grocery store is Shop Rite, and their sales start on Sundays. I made a special trek there yesterday morning to take advantage of a sale on pork loin. A 99-cents-a-pound deal? I'm there!

To my surprise, these were whole pork loins instead of remnants, monstrosities of many pounds. I figured I could cut one up and use it for several meals. And that's exactly what I did with my $13 hunk of meat. I slow cooked a pound worth of it (more on that later) and cut the rest into 3 roasts.

With the pork loin on Sunday, plus a sale on ground turkey for which I grabbed 5 packages costing less than $2 each, my freezer is now full! These finds join about 6 packages of meatballs, boneless chicken breast, other assorted chicken parts, turkey and chicken burgers, assorted veggies and tater tots, and pita bread for pizzas. Freezer bags are my friends--I generally take the ground meat and burgers out of the pillow packs. I also buy large packages of chicken quarters when they're on sale, cut them into the separate drumsticks and thighs myself, and freeze them in bags.

So for pork hunk #1: I trimmed the visible fat off of it and did a mock rotisserie in my slow cooker. I first learned about this method from the Weight Watchers message boards, for chicken. Basically you spray your slow cooker all around with cooking spray, then set foil coils in the slow cooker for the meat to sit on. Season the meat with spices, then spray with cooking spray. Set it on the coils and cook on high for 4-6 hours, depending on how big the piece of meat is.

I wanted to make a Latin-spiced pork loin, so I added salt, pepper, garlic and cumin. Once the meat was finished, I got it in my mind to make a Latin pork fried rice. That experiment went well!