The other day while running errands, I picked up a copy of the most recent
EVERYDAY FOOD. There looked to be several recipes that sounded interesting and I've been a tiny bit of a rut. I started with a recipe that seems pretty healthy, at least in terms of lots of veggies and low in fat.
Let's get started shall we?
I used one red pepper, 1/2 pound of green beans and a few carrots. All cut into similiar sizes, the seasoned with a little olive oil, soy sauce and salt and pepper.
I then put a pork tenderloin on top of the veggies and seasoned with salt and pepper and a drizzle of honey.
Here's half of the pork tenderloin after if spent some time under the broiler. Slice thin, plate with veggies, rice and a sauce made of soy sauce and honey. YUM.
The plate. The pork was great. Could have cooked for an extra minute. The beans and carrots were good. I didn't like the peppers. The recipe called for pea pods and green onions instead of the green beans, but this was easier for me to get at the store. And we prefer green beans to pea pods.
The Recipe:
Broiled Soy-Glazed Pork with Rice and Asian Vegetables
Serves 4
1 ½ cups long-grain white rice
8 ounces snow peas, trimmed
2 medium carrots, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced on the diagonal
2 red bell peppers (ribs and seeds removed), thinly sliced
1 bunch scallions, ends trimmed, cut crosswise into 3-inch lengths
2 TB vegetable oil, such as safflower
¼ cup soy sauce
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pork tenderloin (1 to 1 ¼ pounds), halved crosswise
¼ cup honey
Cook rice according to package instructions; cover, and set aside. Meanwhile, heat broiler, with rack set 4 inches from heat. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss snow peas, carrots, bell peppers, and scallions with oil and 2 tablespoons soy sauce; season with salt and pepper.
Place pork on top of vegetables, and season with salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon honey. Broil until pork and vegetables begin to char, 6 to 8 minutes. Toss vegetables, and turn pork; drizzle pork with 1 tablespoon honey.
Continue to broil until an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of pork registers 145 degrees and vegetables are charred in spots, 6 to 8 minutes, tossing vegetables once more. Remove from broiler. Cover with aluminum foil, and let rest, 10 minutes.
In a small bowl, make sauce: Stir together remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce and honey. Thinly slice pork, and serve with vegetables, rice, and sauce.
NOTES: As noted, I used green beans instead of pea pods. I also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I didn't measure any of the ingredients. This is a good recipe to eyeball what you add. And the cooking time. This could just be my broiler, but 6-8 minutes wasn't enough. I think once my broiler gets HOT, it shuts off for a minute or two to keep the temperature even. I cooked the tenderloin an extra 5 minutes, after removing the veggies...I could have gone another few minutes...there were sections in the middle that were just barely cooked. The food police would not have been happy...that said, the pork was very tender, super juicy and with the honey/soy flavors, very tasty.
I don't know how many of you use whole vanilla beans on a regular basis, but when you do, you just don't want to get rid of those beautifully scented and flavored beans once they've been split. I find the easiest thing to do is just to throw then in sugar bowl and let the sugar extract the remaining flavor. Now I have heavenly scented vanilla sugar for coffee or to sprinkle on some fresh fruit if I want. You can use it in baking if you like. Or I'm sure you can make into a bath product as well. And as you keep using vanilla beans, you can keep adding them to the sugar. 
I don't know how many of you use whole vanilla beans on a regular basis, but when you do, you just don't want to get rid of those beautifully scented and flavored beans once they've been split. I find the easiest thing to do is just to throw then in sugar bowl and let the sugar extract the remaining flavor. Now I have heavenly scented vanilla sugar for coffee or to sprinkle on some fresh fruit if I want. You can use it in baking if you like. Or I'm sure you can make into a bath product as well. And as you keep using vanilla beans, you can keep adding them to the sugar. 
