Crockpot Cranberry,Chicken, Quinoa, and Green Beans - almost a "dump dinner"

        My camera battery is dead :(  I started charging it after last week's post and it still isn't charged.  *sigh*  Looks like it's time to get a new battery.  So you will have to settle for my description of the prep (really wasn't much) and the ingredients. Sorry :(

The players: 1 box of Ancient Harvest Quinoa, 6 chicken breasts(2 lbs), 1 pound of (12 oz fresh, 4 oz frozen) green beans, 1 15-oz can of whole berry cranberry sauce, 1/4 cup of  Vogue Cuisine GF Onion Soup Base, 1/4 tsp of Smoked Paprika, and 1/4 tsp of freshly ground black pepper.

Oh and since the recipe suggested using either pork or chicken, I decided to prep and make dinner for tonight and prep dinner for another night.   The recipe site actually wrote the recipes for prepping and freezing.  I just didn't feel like prepping it last night, so I made one today and prepped one for another night.  I prepped the second one with 2 lbs of pork tenderloin (instead of chicken breasts) in the freezer.

At the advice of the recipe author, I label the freezer bag first.  (Good thing they said that as the first instruction, because labeling the filled bag would be pretty dang tough)  What was my label?   "Cranberry, Green bean, pork tenderloin 2-18-15," of course.  I place the green beans in the bag first, then the onion soup mix, then the cranberry sauce, and the pork tenderloins last.  That way the meat will go in the crock pot first.  I will need to get a bag of green beans (fresh or frozen) before I make the tenderloin meal.  I only had 1 12-oz bag of fresh beans today, so I added in approximately 4 oz of frozen green beans to today's chicken dinner, resulting in 4 oz less in the bag of frozen green beans intended for the pork meal.

Speaking of which...things that drive me a little nuts- when a recipe calls for ingredients in amounts that don't match the amounts sold in stores. Spices, flour, sugar, oils, and flavorings of any kind are the only things that are ok to not match ;)  *shrug*

 Darnit!  I forgot to get all the air out of the pork dinner bag....be right back.  Ok.  now we wait 4 hours.  The recipe said 4-6 hours for chicken.  I set the timer for 5 hours, but I had to get myself some lunch before I sat back down....so we wait...

*more hold music.  different station this time, I promise*  While we wait,  I work on my other endeavor at Red's Stitch Niche

*BEEEEP*  BEEEEEP  *BEEEEP* Hrmmm - doesn't smell like much....it should smell awesome.  Time to see how I did or what I need to tweak for next time......

*hold music*

Ok, so apparently I put the quinoa on the wrong layer.  silly me.  it needed water to cook...i put it on top of the green beans...so they were the top layer. next time i will put the quinoa between the chicken and the cranberry sauce.

Pretty darn good, except for the crunchy quinoa.  "Tastes like Thanksgiving dinner," says BGS.   SCORE!!  For for those us lucky enough to live near a Capriotti's, it tastes a bit like a Bobbie®.  Double Score!

The chicken had little flavor and was a tiny bit dry.  So I think the next I make this meal the layers will be chicken on the bottom, 1/4 cup unsalted broth, soup mix, then quinoa, then cranberry sauce, then green beans.

I apologize in advance if Capriotti's is copyrighted or registered by the subshop and I didn't note it here.  I searched the website and couldn't find out anything.  If someone knows the proper notation, please let me know and I will correct this post.

Double WW Meal - Citrus Garlic Pork Loin and Couscous with Sausage, Almonds and Raisins

Mental note - read the recipe in the morning if you've never made it before.  I started this recipe Monday at 4:30 pm and got all the way to "marinate 1 to 4 hrs".....(Calls BGS - hey hon.....what do you want to pick up for dinner, cause unless you want to eat at 9 pm, we aren't eating the pork tonight......) Luckily, I hadn't unwrapped the pork loin from it's packaging yet.  I just poured the marinade into a ziploc baggie and put it in the fridge.

Citrus Pork - The Players

Today's players: 3 cloves of garlic ( I used pre-chopped from the jar), 1/2 cup of lime juice ( I used freshly squeezed), 1/2 cup fresh grapefruit juice (again, freshly squeezed), 1/2 cup soy sauce (I used low-sodium, as always), 1/2 tsp hot sauce, 1 lb pork tenderloin, 4 cups green beans.

Mince the garlic (see previous comment about pre-minced) and mix with the grapefruit and lime juices - oh and if anyone thinks it's "easy" to juice a lime have them come talk to me.  I nuked those babies for 10 seconds and then rolled them....the stubborn little things did NOT want to give up their precious juice!!!  Ok, moving on - soy sauce, and hot pepper sauce.  Allow the marinade to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour so the flavors can blend.  I did that, the poured the marinade into a ziploc baggie and put it in the fridge.

At 1 pm today, I put the pork loin in the baggie  with the marinade and zipped it up - getting as much air out as possible and then put the baggie back in the fridge inside a pie plate in case anything leaked.

While I was down there I decided to do some prep for the couscous.

I used my little kitchen scale to weigh out 4 oz of turkey sausage and then chopped 1/2 of an onion.

The players for today's side dish are 4 oz turkey sausage - casing removed, 1/2 medium onion - diced, 1/4 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp dried coriander leaf (ok, here's where things get confusing - coriander is the seed....cilantro is the leaf - so I used dried cilantro leaf), 2 tbsp raisins, 1 cup fat-free chicken broth, 1/2 cup uncooked couscous, 1 tbsp chopped almonds, unblanched, toasted ( I used sliced almonds).

-------------------4 hours later------------------

Preheat the oven to 400º.  While it's heating, transfer the pork loin to a baking dish and pour the marinade into a sauce pan.  Once heated put the pork loin into the oven for about 40 minutes - 20 minutes per pound - and simmer the marinade for 10-15 minutes (it was, after all, surrounded by raw meat).

Back to the couscous....put the 4 oz of turkey sausage in a saucepan over medium heat and and break the pieces up with your spoon (had trouble with this, so I took all the sausage out and broke it up with a fork...much more efficient if you ask me.  After it was broken up, I added it back to the pot).  Once the sausage has had a chance to brown a little, stir in the spices and onion.  Cook this mixture until the onion has softened.  Once the onion is soft,  pour in the chicken broth and raisins and bring to a simmer. Once the broth is simmering, stir in the couscous and cover.  Remove the pot from heat and let stand, covered for about 5 minutes.  At this point I put my steam-bag microwave ready green beans in the microwave for 4 and 1/2 minutes.  Before serving "fluff" the couscous dish with a fork.  At this point you are supposed to sprinkle your toasted almonds on top, but I forgot.  There's always next time.

The end result?? Very tasty.  BGS like both the pork and the couscous.  The pork was a little dry, so maybe i should cover it in tinfoil next time.

All in all, I am very happy about this meal and BGS is too.  And as always, that's what matters most :)