Rollover Roast Pork Loin and Gravy with Roasted Veggies and Potatoes
I started receiving Everyday with Rachael Ray last year in the mail,
and have really enjoyed the section on budget recipes she features every month. Occasionally on her show and website she will share her "Rollover Meals".
The premise of the plan is that you can cook the bulk of your ingredients the first night, and roll them over for two more days...so that you end up with three unique meals. Now Rachael does not imply that these meals will come in at $10 or under, but I wanted to give it a try. So my first attempt at her "Rollover Meals" consisted of the following three meals:
Rollover Roast Pork Loin and Gravy with Roasted Veggies and Potatoes
Rollover Roast Pork and Black Bean Chili
and
Indian Curry Roast Veggies over Spiced Rice
So join me over the next three days to see if I can succeed in creating convenient rollover dinners while staying under $10 a meal.
Rollover Roast Pork Loin and Gravy with Roasted Veggies and Potatoes-Rachael Ray 2008
Serves 4 (but really more like 6. Had plenty for hubby to take to work the next day)
Ingredients:
1- 5 pound boneless pork loin roast ($9.47) 1/2= $4.73
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) for drizzling (PI)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (PI)
6 -thyme sprigs, leaves removed and chopped (I had three fresh sprigs left over from another recipe so I used what I had and it was fine, you could also use dry to save some money, but fresh will always be a little better) (freebie for me to buy would have been approx. $1.00 for 3 sprigs)
2 pounds baby carrots ($2.88) 1/2= $1.44
2 -small or 1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets, each floret cut in half (1.99) 1/2= .99
8 -baking potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite-size cubes ($1.50) 1/2= .75
5 tablespoons butter (.30) 1/2= .15
2 cloves garlic, crushed or grated (.10) 1/2= .05
6 tablespoons flour (PI)
1 quart (4 cups in case you were wondering) chicken stock (1.69) 1/2= .85
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves (a couple of handfuls), roughly chopped (optional-I had this on hand from other meals but do not think it's necessary, more for looks) (freebie)
3 scallions, green and white parts finely chopped (optional-again had on hand but is more for garnish so not necessary) (freebie)
Directions:
Pre-heat the oven 425°F.
Place the pork roast in a roasting pan (I placed it on a rack in the roasting pan to help with better browning).Drizzle thoroughly with some EVOO and season liberally with the salt and pepper on both sides. Sprinkle with the chopped thyme. Transfer to the oven and roast for 60 minutes, until the internal temperature is 145°F. Remove from the oven and let the roast rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
Arrange the baby carrots, cauliflower and potatoes between three cookie sheets. Drizzle everything liberally with EVOO and some salt and pepper. Transfer the veggies to the oven about 30 minutes before you are ready to remove the pork roast. Roast them for about 40 minutes, until tender. (Now I found that like the average home cook I did not have room in my oven for the roast and three cookie sheets. So I placed on one cookie sheet half of the veggies and roasted those at the same time as the pork. When I pulled the pork out, I put in the other sheets of veggies and set the time for 40 minutes. These were done just about the time dinner was over, which was perfect and I allowed them to cool before refrigerating for another meal.)
For the gravy, place the butter in a medium size saucepan over medium-high heat and let it melt. Once melted, add the garlic and cook for one minute. (I also added a spoonful amount of the dripping from the roasting pan for added flavor but this is optional) Add the flour and stir to combine with the butter and continue to cook for one minute. Whisk in the chicken stock; bring up to a bubble and cook until thick, season with salt and pepper. Reserve the gravy, covering to keep warm until ready to serve. (I modified Rachel’s recipe here. The amounts listed above are my modifications. I felt the gravy was way to watery with the ratio of butter and flour to stock listed in the original recipe. I believe I made the right decision and the gravy got rave reviews from the family.)
Thinly slice half of the pork and arrange it next to half of the veggies; reserve the other half of the roasted pork for the Roast Pork and Black Bean Chili and the other half of the veggies for the Indian Curry Roast Vegetables.
Pour about one cup of gravy over the roasted pork; reserve the remaining gravy for the chili. (I put the gravy in a gravy boat so that my family could get the amount they preferred) Sprinkle the platter with the reserved parsley and green onion if you desire.
Total Cost: $8.96 ($9.96 if you needed to buy fresh thyme)
So far so good!
Here's what I learned from this first meal. This was a fairly elaborate meal with quite a few steps BUT, I know that the next two nights will be easy-peasy. I prepared this on a Monday evening after having run errands all day so I was a little frazzled trying to get it all together and eat before 7:00. I would recommend you cook this on a Saturday afternoon when you have more time to enjoy the process of preparing it. Then you would have your Sunday afternoon meal almost prepared and a great quick meal for Monday night. But the reviews from the family was a huge two thumbs up so the rollover plan seems off to a good start.....stay tuned tomorrow for
Roast Pork Black Bean Chili.
Enjoy!
P.S. I want to say a big thank you for those of you who visited my guest's blog yesterday and left comments. You made a young lady very happy. We had the highest number of visitors to date, and she loved reading all of the sweet things you had to say so....THANK YOU!
