Stuffed Pork Loin with Blue Cheese Broccoli and Red Pepper Lentils

Sometimes I am just stupid lucky and this dinner represents one of those times. Truth be told; I didn't even remember that I had the broccoli in the freezer, I bought the lentils not knowing when I would use them, and the pork was the deal of the day that had me feeling like I stole it from the butcher (promise we didn't). I award bonus status to myself for coming up with a dinner that was just 15 Weight Watchers points...

While shopping, I picked up some Italian parsley, green onions, and lentils.  The first two I figured I would use at some point during the week but, the lentils were more of an impulse purchase once I figured out that  1/4 cup is only 4 points in the Weight Watchers world. They were pretty easy to fix - just rinse (be sure to remove any non-food debris, cook, and serve.  Though I added some red pepper to the water while it was cooking, I think I will cook in vegetable stock and salt more the next time.  Start to finish I was in for around 25 minutes for the lentils.

For tonight's pork, I cut one pound section into two 8 ounce thick cut chops. Start by placing the chops on a flat work surface. Cut a horizontal slit roughly 3/4 of the way through the meat and open the chop up like a book. You can stuff with just about anything, tonight I opted to small chop the parsley and green onions and place in a bowl. Next I thinly sliced some fresh garlic and that got tossed into the bowl.  I added some of the Flavor God "Everything" seasoning (in fact, be sure to buy some for yourself, well worth the money and definitely something that should be a staple of your kitchen), salt, and pepper. Mix everything together completely and then spread across the open face of the chop (some folks add a bit of olive oil, I didn't). Close the 'book' on the chops and season both sides with some more salt, pepper, and Flavor God. Place into a pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and sear both sides for a couple of minutes, until browned. Move the chops to a baking dish and place in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes (or until the internal temperature reaches 155 degrees. Pull from the oven, cover with foil, and let them rest for 10 minutes prior to serving.

You ever forget that you had something in the freezer? Well that was the case with the blue cheese broccoli - which I happened to find while stowing the extra 3 pounds of pork that we weren't going to cook tonight.  On that note, let this be a good reminder to us all to rotate stock in there (freezer burned food is not good eats).

Not too bad for a punt...