Thai Peanut & Spice-Encrusted Pork Tenderloin

This is a really easy, delicious, and fast recipe using just a few ingredients.

It turned out great -- I recommend serving with large lettuce leaves, onions, spicy peanuts, cilantro, and spicy peanut sauce (I made some out of peanut butter, yogurt, and lots of spiciness w/ red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, etc)

Pork tenderloin
Taste of Thai Spicy Peanut Bake
Olive oil
Minced garlic, salt, pepper

1. Coat tenderloins with olive oil, salt and pepper.
2. Rub minced garlic onto tenderloin
3. Coat tenderloins with as much of the Spicy Peanut Bake as will stick.
4. Bake on a foil-covered rimmed cookie sheet at 450 for 20 minutes, or until center of meat reaches 145 degrees.

Cilantro coconut rice

A super-easy but very good side dish (I made it to go with the Peanut Butter Coconut Chicken (last post):

Cilantro coconut rice:
1 bag microwaveble brown rice (well, ~2 cups any cooked rice works)

3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp ginger
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp garlic salt

1 cup packed fresh cilantro sprigs (I didn't have any and had to use 3 frozen cilantro cubes (got them at Trader Joes)...good...but fresh would have been better)

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Spread coconut in a shallow baking pan and toast in oven, stirring occasionally, until pale golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely.

3. Sautee onions in skillet, add other ginger, garlic (and cilantro if not fresh)

4. Cook/microwave rice, and stir into onion mixture.

5. Just before serving stir in toasted coconut (and cilantro if using the fresh stuff).

Peanut Butter Coconut Chicken

This was dinner tonight, along with Cilantro-coconut rice (below). I sort of just made it up and was worried about it as I looked uneasily at the clumpy sauce consistency prior to cooking. However, Scott deemed it an addition to the "one of his favorite meals" list, and I have to say I thought it was pretty tasty too! (And naturally, I forgot to take pictures of any of it...we were too hungry and it disappeard too fast!)

Peanut butter coconut chicken

2 large frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic salt
a good pinch of cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon good spicy curry powder (as hot as you prefer)
a dash of ginger
1/3 cup Better 'n Peanut butter (http://www.betternpeanutbutter.com/products.html) (you can use regular PB too, but if you do I'd add a tbsp of brown sugar to this as well, as the Better 'n PB product is a touch sweeter than the regular stuff)

3/4cup flaked coconut (sweetened)
2-3 Tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Stir above together spices, and melt PB in the microwave ~25sec (don't burn it). Stir into spices.
3. Coat chicken with mixture as best as you can (it won't spread evenly but don't worry about it...it'll thin and cook evenly in the oven)
4. Coat chicken in coconut, drizzle 1-2 Tbsp of melted butter over each breast (you don't have to add this but it does make it quite a bit tastier)
5. Bake ~20-35 min (really depends on size of chicken breast, so watch carefully and take out when no pink is left inside)
Enjoy!