Pork tenderloin with rosemary

This is how I most like to cook pork tenderloin. I start with a bed of thinly sliced onions. I use 1 whole onion. Then I wash and pat dry the tenderloin. I put a bit of olive oil on it and then put a rub of a mix of 1 tsp seasoning salt, 1 tsp paprika and 1 tbsp brown sugar. I chop up some rosemary and then roll it in the rosemary and set it on top of the onions.

I add 1/4 cup white wine and 1/2 cup chickn broth to the onions. Then I put the pan into the oven at 400 degrees and cook for 45-50 minutes.

It doesn't take long to prepare the tenderloin and it comes out moist and flavorful.

To go with it, I made potatoes. I just diced up the potatoes, then threw them into a ziplock bag with olive oil and a packet of dry italian dressing. (Sometimes I'll use dry ranch dressing, too, just depends on what mood I'm in, both turn out great.) Then I shake the bag to coat the potatoes and put them on a cookie sheet and pop them in the oven with the tenderloin. I'll turn the potatoes over once about half way through cooking.

I served them with baby carrots...easy and my kids like them (so do I). I like to dip mine in hummus, the kids will dip in ranch dressing. Baby carrots were on sale for 99 cents a bag a week ago at Safeway, so I picked up 3 bags.

I didn't realize until this morning that I took the picture of Rico's plate, which didn't have the onions on them. Darn. The onions are great...they carmelize with the juices from the pork and have great flavor. But Rico doesn't like onions, so I don't give him any, Marielle and I get to eat them all!

The pork tenderloin I got from Safeway on a $5 Friday special. We use half the tenderloin at a time, which gives 8 slices, 2 per person for our family. So the pork was $2.50. I used 4 potatoes, so about a pound, which would be about $1 for the whole dinner. Carrots were pennies. So the whole dinner cost about $5.50, factoring in the dip and the dressing packet and that's for 4 people. With only 3 of us eating, there are leftovers, which I'll use in the next couple of days.

Does this look like a "cheap" dinner to you? You can feed good meals and not spend a fortune at the supermarket!

Side note: I keep rosemary in the house almost always. It stays good for a long time (3-4 weeks) and is very flavorful. Some fresh herbs are expensive and I'll use dried, especially ones that don't keep long. But rosemary is almost always in the house fresh.

Ingredients:

1/2 pork tenderloin

1 tsp seasoning salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tbsp brown sugar

couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary chopped

4 potatoes diced

1 packet italiain dry dressing mix

baby carrots (dips optional)