Between college, weightlifting, Spanish lessons, work, travel and maintaining an active social life, I don’t have a lot of free time. Also my broke ass is pretty limited on what I can afford to cook. Fortunately there’s a really simple recipe for an inexpensive, high protein (and tasty) dinner any man  can make.

Pork Tenderloin with Cranberry Sauce  Recipe

Hardware

• A small saucepan
• A cast-iron skillet (you know about those, right?)

Software

• 1 pork tenderloin
• 1 cup fresh cranberries (fresh frozen will work if that’s all you can find)
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp honey

Do Work!

1. Start by adding the orange juice and water to your saucepan and bringing to a low boil.  While doing this put your cast-iron over high heat and get it nice and hot.
2. Add the cranberries to the orange juice mixture and turn the heat to low.  Simmer the sauce for ten minutes, or until the cranberries burst open.
3. Lightly season the loin with salt and pepper (not listed) and then sear on all sides, about 4-5 minutes per side.  Smaller loins might cook all the way through from just the searing process, if your loin is not cooked through pop the whole thing, cast-iron and all, into the oven and cook at 325 until done
4. Once the sauce has cooked out and the cranberries have popped open cut the heat off and stir in your honey.
5. Slice the pork into thin medallions and pour the sauce over top.

Note: brining your pork in an orange cranberry flavored solution would not be a bad idea at all, just dont salt the loin before searing if you do this

This recipe from Cookie is simple and that is the secret.  Many men are fooled into thinking cooking great food requires a long laundry list of ingredients and hours of time, but thats really not the case.