Day One
Okay, so I was all stoked and decided to cook not one, but TWO main dishes tonight from the aforementioned cook book. As my Mom would say, I had the eyes of the dragon. One was listed as a main dish (pork loin with vegetables) and the other was listed as a light dish (cream of mushroom soup). It ended up being a lot of food, and I could have gotten away with cooking one.

Here are the ingredients for the cream of mushroom soup:

Here are the ingredients for the pork loin with vegetables:

Simple stuff! I like.

So, the process: both recipes were super quick and easy, which I suppose is the whole point of the 30 minute book. The house smelled pretty fantastic with the smell of sauteed onions, garlic, mushrooms, and pork loin. 

Did I manage to get things prepped and completed between the 6-7:30 period when T gives W-toddler a bath and puts him to bed? Barely, but yes.

Here were the finished products:

SOUP!

PORK LOIN AND VEGETABLES!

Verdict:
Both were good for quickly prepared meals. I opted for half and half rather than coconut milk in the soup since I wanted to avoid an Asian flair when combining with the pork. What I like about this cookbook is that they're not shy about adding richness (they suggested using full cream, which would have been even more awesome, but I couldn't quite justify since I'm trying to lean down a bit).  Next time will add more onions or mushrooms to the soup to thicken it up. I also needed to cook the pork a bit more than the recipe recommended, but it turned out fine.

I'd try both again, but probably the soup before the pork.

What did T think? He says he liked them (although he's polite enough to the cook that I think it would have to be pretty goddamn awful before he would say it was).

I also do not crave baguettes, cookies and cakes at the moment, which tells me that the meal did the job of leaving me sated without feeling le bloat and carb crave.

Random observations:
-It's pretty lovely to cook during this cool spell in the summer--with the crosswinds in the kitchen, it feels freedom and vacation (which, happily, it is).
-It's not so much fun to clean up afterward. I spattered enough olive oil while trying to sautee the pork loin before using the pan guard that I had to mop tonight. Grody.