Last night we tried grilled asparagus.

I may be late to the party because apparently this is a really common item to be grilled, but y’all, it was SO GOOD! And so easy!

So if you’ve known how to make grilled asparagus for ages, please skip over this post. If you might be out there like me and relatively new to the world of asparagus, read on.

My husband brought home a bundle of asparagus from the store this week and I was excited to make our Bacon Wrapped Asparagus recipe. However, I soon realized that we were out of bacon, so had to come up with another plan.

He was grilling some salmon and chicken already, so we decided to just grill the asparagus also.

Recipe:

Ingredients needed:
1 bunch asparagus (washed and hard, woody bottom part snapped off)
1 TB Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp onion powder
1 TB Olive Oil
1/4 tsp black pepper

Mix all ingredients and put with the asparagus in a ziplock baggie. I let mine marinate around 30 minutes, but you don’t have to do it for that long if you’re running short on time.

Grill in basket if you’ve got one, or you can grill in a cast iron skillet or on the grill racks if you can do so without it falling through. Ours cooked for about 10 minutes and was crisp tender perfect!

My amazing neighbor told me that she’s been making asparagus this way for a long time and that it’s really good to put some grated Parmesan on it after you finish grilling it.

Try it and let me know what y’all think!

 To prepare them for freezing, I cleaned my sink and then filled it up with my produce wash. I let them soak around 5 minutes and use that time to pick out any that don’t look to be in good condition.

After their soak, I spread out two beach towels on my kitchen counters and spread them out to dry. It’s pretty important to get them dry, so allow enough time to really do this well.

Once dry, I put them into single layers on baking sheets/pans and put into our deep freezer for around 1 hour. (may be more or less time depending on your freezer)

Once frozen, I put them into gallon sized bags and store them flat.
*This is important: DO NOT FILL YOUR BAGS to where they are bursting full or your berries will stick together in one big berry blog. (ask me how I know this 😉

It took me most of the day to get our 5 gallons prepared as I only had 5 pans to work with at a time, but it will be worth it to have these beautiful berries to eat in the coming months. 

If berries are cheap in your area right now, STOCK UP. They are PERFECT to add to smoothies and a superfood for your body!

I make these often and haven’t made them the same twice yet. We’ve tried different varieties and each of us have our own personal preferences as far as: cinnamon or salt, garlic or pepper, etc.

Use this recipe as your basic format then tweak to meet your personal preferences. Here’s an easy place to start:

Wash several large sweet potatoes well.

Cut into relatively small pieces- we’ve tried patties and fry like shapes and prefer the fry like shape best.

Spread out on a baking sheet.

Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and then use your hands to toss the potatoes until they are coated with the oil.

Add seasonings of choice: I prefer garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.

Roast at 375 for around 45 minutes.

Seriously good, even for people like me that don’t normally like sweet potatoes.

I’ve made this recipe a few times now and think I’ve finally got it right. The last couple times it was a little too salty for us. This time, I think it was just right.

I got so excited to get it all plated up that I never took final pictures, unfortunately, but trust me, this recipe is a KEEPER.

Oven Baked Pork Tenderloin
Ingredients needed for Tenderloin:

1-2 lb pork tenderloin- cut off silver skin and any fatty pieces you can see
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. yellow mustard
1/4 c. low sodium soy sauce (or you could use Braggs liquid aminos)
3 TB. lemon juice
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 TB Worcestershire
1 TB minced garlic
1 tsp onion powder

Mix all together then reserve a few tablespoons to the side.

Put the tenderloin in a large ziploc bag with the marinade and let refrigerate for 4 hours or so.

Heat oven to 375. Sear each side of the tenderloin in a skillet on the stovetop for 2-3 minutes.

Put in glass baking dish and cook for around 40 minutes (depending on thickness of your meat and oven temp).

Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes before slicing. Top with Pan Gravy.

Tenderloin Pan Gravy
Ingredients needed for Pan Gravy:
Pan Scrapings from when you brown the tenderloin
3/4 c. low sodium chicken broth
3 TB reserved marinade from recipe above
2 tsp unsalted butter

Put same skillet you used to brown the tenderloin back on the stove and put on medium heat. Add chicken broth and scrape up all bits stuck to the bottom.

Add the reserved marinade and let it boil down a bit (around 2 minutes or so). Add butter and remove from heat. Stir til melted. Pour over tenderloin or use as a gravy on the rice.

Oven Baked Rice
Ingredients:
1.5 cups long grain brown rice (comes in a bag usually)
2 and 1/4 c water (or you can use low sodium chicken broth for more flavor)
a few pats of butter
salt (if desired)

Either microwave or heat the water to boiling. While doing that, put the rice in a glass baking dish and put a few pats of butter on top.

This is great when topped with the pan gravy from above recipe! 🙂

I served the tenderloin and the rice with oven baked sweet potato bites and cabbage steaks.

All of these foods can be cooked at 375 so it makes for easy preparation.

Hope you enjoy!