Pork tenderloin with butternut squash and apples

Seasonal cooking is such a beautiful thing because food hardly ever gets boring.  Instead of always cooking the same old tired vegetables year round, the world around us has a natural rhythm that provides us with wonderful colors and variety as the seasons change.  It truly is lovely when you think about it.

Just when I start missing my juicy bright red tomatoes, crisp cool cucumbers, and tender summer squashes that are abundant in my summer garden, fall emerges and offers lovely hard squashes, gourds, root vegetables, apples, and hardy greens.  They are perfect for roasting, making soup, and in simple warm fall dishes like this one dish pork roast, butternut squash and apples.

It truly doesn’t get much more simple than this when it comes to kitchen effort.  I spent five minutes of hands on time in the kitchen, and turned the work over to my oven to do the rest.  This one dish oven cooking method is perfect for busy families that have homework to do, housework to tend to, or just want to spend a little extra time vegged out on the couch after a long day.  All this meal requires is cutting up an apple and butternut squash and seasoning the pork.  It all gets put on one baking dish and the oven does its magic.  Easy peasy and delicious.

The last fifteen minutes I boiled some water and threw this grain mix in a pot to accompany our meal, but you certainly don’t have to.  It just makes it stretch a bit further so I have leftover pork for an additional meal.  That’s one of my best money saving tips that I use every single week in my kitchen without fail.  This harvest mix was only $2.69 at Trader Joes, which I thought was a great deal considering I’ll get a couple of meals out of it.

Happy cooking.  Embrace simplicity.

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Pork tenderloin with butternut squash and apples

A super simple one dish meal, perfect for a weeknight.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

• pork tenderloin it should be two pieces in one package
• 1 butternut squash peeled and cubed
• 1 apple peeled and cubed
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder
• honey
• olive oil

Instructions

1. Put pork tenderloin pieces in middle of baking dish.
2. Add squash and apples on both sides.
3. Drizzle with olive oil.
4. Liberally season pork with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.
6. Drizzle honey over pork, squash and apples and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until pork is cooked through.
7. When done, let pork rest and slice. Season with more salt, pepper, and honey if needed.