And Baby Makes Foul

On Saturday, we just rec'd the go-ahead to give our 9-month old "real" food. While she's been happy to munch away on those little baby puffs, we are all pretty geeked out to let her begin chowing down - and of course, contributing her opinion on my cooking skills.

Tonight is the first night we've had a chance to sit down with all four of us at dinner. The babe started off with an appetizer of said puffs, then I gave her a couple of plain whole-wheat egg noodles that accompanied tonight's dish.

Um, except I totes failed to rip them into tiny-enough pieces, and after she tried to shovel one in, promptly gagged and spit up her entire bottle. Oops. This caused the hubs to almost gag right along with her as he attempted to clean this up. Surprisingly, I usually am the one who can't handle any sort of throw up, but the kid and I were fine and even proceeded to continue to discuss this incident, causing the hubs to turn various shades of green. You may now call me Ms. Sensitive.

And with that visual in your mind, here's tonight's main event:

Noodles with Roast Pork and Almond Sauce
Source: Cooking Light, October 2009

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tsp canola oil
• 1/2 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed
• 1/2 tsp salt, divided (skip)
• 1/4 tsp pepper (skip)
• 8oz uncooked fettuccine (used whole-wheat egg noodles I had on hand)
• 1/4 c. almond butter
• 2.5 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar (note: I always use a no-salt added variety)
• 1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger (used 1/2 tbsp of refrigerated)
• 1.5 tsp chili garlic sauce
• 1 c. thinly sliced onions
• 1/3 c. finely chopped mint (skip)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
• Drizzle oil in an ovenproof skillet. Sprinkle pork with 1/8 tsp salt and pepper; place pork in pan. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Turn pork over and bake an additional 10 minutes or until a thermometer registers 155 degrees. Place pork on a cutting board, let stand 10 minutes. Shred into small pieces. (FYI - I skipped the oil, salt, pepper, shredding, etc. - just baked some pork and cut it into little pieces.)
• Cook pasta according to directions and drain, reserving 2 tbsp of pasta water. Keep pasta warm.
• Combine almond butter, 2 tbsp pasta water, remaining salt, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, and chili garlic sauce. Divide pasta evenly among 4 bowls, top evenly with pork, sauce, onions and mint.

Yield: 4 servings (I assumed 4oz pork); about 1.5 cups
Per serving: Calories: 398; fat 12.7g (sat 1.9g; mono 7.2g; poly 2.3g); protein: 22.7; carb: 49.3; fiber 3.7g; chol: 34mg; iron: 3.7mg sodium: 763mg

Reviews:
Based on my major mom foul, I was a little worried about the hubs b/c at one point he wasn't sure he was going to be able to eat. Luckily he manned up and was able to finish his meal. Both the kid and the hubs liked it overall, but thought it was too saucy. I did not think it was too saucy, and I thought the flavor was nice. The kid, hubs and babe all had rolls - and yes, I made sure I ripped the pieces into teeny, tiny bits of bread.

Ranking:
Three Forks: Easy to prepare, good flavor.

PS - I completely forgot to snap a photo tonight, and the one from the magazine doesn't show a ton. Instead, I leave you with this:

This is in no way even close to representative of how the hubs looks, btw!