The challenge for today? Make something tasty, low in points, and liked by the Spawn! As anyone who has ever cooked for a teenaged girl knows, this is not an easy task.

I decided to do something with pork tenderloin. My idea was to create a "Tower of Pork" and here's how I did it...

First, the ingredients:



1/2 cup citrus fruit juice (I used Dynamo Juice from Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp. sesame seed oil
1 T. brown sugar

1 pork tenderloin (sorry, I didn't weigh it until after it was cooked)

First, I made the marinade by combining the first 7 ingredients. I stirred it well to make sure that the sugar dissolved completely.

Then, I sliced the pork into 1/4" thick slices:



When it was all sliced, then I pounded it out so that it was very thin. In the picture, you'll see that I cover the pieces with plastic wrap before pounding. This is so that the pork doesn't stick to the mallet.



All the pork went into a container and the marinade went in with it (Everybody into the pool!):



I put the pork in the fridge and let it "steep" for a couple of hours. If you were pressed for time, I think 30 minutes would do the trick too, though.

After marinating, I quickly grilled the pork on my Calphalon grill pan:



It has to be done in batches so I started ahead of time and just set the cooked pork aside. When it was all finished, I gave it a zap in the microwave just to heat it up a bit. Because it's so thin, it cooks very quickly. The marinade might smoke a bit too (because of the sugar) so turn the fan on!

I also strained and reduced the marinade to use as a sauce. I strained it first to remove the garlic and then, in a small pan, boiled it, skimming any foam off, until it was reduced by half. This part is completely optional.

To serve, I shredded some cabbage as a foundation for the "Tower". Here it is, served with rice cooked in chicken broth and steamed bok choy:



Total pointage for the entire meal, with sauce: 7

4 oz. pork: 4
sauce: 1
rice: 2
bok choy: 0

The Spawn liked it. Phew!