Discount Dinners: Italian Tomato Pork Loin

I love it when pork loin goes on sale! It is a lean versatile meat. I always buy the biggest one I can find in the store so that I can plan ahead to cut it in half for two meals. Kroger had it on sale for $1.66 lb. I was tempted to get two, but I settled for one this time.

Sometimes I'll roast a Brown Sugar Pork Loin. Other times I'll cut it in cubes and make Pork Teriyaki. On days when I don't want to do a lot of prep work, I'll make Italian Tomato Pork Loin. This is one of those recipes that just "came together" on it's own one day when I decided to "wing it" for dinner. It works really well in the crockpot as well. You can cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.

I start by cutting a larger (5-6 lb.) pork loin into 2 halves. I use one half for this recipe and save the rest for future recipe. In this case, I cut one half into boneless pork loin chops that I plan to marinade for another meal. I spent about $9.50 for the whole pork loin. My ingredients for this recipe are things I have on hand and inexpensive. So, my cost for dinner tonight was around $5 for the main course. It fed 5 of us with plenty leftover!

Ingredients for Italian Tomato Pork Loin

I slice in half first

Half goes in my casserole dish. The other half slices into pork loin chops.

Ingredients:
3 lb. pork loin
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon sugar
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

Preheat oven to 350 F

Place pork loin in 2-3 quart covered casserole dish. Sprinkle with Kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, and sugar. Pour entire can of tomatoes over pork loin. Cover and bake in preheated oven for about 2 hours. (Until internal temperature reaches 165 F.) Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Enjoy!