Last week Denise and I did pretty good finding food the kids enjoyed while staying within our nutritional guidelines. That doesn’t mean we struggled with cravings but we managed to appeal to our taste bud’s wants while staying within our health food needs. One recipe I came up with this weekend was a spin off of Robert Rodriguez Puerco Pibil he cooks on his 10 minute cooking school video.
The original recipe is a delicious slow roasted pork that is cooked in banana leaves. The pork butt is a big no no, so I changed it up a bit so we could still enjoy the dish. Instead of pork I used lean turkey tenderloin (drier but still meat!). The dish also calls for a lot of orange juice, so I used a liquid called bitter orange that has very little sugar.
Overall the taste was dead on and the kids ate it up. We had it over brown rice and then a couple of days later with corn tortillas. Best part of this dish is preparation. The kids thought the banana leaves were really cool and Zoe enjoyed squeezing limes. Give it a try and let us know what you think. It’s definitely a new staple in our recipe box! Almost all the ingredients you have to get at a Fiesta or Sellars Brother but shopping for new stuff is also a fun adventure.
Turkey Pibil
Two turkey breast tenderloin
5 limes
Annatto seasoning
Salt
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup bitter orange
Banana leaves
Preheat the oven to 400. squeeze limes and mix with garlic, about 1 tsp salt, 1/4 cup annatto seasoning, and bitter orange. Cube the turkey into 1 inch cubed. Add the turkey and seasoning to a zip top bag and set aside. Take the banana leaves and line a deep pan so there won’t be any liquid escaping. Dump the turkey mixture with the liquid on top of the leaves then cover with more leaves. Seal the pan up tight with aluminum foil and set in the oven. Cook at 400 for about 20 minutes then back off the heat to 300 for 20 more minutes. Unwrap and enjoy!
