Grilled Chinese Pork Tenderloin

Grilling season is finally here!  Is it me, or did it seem to take forever to arrive??  With Memorial day just around the corner, this is an excellent main course dish to make on your grill.  Pork Tenderloin keeps it lean and the marinade gives it tons of flavor.  I served it with some Asian flavored sesame rice and some grilled zucchini.  Yum.

I only marinaded the meat for about 2 hours before I cooked it off...but I can only imagine the flavor being more intense if you marinade it longer. (which would be a good thing)  I intend to plan a little bit better and leave it to marinade longer next time I make this.

If you have never used it before, the black bean sauce is a very pungent ingredient. It can be easily found in most Asian sections of  the grocery store.  It mellows beautifully with the additional ingredients.  The sugar in the marinade gives the meat a nice char when you grill it.  I didn't alter the original recipe one bit, except instead of cooking it in the oven, I grilled it. And because I was lazy, I used ground ginger and garlic powder in place of the fresh ingredients.  You can find the recipe I used HERE. 

Pork tenderloin is a great meat because it is so lean.  For this recipe, a very generous 8oz. serving is only 222 calories and 5.5g of fat or 5 Points+. 

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This was an incredibly easy and very delicious pork tenderloin dish.  My youngest said he felt like he was eating in a 5star restaurant when I served it.  lol  I don't know about that, but it really was restaurant quality food.  One word of caution, don't overcook your pork tenderloin.  Leaving just a tad of pink in the middle will keep the meat moist and tender.  If pink pork freaks you out, use an instant read meat thermometer and cook the meat to around 140 degrees F.  Remove the meat from it's heat source, cover loosely in foil for about 10 minutes before you slice it.  This will allow the internal temperature to rise to 145 ish and allow the juices to settle.   In fact, in recent years the United States Department of Agriculture lowered the safe temperature of pork from 160 degrees F to 145 degrees F. 

I managed to pick up some herbs yesterday!  yay!  Now I just need to find some time to plant them in the ground and pot them.  Looks like it's going to be a nice day today, so that is on the agenda.  Another thing I need to take care of this week is getting my driver's license renewed.  Boo to that.  Here in Ohio, that has to be done every 4 years.  When I compare photos, I realize just how old I am getting...lol  I read somewhere that New York state residents only need to renew every 10 years!  Is that true?  How long do you go in your state before your license needs to be renewed?