Today I pick up my girls after school and we head straight to the gym for my 7 year old daughter’s gymnastics class. We arrive home after class at supper time–with my husband only arriving 10 minutes before us. Because of this time frame, I routinely cook our dinner meal on these “after school activity” days in the afternoon. While pre-cooking may not be approved by gourmet food television, it has a practical fit in the real world. Although I confess that I often grumble that I’m cooking a full meal at 1:30 in the afternoon. And then I do the dishes because who wants to come home to a dirty kitchen? Sigh. So if my evening options are arriving home to no dinner versus a “heat and eat” 
option, I will choose the latter.
Today I utilized my supply of fresh herbs again. I made a simple and fast herb mustard pork tenderloin. I picked a handful of green seasonings from outside–parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme. I forgot that I also have chives in another corner of the garden, and they would have been a delicious addition.
I coated the pork tenderloin with about 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard. Any type of grainy mustard would be flavorful as well. I chopped the herbs and mixed them in a small bowl with 1 large clove of minced garlic and a splash of olive oil to make a “paste.”
I then spread the herb paste very gently over the mustard on the pork. This will be messy! I baked the pork at 425 degrees for about 30-35 minutes (my pork tenderloin weighed 1.3 pounds) and until the internal temperature reached 160 degrees with a meat thermometer. The aroma of the garlic roasting in the oven on top of the pork fills the kitchen–makes it hard to wait to eat until after gymnastics class.
The Pink Lily Pad and Two Tadpoles 