Friday, May 7, 2010

mmmm..... Friday = Food Day

Yes, I do have some baby weight I still need to lose. I was not one of the lucky breastfeeding moms who dropped the weight in no time. Another downfall to the situation is I like to eat- not crap, but good food. BUT “good food” is not always healthiest for you! Not to mention Steven cooks for a living- always the temptation around for an amazing from scratch meal. Lately I have been working on my cooking skills. I have been trying to use whatever I could find in the house to make a good quality meal. No planning, no recipes NOTHING. It has actually been kind of nice not planning groceries around specific meals. I keep a variety of natural and organic meats and produce around. For me it is about being spontaneous. I want to be a well rounded cook, one of the reasons, unless I am baking I don’t measure a thing. So here I am deciding that I will share some of my cooking adventures with you guys- I would love to hear about some of your favorite recipes or cooking tips!

Yes, I know this meal is not a diet friendly meal-but it sure was good! Moral of my story- I think I am going to enjoy eating for a while...it is summer time so there will be lots of activities to burn it all off!
Last night was my first time ever cooking Pork Chops. I am not a huge fan of pork, and at one point in time I was a vegetarian- but the 1 ¾ in thick fresh cuts were beautiful to me :) They weren’t cheap so I prayed I would not screw them up! Here is a run down of what I did, remember I was making this up along the way!

Basic Ingredients



  • Thick cut Pork Chops
  • Fresh Garlic
  • Large Red Delicious Apples (found these babies on sale for 99 cents per pound and they were huge!)
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Onion- can be of your choice but I used a yellow onion.
And the extras…all optional according to taste I suppose-but let me tell ya, I would have paid a lot of money in a restaurant for the way that these turned out!.

  • Cumin
  • Coriander
  • White wine
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Brown sugar
  • Butter

Pre heat oven to 375

Cut up onion and 2 large Apples- Toss them in a skillet with EVOO, white wine, crushed garlic, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Let them cook down until the apples are soft and the onions become transparent.


Then add the Pork Chops. Brown them evenly on each side approx- 5-6 minutes per side. Add small amounts of EVOO and white wine as needed to keep things moist. Ad some additional seasonings if you would like.



When finished browning-transfer Pork Chops to a glass baking dish. Cover them with the apples and onions-basically everything left in the skillet! Put them in the 375 degree oven- Mid way through the cook time slice s few small pieces of butter on top and sprinkle a little bit of brown sugar.

                                   
The cook time will depend on how thick the chops are and how well you browned them in the skillet. Mine took about 45 minutes to be completely done. Check them by sticking a fork in and twisting- the meat should feel tender. OR if you want to be sure slice the thicker Chop in the middle-make sure it is white all the way through.




Then Serve- went very well along side of some Garlic Mashed Potatoes!



So since I have dubbed today my Friday-Food Day I am going to post another cool kid friendly recipe for What my boys call breakfast Banana Splits! OHHH and these are healthy-PROMISE :)  Check back because they are REALLY yummy!

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