Now that the weather is starting to improve, I come in from the barn later in the evening and would rather have something convenient for dinner. Something that doesn’t end up being a handful of pretzels. I haven’t done this in a while, but it made sense to start trying out recipes for freezer meals (the challenge being they have to be adaptable for my diet – mostly stick to AIP). This was a winner that I took from several techniques to get something that worked. There is dairy in it, but cheese has been my hardest thing to give up, and I find if there is NO other dairy for a while, it works. This comes together quickly, it’s very good, will freeze well, and is modified for AIP.
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Breaded Pork Chop Cutlets
I am generally not a fan of breaded anything, but these were awesome and very simple. I brined the pork chops for a couple of hours before cooking, which really does make all the difference IMO, no matter what the cooking method (I’ve started doing it with chicken breast too, and get great results). This is from this month’s Cooking Light, and we had it with mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts – we both loved it.
Meat Pies
It seems like only yesterday that we went to London and Brussels, but it has been three years! Time really flies. To celebrate, we had a weekend of food we enjoyed there, from pubs around here with lovely Belgian and English beers on tap, to mussels and frites, baked beans (Shawn loves a full English breakfast 🙂 ), and finally meat pies. I won’t lie, I actually got the idea to make them to go with Shawn’s awesome beans when I picked up our Harry Potter cookbook and saw, “Molly Weasley’s meat pies.” How could I resist that? Coupled with the fact that Shawn had been wanting to make them for a while made it a no-brainer to give them a shot. We made two hand pies, a traditional beef and onion British pie, and a Tourtiere, which is a French-Canadian pork meat pie. We preferred the beef, but the pork was good too and with some adjustment (more gravy – it was a bit dry) would be excellent. These were a lot of fun, and if you make hand pies, you will have plenty to freeze for later!
Vietnamese-Spiced Pork Chops
This Cooking Light recipe was good for a quick weeknight dinner, especially when grilling season is over and we typically like to grill our pork chops. We did brine the chops for about an hour prior to cooking them, which I think always makes a huge difference. We had this with baby bok choy for a very low cal and carb but filling dinner.
Asian Pork Brine
Another in the (delicious) quest for more excellent pork chop brines – I think this is now up there with my other favorite’s, Jon’s Cider chops and beer brined chops. Awesome on the grill! I adapted this from Rasa Malaysia.
Herb Rubbed Pork Chops with Pesto
This was another grilled pork chop recipe (and we have yet to tire of grilled pork chops!) that we liked a lot. Very easy for a weeknight dinner. There were no bone-in chops at the store, but the thick boneless were actually fine. I did do a quick brine of these before the herb rub/grilling. The pesto was from our basil, and we grilled some of our squash as a side. This came from Serious Eats.
Caribbean Brine Pork Chops
We’ve had so much success with brined chops that I’ve been looking through a few other brines to try them out. This was good, but too sweet for me. If you like sweet with a nice hint of spice, you would probably really enjoy this. I mean, I didn’t leave anything on the plate. 😉 We had this with our squash tossed with some of our dill and chives, and some corn we picked up. Will be corn season in Virginia soon!! 🙂
Beer-Brined Pork Chops
The more we try different recipes, the more I think pork chops are pretty much my favorite thing on the grill. And this was probably my favorite recipe to date. The only thing I’d change is to add more garlic and sage to the rub next time…and it is still great as is! Otherwise…awesome! We served this with some grilled squash and cucumber and black eyed pea salad.
Grilled Pork Chops with Garlic-Lime Sauce
So this was great. Probably we’re just enamored with any good pork chop recipes right now, but this is seriously worth a go. I like how adjustable it is. I actually think the “sauce/vinagrette” would be even better over fish, so I’ll use it again for that. We served this with steamed broccoli and tomato and black bean quinoa.
Jon’s Grilled Cider Pork Chops
Our friend Jon is awesome at grilling, and he passed on this recipe to our pals Missy and John, so we recently got to enjoy it at their house…and immediately needed the recipe! You just can’t go wrong with this, and it was delicious leftover as well! Can’t wait to make it again. We had this with some simple sautéed brussels sprouts. Check out the recipe here on Missy’s site.