Apple Pork Chops

Good morning!  :-)  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I am busy as a bee studying for midterms, which are this week.  I cannot believe that we are in the middle of October and that the semester is already halfway over.  We are finally experiencing some beautiful weather in Arizona, so my husband and I are loving that.  Temperatures are in the sixties in the morning and later in the night now, and we are super happy about that!  ;-)

I have a very simple dinner recipe for you all today that I found in Rachael Ray's magazine (the issue is October 2012).  This was exceptionally delicious and very filling -- we had leftovers, but I will be honest, the whole reheating-in-the-microwave thing probably wasn't the best way to go about it.  Instead, if you are reheating, I would simply preheat your oven to 250 degrees and put in the pork and apples for about a half an hour or so.  Check it, see if it's warm throughout, and then enjoy!

Apple Pork Chops

From: Rachael Ray Magazine (October 2012 Issue)

Ingredients

-3 tablespoons Mrs. Dash Original Seasoning Blend (I didn't have this particular type, so I used Mrs. Dash Onion and Garlic Blend)

-4 4-ounce pork loin chops

-2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, seeded, and cut into 8 wedges each (as you can see, I forgot to peel them!)

-2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

1. Sprinkle the apples and pork chops evenly with the seasoning blend.

2. Heat a saute pan to medium heat.  Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and cook the apples for 3 minutes.

3. Move the apples to a plate.  Add the remaining olive oil to the pan and brown the pork chops on both sides until they are cooked through.

4. Return the apples to the pan on top of the pork chops and cook for 3 minutes, turning the chops once.

I hope you enjoy this Fall recipe as much as my husband and I did!  :-)

xo,

maria

Cookies, and a Casserole

Hey, there!  :-)

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!  I spent mine doing homework, grocery shopping, accomplishing a few DIYs (which I will share with you this week!), and hanging out with my hottie husband.  ;-)  I spent a lot of time in my kitchen last night, and I wanted to share with you a couple of links to the recipes that I made.

First, I should tell you that my husband and I are trying to eat a lot healthier.  For me, this means finding recipes that taste great and a lot of times are versions of our favorite comfort food, but aren't high-calorie.  I made cookies so that I could freeze them and we could pull out one cookie at a time, thaw it, and enjoy it -- instead of grabbing the bag and going cookie-crazy.

I went to the grocery store yesterday, and while I was gone, Grey completely cleaned up our kitchen (it was a bit of a mess when I left).

That was seriously the best surprise, ever.  Then, I got to cookin'!

Yeah, I know -- I made it a mess again.  ;-)  Don't worry, I cleaned it all up.

For dinner, I made a Chicken and Broccoli Noodle Casserole.  This was seriously so good!

I would definitely recommend preparing this earlier in the day, that way all you have to do is pop it in the oven for 20 minutes and you're set.  This took me about an hour and a half to prepare -- there is quite a bit of chopping involved.  Plus the fact that everything that could have gone wrong in my kitchen while I was making it did, and there were a couple of mini-meltdowns involved.  ;-)  But the end result was worth it!

Next, I made these Pumpkin Molasses Cookies.  I think you need to make them, too.  They are so good and a great introduction to Fall!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Have you made any yummy recipes lately?  Does Fall get you back in the kitchen after a hot Summer?

xo,

Maria

*Update* -- These cookies freeze beautifully.  My hubby and I pulled out two and let them thaw for a couple of hours while I made dinner, and they are just as soft as ever.  YUM!