I've finally gotten back into the swing of making new meals. This week I picked up two packs of boneless pork chops. For one I had a plan and for the other I decided to improvise. And by improvise I mean "grab boxes of side dishes and 'just add___' meals from my parents' kitchen so that I don't have to go to the grocery store". The first meal I made was Tuesday night. It was ridiculously simple:


Pork & Beans

One 9x9 casserole dish
1 can (28oz) Bush's baked beans
Bacon (how much is up to you)
1 lb boneless pork chops
1 medium onion

Fry the bacon, cut it into pieces. Cut your onion into chunks. Add the baked beans, bacon and onion to the casserole dish. In a skillet, pan fry the pork chops with a couple tablespoons of olive oil for 3 minutes per side over medium-high heat. If you have thick pork chops, you're going to want to reduce heat to medium and increase the cook time to maybe 4-5 minutes per side. Set the pork chops on top of the baked beans and bake at 350 for 16-20 minutes. If the heat isn't conducting well enough to heat the beans *and* finish the pork chops you may need to turn the broiler on for the last 5 minutes or so. Plate and serve.

Red Curry, Rice & Pork Chops

This one is technically cheating, but it really wouldn't be that hard to replicate if you were planning a trip to the grocery store. We used an Archer Farms Indian Inspired Red Curry meal kit and added to it ourselves. However I am going to post the ingredients as if we made it ourselves, because we threw away half the sauces and soups it came with.

1 lb boneless pork chops
3 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
Salt & Pepper
1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs (seasoned to taste)
1 egg + 1 tablespoon water (beaten)
1 cup uncooked white rice

Curry Sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 lime, juiced

Rub the pork chops with salt and pepper to taste. Add 3tbsp Worcestershire sauce and let stand for 10 minutes. Dip the pork chops in your egg wash, followed by bread crumbs. We mixed in some Penzey's Bavarian Seasoning with our bread crumbs, though I am not sure if it made much of a difference. Pan fry the breaded pork chops with 3 tbsp olive oil over medium high heat for 3-4 minutes per side, then finish in the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Cook the rice per the instructions on the package. For the curry sauce, place a small pot over medium heat and coat with the oil. Stir the red curry paste into the pan and fry that up until aromatic. Slowly pour in the coconut milk and continue to stir to incorporate. Add the lime juice (and 1 of the squeezed out halves for added flavor) and cook for 5 to 10 minutes to thicken. Plate the rice, top with curry and serve with pork chops on top or on the side.

We also made a box of couscous because the rice portion included in our meal box was very small. The couscous was ok, but it didn't really fit.

An alternate approach to making this meal would be to cut the uncooked pork chops into strips, saute them for approximately 5 minutes total and then finish them off in a 5-10 minute high simmer of curry.