Pork...it's what's for dinner!

Wow...yet again it has been a long time since my last post! Not that I have a whole lot of readers, but to those who have enjoyed reading my blog...I am sorry :-)

So, with warmer weather on the horizon (I hope anyways), the desire to trim down from my winter hibernation is kicking in. So, I am trying to find foods that are a little bit healthier. Now when I say a little bit, I basically mean not deep fried and covered in yummy sauces or something I throw in the microwave. I also mean, not eating out as much. I know that pork is a leaner meat, but is one that we don't eat very much in our household. However, since I'm kind of getting bored of steak and a side or chicken and rice, I thought it might be a nice change.

So, here is what I'm making tonight:

• Oven Roasted Potatoes (BettyCrocker style)

• Pork Chops with Beer & Bacon Gravy - although I'm questioning how "healthy" this one is (probably isn't...which means it will probably taste good!)
  

I found the Pork Chop recipe on Food Network, and it sounded pretty good (it's a Rachel Ray recipe). I usually do the whole apple type pork chops, but again wanted something different. I'm excited, but nervous about this recipe. In the past I've cooked pork a little too long and naturally it comes out very dry and tough to eat. So, I'm hoping to cook it the correct amount of time and that it is good reheated. I'm also nervous about the beer aspect as I really do not like the taste of beer, but naturally alcohol cooked in foods always tastes so different.

Why does it need to be reheated? Oh yeah, because my poor husband works graveyard and doesn't get to eat dinner with me on most nights. So, what I can cook is sometimes limited by what will reheat well.

So far the recipes for both the potatoes and the pork seem to be pretty easy, and there's quite a bit of time in between prepping for both so you're not rushing to get the items started.


***HOW IT ALL TURNED OUT***

Okay...so my timing was a bit off with these two recipes. The pork takes much longer than all of the time elements that the recipe provides. So, my potatoes were done about 25 minutes before the pork...go figure. The potatoes were bland...next time I'll just make 'em like I usually do. But all together the pork recipe was VERY good. I used Blue Moon beer because it was all that we had in the house and I used beef flavored broth, instead of stock. I really enjoyed the gravy! Hopefully the next time that I make this recipe I'll be a bit speedier with it all and the timing will come out to be closer to what it should be!

On a side note...I really don't like cutting onions!