Last week I realized that I've been consistently making my kids chicken as the staple protein of every meal. The reason is pretty simple: I'm afraid of attempting anything with red meat and, thus far, chicken has seemed like my safest bet in that my kids will eat it and there's a lot of "easy" recipes I can [attempt] to make with it. So, this week I decided it was time to give the poultry a rest. I thought my kids might enjoy pork so I did a quick search on Pinterest for an easy Pork Chop recipe and I came up with One Pan Parmesan Pork Chops & Veggies.
At first I thought that would make my cooking portion of the meal easier. But that wasn't the case. The recipe called for the pork, veggies, and potatoes to be prepared with the same ingredients on the same baking sheet, so really my prep was all still the same. The actual bonus to removing the pork was that the veggies wouldn't cook soaking in meat juices, so I would be able to prepare them all together as opposed to cooking some in a separate dish for myself! Prep of the veggies was really easy and came together in about 10 minutes. The corn bread couldn't have been easier. I grabbed the Marie Calendar's mix in the bag so i just had to add water and mix. Once I had the veggies and corn bread in the oven, I was feeling pretty good. With the preparation of the pork off my plate, I was feeling REALLY brave and decided to cook myself some tofu to go with dinner. I'm a vegetarian but I've never made tofu. I know. I was a little apprehensive but chopped up the brick of tofu nonetheless. I added a little olive oil in a pan, heated the oil, and then proceeded to fry up the tofu. Once it was starting to get golden brown, I added some teriyaki marinade that I had in my fridge to the pan. It turned out delicious and went perfectly with my veggies! Once it was time to put it all together, I had the kids set the table. They were SO excited to have a big family dinner. The spread consisted of: warm fluffy corn bread, BBQ grilled pork chops (thanks, Dad!), mixed greens salad, parmesan and garlic roasted green beans and potatoes, and my tofu. Wow! It was all SO good!! The best part was that the preparation was totally stress free, since my Mom was keeping the kids occupied while my Dad and I cooked. We all so thoroughly enjoyed the good meal and good company that we agreed we should try and make this a weekly get together. This was a major 20% WIN! (PS-no pics of the kid noshing this week. We were all so busy enjoying that I forgot to snap a few shots!)
2 Comments
Sarah
3/30/2016 01:00:49 pm
Those veggie and that corn bread look amazing!! I was literally drooling this whole time. I am so glad you are gaining confidence and including other family members on your adventure. I know the grill can be scary- but its honestly so easy! All you need is a cheap meat thermometer and boom- yummy meat. Anyways, keep it up! only one week left, but i hope you continue this adventure after this project is done. It sounds like you and your kids love it. And after, you won't have the pressure to post about it :)
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Sophia Monaco
4/5/2016 04:29:59 pm
Everything looks like it turned out so well! I love that your dad jumped in to grill the pork. I feel like my dad would have done the same thing! Next time you fry tofu, you should dip it in corn starch first, then pan fry it. This gives it a crunchy shell that your kids might like too! Great post, Sarah!
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Sarah HunterLifelong learner, dedicated dreamer, mommy on the move. Archives
April 2016
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