Pork and Apples

After reading Biz's beautiful, brightly colored post the other day I had pork and apples on the brain.

So when I saw a 6 pack of boneless pork chops for a mere $3 I jumped at the idea of making my own version of this sweet and savory combination for dinner.

Growing up we usually had apple sauce with pork chops or pork loin, how about you?

6 boneless pork chops
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper, to taste

1 small onion, sliced thin
1 apple, chopped (I used red delicious)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup your favorite BBQ sauce (I used Jack Daniel's No. 7)
1/4 cup water

Begin by seasoning the chops with salt and pepper. Let the oil heat in the pan and then cook the pork for 2-4 minutes per side, depending on how thick they are. Once they are browned on either side, remove from the pan and place on a plate.

To the same pan add the onion, apple, and garlic. Allow to saute for a few minutes until everything begins to caramelize. Add the BBQ sauce and the water to thin it out. Simmer over medium high heat, uncovered, allowing to reduce for about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, return the pork chops (and any residual juice) to the pan. Cover the chops with some of the mixture and put a lid on the pan for 10 minutes, flipping the pork chops once halfway to make sure they are coated thoroughly.


This really hit the spot! Thanks for the idea, Biz! The pork was still moist and tender, while the sauce hit several notes of smoky, tart, sweet, and savory.

The above plate was Johnny's. I ate one very small pork chop and some of the roasted broccoli. I've been trying to make at least half of my meals be a big, loaded salad after failing miserably at the 101 Days of Summer Challenge. My goal had been to move more and tone up. While I did move more, unfortunately it did not counteract all the delicious food this summer! I ended up adding back any inches I had lost from the halfway check-in and I gained a whopping 7 pounds from the start of the challenge!

I had done a lot of chopping for dinner, so this particular salad wasn't that loaded. I usually start with a big bed of mixed greens and/or baby spinach. To that I like to add some mixture of avacado, fresh apples, oranges, and vegetables, canned beets, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, grated cheese, smoked salmon, boiled egg, and whatever leftovers I deem appropriate. It helps to have a wide variety of salad toppings to mix up so you don't get bored. My go to dressings are usually some variety of Newman's Own.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway before this Saturday!

And please take a few minutes to read my Project Food Blog Challenge #1 entry!