If you ask most people about what they want when they make dinner and they will probably tell you they want something to be fast or easy or cheap or any combo of the three. (I personally prefer all three!!)
Most of the year, I am exhausted after a long day of teaching, but I still need to make dinner because, lets face it, teaching doesn't exactly pull in the big bucks, and dining out every night is simply out of the question! I also genuinely enjoy cooking... it becomes a de-stresser of sorts. I tend to bake or cook when I am stressed out or upset about things. For example, when I was told I was going to be moved to the high school at the end of last school year, I did LOTS of baking. I liked teaching at the small one grade school where I was, and I am still upset about moving away from all of my school friends. I am in the process of getting settled at my new school and that stress is starting to rear its ugly head again. I found myself this afternoon forcing myself to stay out of the kitchen so I wouldn't make cookies for no reason.
Instead of eating the rest of my weight watcher points for the year, I decided to look for something to make for dinner. I am NOT a huge pork chop fan, so I don't tend to make pork chop or loins very often. This week, however, pork loin was on sale at Publix so I grabbed a package. My husband, Billy, said it best tonight at the dinner table, "At 2.97 for the whole package, that's way cheaper than tacos!!" I do love a taco, and use the inherent cheapness of tacos as an excuse to make them often! :)
Tonight, however, I make a new FEC meal- pan seared pork loin with garlic cheese biscuits and sauteed apple and onions. I think that the meal turned out GREAT and Billy said it was a keeper.
The pork was just seasoned on each side with grill seasoning and a little bit of salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I heated a couple of tablespoons of EVOO in the bottom of a saute pan on medium high heat and then cooked the pork on each side for about 2 minutes.... Easy right!!
I got the biscuit recipe from the back of the bisquick box- it was also super easy-- Bisquick, cheese, milk, minced garlic, garlic powder and melted butter were all the ingredients. The only thing I do differently is add more garlic and cheese. The more of those, the better!! 10 minutes later at 450 and YUM!
The apples and onions were what I was most worried about since I hadn't attempted this recipe before.
I sliced about 2 small onions into thin slices. I didn't have any green apples, or whole apples for that matter, but I have pre-sliced apples that I eat for snacks, so I just used them. I used about 15 slices of the pre-sliced apples and cut them into thinner slices as well. I heated another skillet to medium high heat and put in 2 tablespoons of butter. Once that had mostly melted, I put in my onions and apples and cooked them until they were just tender. It took about 7 minutes. Once tender, I added a tablespoon and a half of brown sugar and stirred it in. I cooked that for about 5 more minutes so that the sugar had coated and melted onto the onions and apples. SO good!! I don't know why I was worried!!
Try the apple and onion recipe and I promise, you will love it with the pork! The sweet apples and onions with the slightly smokey and savory pork is amazing!!
Eat something good for me!
Emily G
