Dinner For 5!!

Hello everyone! I am the stay at home mom part of the blog and I have the task of cooking dinner for my family of 5: Me, my husband Chris, sons Kevin and Matthew (5) and Sean (3). I am very fortunate that my children seem to have very good appetites and are willing to try a lot of new things. I love garlic and cook with it often so they love food with lots of flavor!

For tonight's dinner I had 4 boneless pork chops sitting in the refrigerator ready to be made into something. I just had no idea what to do with them. I make pork often but it is not my husband's favorite and I get pretty bored with it. At the last second I looked in the pantry and saw that I had a packet of McCormick's Grill Mates Bourbon Brown Sugar marinade so I thought why not? I gathered my ingredients for the pork along with broccoli which I roasted with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and a box of scalloped potatoes. I chose the potatoes over the usual side dish we have with pork, brown rice.

I marinated the pork following the easy directions on the back of the Grill Mates packet and let that sit in the refrigerator until I prepped the other ingredients for my side dishes. I decided to chop up some red onion to go with the pork and I roasted it in the oven along with my broccoli to make it sweet before adding it to the pan at the end of the cooking. For the broccoli I used the following ingredients: 

• 1 bag fresh broccoli
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 T. extra virgin olive oil

I toss all the ingredients together on a cookie sheet lined with foil and roast them in a pre-heated 400 degree oven until just a little soft with crunchy edges. The broccoli gets an almost nutty taste to it and adds a nice twist!                                        


Of course the potatoes were a no brainer, I just followed the microwave directions on the box. I do not really like the scalloped potatoes but my husband does so I decided since I was making broccoli for the 2nd time this week for me and my youngest son I could make something Chris would enjoy.

I heated olive oil in a pan on the stove and then added the marinated pork cooking a few minutes on each side until almost cooked through. The pan had all the left over marinade which became a sauce and all these crunchy bits that were sticking to it so I added a little balsamic vinegar to the pan, brought it to a bubble and scraped the bits off the bottom. I then took the onions out of the oven and added them to the pan to gather all the yummy flavor! The pork went back in until cooked through and dinner was ready!!!!

My family enjoyed this dinner!!! The pork was super moist and the onions added a sweet flavor and they became caramelized. Broccoli is my favorite vegetable so I make it often. I now know I can do something with pork that is quick and easy!

By the way, I have to add that I am in love with my onion holder!! I rarely use the whole onion so I use this handy dandy holder often. It keeps the onion fresh and also keeps it from stinking up the refrigerator!