Monday morning I knew I wasn’t going to want to cook. I had cooked a lot over the weekend, and, well, I just didn’t think I could clean the kitchen one more time. Not today anyway… But I also knew we had to eat dinner at some point. So before we left the house I grabbed what meat we had in the fridge, which happened to be some super thick pork chops, and tossed it in the dutch oven, with some spices and tamari for some slow cooking. Anyway, it took me less than 5 minutes to get the sauce and meat ready, and I took all of the easier routes (see the “or”s in parenthesis next to the ingredients list and you’ll see what I mean.).
Anyway, since MLK Day was such a beautiful day here in Atlanta, we HAD to spend the whole day outside. But, I had no idea that we would be gone all day long. I was lucky I did my 5 minutes of “work” in the morning before we left.
The kids and I started off with a couple of games of tennis and then went on a great hike down to the river with some friends.
A boy and his stick…Do you have any idea how cold his feet were on the hike back to the car?? Bad mom.
And the girl he was staring at. The boy has good taste…
And the other girl, he wasn’t staring at…
I grew up going to this place and climbing the rocks. Is so beautiful and there really is no better playground…
From the streets of Buckhead, this is our tough motley crew. Oh Tate, why did that front tooth ever have to come out way before it’s time? When do those front ones come in again? 7 or 8? Uggghhh…He’s such a bruiser.
When we got home, the kids and I were absolutely staaaarrrved!!! It was so nice walking in and having the house smell of a warm cooked meal, especially these Asian Pork Chops (but do a roast, read below under “directions”).
This is what I made…
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs pork roast or tenderloin (or chops if that is what you have)
- 1/4 cup Tamari GF soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 1 tbsp yellow mustard
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp diced fresh (or dried onions)
- 1 1/2 tsp fresh minced garlic (or garlic powder)
- 1 tsp fresh ginger (or ginger powder)
- little butter or oil for searing
Directions:
Preheat oven to 200. In a small bowl, mix ingredients above. Then sear both sides of your pork roast or chops with a little butter in the dutch oven, add the sauce, cover the lid to your dutch oven and go!
Now, I way overcooked this but that was because I cooked it like it was a whole tenderloin or roast versus chops (not on purpose) but it was still great. Alice ate it for breakfast this morning and then has some more for snack after school. Next time I would just use a whole roast. More leftovers is always a good thing too!
If you do cook a roast in your dutch oven then leave covered on 200 for approximately 6 hours. Or if using a slow cooker, cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. If you do chops, cook them for about half the time, assuming they are each at least 1 1/2 inch think.
It looks dry, doesn’t it? Well it was a little. But that was because I cooked it for waaay too long. I think I cooked it twice as long as I should have but honestly we all completely devoured it and it was still great.
I did add some precooked rice and quinoa for the kiddos and my favorite spinach salad with avocado, pepitas roasted in grass fed butter, and slices of a Pink Lady Apple with some Tessamae’s Balsalmic dressing to complete this super quick and easy meal. We were actually all so hungry on the way home the kids said they wanted Willie’s for dinner but after dinner Alice actually said “that was soooo much better than Willie’s!!.” And I hardly did anything!! That was my kind of meal!