Pork Chops and Roasted Parmesan Potatoes…and A Crazy Drug Store Find

Last week I went through a huge cooking/baking spree and we ate really good and healthy. Since moving into the new house, I’ve made meals, but not tried new recipes.  I was missing that and have been craving some good home-cooking.  The only “staple” we really have around here is homemade pizza.  I could do it everyday, but the hubby says otherwise, so we usually do it Friday nights.  It’s a really nice tradition to have with our family.

I apologize, but I didn’t take any pics of the meal…just trust me, both of these are totally worth making.

Oven Baked Pork Chops

3 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp milk
1 cup cornbread mix or 1 cup pork stuffing mix (I didn’t have this on hand, so I used crushed up saltine crackers.  Ritz crackers would be great too.)
4 pork chops

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven tho 425 degrees.
2.  Place butter or margarine in a 13x9x2 pan.
3.  Put pan in oven for 3 minutes or until butter is melted.
4.  Stir together egg and milk.
5.  Put stuffing mix in a resealable bag and crush (or leave as is).
6.  Dip pork chops in egg mixture.
7.  Coat with stuffing mix (or crackers).
8.  Put chops on top of melted butter in pan.
9.  Bake 20 minutes.
10.Turn.
11.Bake 10-15 minutes more.  (I baked mine for an add’l 20 minutes because the pork chops I had were super thick.)

As a side dish, I saw this recipe come across my FB feed and decided to try it.  I’m not a huge potato fan (unless it’s in the form of fries), but I knew the hubby would appreciate them.  Turns out, they were the-bomb-dot-com (I don’t think people actually say this anymore…don’t care…they were)!

Parmesan Upside Down Baked Potatoes

Parmesan Upside Down Baked Potatoes (photo via web)

Ingredients:
7 red potatoes, washed and cut in half (I used russetts)
2-3 Tbsp butter
6 Tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese
garlic powder
sea salt
freshly cracked pepper

1). Preheat oven to 400F. Melt butter in the bottom of a 9×13 glass pan.  (Now, since I was baking the pork chops at 425, I went with that temp and just put the potatoes on the highest rack in the oven…they didn’t burn at all.)

2). Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and seasonings over butter. Place potatoes cut side down and sprinkle more seasonings on top of potatoes.

3). Bake for 40-45 minutes or until cooked through. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before serving.

These recipes were super easy and quick to prepare.  I even had the kiddos get involved and help measure ingredients.  They have loads of fun doing it and I hope it instills the value of a good home-cooked meal.

So, for the lack of pics of food in this post, I will make up for it by posting some pics of the kiddos and a crazy find at Walgreens.

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Little Miss was finally on the mend on Sunday (she’s had a fever for 6 days, followed by a rash), so we headed to the park and took it easy on the swings.  She was just begging to get out of the house.  I have to admit, so was I.  I was going stir crazy being here 24/7. Cabin fever had definitely set in.

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This is what happened for about 10 minutes and then he woke up and was ready to go again.

Shampoo

I made a trip to Walgreens on Saturday night and found this on the shelf.  What in the world?!  The dork that I am, I came home and googled the product and surprisingly it got some great reviews.  Apparently it’s for people who have really short hair and want length rather quickly.  Looks like I won’t be needing this any time soon…my hair grows like a weed.  All-in-all, it was an ok weekend.  It’s never fun when one of your kids is sick.  How was your weekend?

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