Pork Chops with Roasted Apples, Mixed Green Veggies, and Cranberry Suace

My "No Dishes to Clean" Face

Protein: fresh and easy
Veggies: fresh and easy

Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Clean-Up: virturally nothing - just the plate you eat it from
Tim's Additions: nada - felt lazy tonight

So let's chaulk this tonight's dinner up to my, "worker smarter, not harder" attitude.  Everything tonight came pre-packaged and ready to heat. Couple of upsides to this - while the chops were cooking in the 375 degree oven I was able to finish off some database work (no 2 am night tonight) and the only dishes you are have to clean is the plate you eat it off of.

A Multi-tasker's Dinner - But Not Faux Food

The pork chops where pretty thick cut.  Remove the caramel citrus sauce, cover with foil, and place in the oven for 25 minutes - the package does say 17-22 minutes but, they were still too pink for my taste, hence the extra time. When it is done with the first round, pull it out of the oven and dump the sauce over it - throw it back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

When you pull it out of the oven, let the chops rest for a couple of minutes. This is a great time to zap the veggies - that will chew up another 2 minutes and 30 seconds (I don't run the veggies the full three minutes as I think it overcooks them).  I had some leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving so this was a great opportunity to use it up. Plating is pretty straight forward.

Considering that I needed to remove plastic covers and use a microwave the meal exceeded expectations. The one thing I would have eliminated was the caramel citrus sauce...it just wasn't needed.  In fact, I think I would have fired up the grill and done something different with the pork - not sure what but, that "glaze" just didn't work for me...too sweet for my taste.  However, if I had done that, then it would not have been a great multi-tasker's dinner.