Turning Deals Into Meals - Honey & Spice Glazed Pork Chops

Honey & Spice Glazed Pork Chops made freezer meal #3 for the week. It replaced Smothered Pork Chops in the weekly meal plan after I decided I'd had enough bacon in my diet for one week. Like the past two freezer meals, we ate half tonight and put half into the freezer for future use.

The pork chop glaze was easy to whip up, and the entire meal was prepped and cooked in under 30 minutes.

After attempting to photograph this meal, I realized two things.
1) It's awfully hard to take good photos of a brown meal, especially with a point and shoot digital. How do you make a tan pork chop covered in brown sauce look as tasty as it actually is?
2) I desperately want a DSLR camera.

Until I round up $800 extra dollars, you'll have to bear with me and my lack luster pics. You'll just have to take my word for it, that these pork chops are yummy - just the right amount of sweet.

The recipe that follows was adapted from What's Cookin' Chicago?.

Honey and Spice Glazed Pork Chops

Ingredients:
Cooking spray or a small amount of olive oil (enough to thinly coat pan)
4 (4-ounce) boneless center-cut loin pork chops (I had bone in chops and trimmed them)
salt (to taste)
black pepper (to taste)
1/2 cup honey 
4 tablespoons Dijon mustard 
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger or ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 

Directions - half to eat now, half for freezer:

• In a small bowl, combine honey, mustard, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Set aside.
• Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. 
• Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper, cook 2 minutes on each side until browned. Remove half the pork chops from pan and set aside to cool for freezer meal.
• Reduce heat to medium-low. Add half the honey mixture to the pork. Cook 10 minutes or until done, turning pork once. Thinner chops will need less time.
• Remove pork from the skillet and allow the sauce to boil until thickened and slightly reduced for a glaze. Spoon glaze over the pork before serving.
• For Freezer Meal - Place reserved pork chops in a labeled, gallon sized freezer bag. Add remaining sauce, seal, and freeze.

* To prepare frozen meal - Remove from the freezer and defrost. What's Cookin' suggests transferring the contents into a crockpot, covering, and cooking on low for 4-6 hours or on high for 3-5 hours. I'm wondering if the meal can be put back into a skillet to cook. I'll let you know if I try.


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