So, I’ve had a lot of cooking demonstrations lately. One that I just did was on Budget Cooking. Many people think that you just can’t be healthy on a budget. I disagree. You *can* eat healthy on a budget. I do it all the time. I’ll post my budget grocery shopping tips on a later blog installment, but let’s just start with my number one rule: Buy what’s in season! Whenever I shop, I look at what fruits, veggies, and meats/poultry/fish are on sale. Whatever is on sale goes in my cart. Then, I back into recipes for the week. It’s simple. It saves time and money.
Although some of the things in this particular recipes may or may not be on sale and in season right now, keep this one in your back pocket. We have tons of tomatoes from our garden right now, so this is a good one for us! If you are in a hurry to get dinner on the table, this is also a speedy fridge to table recipe. I hope you enjoy it!
- 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, divided
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 3 teaspoons olive oil, divided
- 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
- Four 4-ounce boneless, center-cut loin pork chops
- 3/4 cup of plain, non-fat Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
- 1 1/2 cups diced plum tomatoes (about 2 medium) . . . or whatever tomatoes you can get your hands-on (seed them!)
- 1 cup diced cucumber (again, seeded)
- 1/2 cup diced red onion
- Olive oil for cooking
Combine 2 tablespoons of the vinegar with the oregano and 2 teaspoons of olive oil along with the garlic in a zip-lock bag. Add the pork and seal it up. Marinate at room temp for about 20 minutes OR pop it in the refrigerator in the morning and pull it out for dinner when you get home in the evening.
While the pork is marinating, combine the remaining vinegar (1 tablespoon) and oil (1 teaspoon) along with the yogurt, dill, 1/8 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. Stir it up, cover it, and put it in the refrigerator.
Also while the pork is marinating, combine the tomatoes, cucumbers and onion along with 1/8 teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine.
Heat a grill pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add a little bit of olive oil. Remove the pork from the bag and toss the marinade (it’s done it’s job.). Sprinkle the pork with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. Add pork to the pan or skillet and cook for about 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove pork from pan and cover with foil, let rest for about 5 minutes.
Assemble your plate: Place a bunch of the tomato/cucumber/onion mixture on each plate. Top with a pork chop (or two) and spoon some yogurt mixture on top.
One recipe fed Jason and I as we each ate two chops and split everything else in 1/2. If you were looking for a lighter meal, you could definitely make this stretch to four people with one chop each and tons more veggies on the side.