new recipe : chili rubbed pork chops w/sweet potatoes

Sunday afternoon I stocked up at Safeway to knock out 4 whole recipes from my new cook-mag. Decided the next recipe to try was “chili rubbed porkchops w/a sweet potato side”. Apparently a 3oz chop has 153 calories and 6 grams of fat, but who can find such a small porkchop?! I’m pretty sure the 2 I got weighed a little less than a pound, so ours were probably 300 calories and 12 grams of fat. But nevertheless, not too bad.

Here’s the recipe – combine enough brown sugar in a bowl to coat 2 chops, then add chili powder and salt/pepper to taste. Rub the granules into both sides of the chop, let sit for a few minutes. Heat olive oil in a pan, then cook the chops for about 5 mins each side; careful not to burn it – the sugar tends to cause that! I used a bone-in chop b/c the recipe said to use that kind, but next time I will go for a boneless chop!

Start the potatoes in advance – bowl 2 sweet potatoes until soft, the skins should come right off with your hand. Mash ‘em up with some honey and chop up a jalapeno or 2 into the mash. Add a little salt & a little lime juice if it’s available. Once again there were no limes to be found at the store – same for fresh thyme, WTF? I also couldn’t find spinach fettucine which also peeved me.

To top the chops, I used the drippings from the pork pan to sautee about a cup of chopped pineapple. Cook low for about 2 minutes until warm, remove from heat and then add some chopped scallions to it. Put this on the chops. I placed a little dollop of plain non-fat yogurt on the mashed sweets and it was a nice touch. Total calories for a “3oz. chop”, pineapple relish and 1 c. pots = 514 calories; 14g fat.

This was a super simple meal to make, and once again recommend it. We killed it on the slopes on Saturday, and I did 25 mins on the treadmill today! Now that I’m pretty sure we’re going to a Mexican beach for my 30th, I am REALLY REALLY trying to get in shape for a bikini…Dear god.

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