Sunday: Pear Oatmeal, the Last of the Grilled Chicken & Apple-Dijon Pork Chops

Got up this morning and the kids had bacon, bagels and toast.

And I decided to make a double batch of my One-Pan Apple Oat Snack, except today I used pears.

Because why not?

Chris wanted some, my teen wanted some, and I wanted some, so I knew one batch wasn’t going to cut it

One-Pan Pear Oat Snack

I used two pears instead of apples and made a double batch of my usual recipe.

If you haven’t made this before, it’s such a simple way to make oatmeal feel a little more special and it’s like if oatmeal and granola had a baby.

I’ll link my original One-Pan Apple Oat Snack recipe here.

But here’s your reminder that you can absolutely swap in pears.

Especially this time of year.

Two of my kids also decided to start carving their pumpkins today. This is a ‘non family sanctioned’ pumpkin carving event…so it was like a fun little carving before we do our big family pumpkin carving later this month.

The Last of the Grilled Chicken

For lunch, we were still working through the Benihana leftovers from yesterday.

Remember, Chris took two of the kids there for lunch using one of our credit card restaurant credits, and they came home with a surprising amount of food.

So today I pulled out the last of the grilled chicken breasts I made Wednesday night.

And I used one of my favorite tricks for reheating chicken breast without drying it out.

I sliced the chicken into smaller pieces, put a little fat into a sauté pan, added a splash of chicken broth and then put the lid on.

Keep the heat low.

Let the broth create a little steam.

And within a few minutes, the chicken is warm without getting all tough and chewy.

Chicken breast needs a little help when you’re reheating it.

Especially when it’s already been cooked and sitting in the refrigerator for a few days.

A little moisture and gentle heat make such a difference.

I added the warmed chicken to some of the Benihana leftovers, and a couple of the kids had that along with the last of yesterday’s macaroni and cheese.

I made myself a salsa-style salad with some of the grilled chicken.

And that was it.

The grilled chicken is officially gone.

I made that big batch Wednesday, and we’ve been eating it in different ways ever since.

That’s exactly how I want my protein prep to work.

Cook once.

Use it in several meals.

Finish it before it goes bad.

Costco Got Me With the Pork Chops

This afternoon, I headed to Costco to restock the house for the week.

And they got me.

The bone-in pork chops were on sale.

Now, I don’t actually love cooking bone-in pork chops.

I always seem to find these tiny little slivers of bone, and it makes me nervous when I’m feeding the kids.

Maybe I’m overly cautious, but I really don’t want anyone biting into a little piece of bone.

Still, they were a good deal, and I decided to give them another try.

The package was huge, of course, because Costco.

So the first thing I did was divide it up.

Half went straight into the freezer.

The other half became tonight’s dinner.

Apple-Dijon Pork Chops

I decided to do something a little different from my usual grilled pork chops.

I wanted to pan-sear them first and then let them gently simmer in a sauce with apples, onions and Dijon mustard.

And I have to tell you, they turned out really good.

Here’s What I Did

First, I seasoned the pork chops with:

• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Smoked paprika
• Italian seasoning

Then I got out my biggest skillet, added some olive oil and started searing the pork chops.

I could fit about three at a time.

I wanted to get some really nice browning on the outside before doing anything else.

Once they were seared, I removed them from the pan and set them aside.

And then came the good part.

Don’t Waste What’s in the Pan

After searing the pork chops, there were all these delicious browned bits left in the skillet.

That’s flavor.

So I added chopped onion and apple, along with a splash of balsamic vinegar and some Dijon mustard.

I let that cook together for a few minutes, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

Then I added a generous amount of chicken broth.

At this point, I had this really nice savory sauce with a little sweetness from the apple, tang from the balsamic vinegar and that wonderful Dijon flavor.

I nestled the seared pork chops back into the skillet, put the lid on and let everything simmer gently for about an hour.

I kept the heat low because I wanted the pork chops to cook through without getting tough.

The Sauce That Almost Thickened

At the very end, I wanted the sauce to be a little thicker.

So I mixed cornstarch with cold water to make a slurry and stirred that into the pan.

And it thickened.

A little.

Not quite as much as I wanted.

I probably needed to let it simmer uncovered a little longer or add a bit more cornstarch.

But at that point, everybody was hungry.

And I was not about to hold up dinner because my sauce wasn’t quite as thick as I’d envisioned.

It tasted delicious.

Good enough.

Rice, Green Beans & Dinner Is Done

While the pork chops were simmering, I made a pot of rice.

We also had some leftover green beans in the refrigerator, so I reheated those.

And that was dinner.

Apple-Dijon pork chops with all that savory sauce spooned over rice, plus green beans on the side.

Really simple ingredients.

Nothing particularly complicated.

The only part that took much hands-on effort was searing the pork chops in batches.

After that, they just simmered away while I worked on the rest of dinner.

Ready for Another Week

So today we finished off the Benihana leftovers, the last of the grilled chicken and the macaroni and cheese.

I made a big batch of pear oat nuts for breakfast.

Restocked at Costco.

Put half the pork chops into the freezer for another day.

And made a really nice Sunday dinner.

Tomorrow I’m taking a couple kids to hike for the day…so I spent a little time putting together snacks and lunchers to bring along.