Food, Feminism, & life

Pork Chops with Bacon & Pineapple Sauce

I know what you’re thinking. Pork chops AND bacon in one dish? That’s a lot of pig. I assure you this was great though. The pork chops stayed moist from the pineapple sauce & the bacon was the perfect salty against the sweet pineapples. This recipe came together very fast & bakes for about a half hour. I had dinner on the table in under an hour last night & that makes me one happy gal.

Pork Chops with Bacon & Pineapple Sauce

Servings: 6 Points Plus: 8

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless, thick cut loin pork chops (about 2 lbs)
• 8 slices of bacon
• 20 oz can on pineapple chunks in juice (no syrup)
• 2 TB brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 TB cornstarch dissolved/whisked in 1/4 cup water
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• Non-stick spray

Directions:

1) Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Partially cook the bacon so that it begins to crisp.

2) Spray each pork chop with non-stick spray & sprinkle each side with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Make a pan very hot & sear the pork chops. Place in one layer in a baking pan & top with the slices of bacon. Bake for 30 minutes, topping with pineapple sauce after 10 minutes.

3) While the chops are baking for the first 10 minutes make the pineapple sauce. Drain the juice out of the pineapple can & reserve. Pour the pineapple juice into a sauce pot & whisk in the brown sugar. Bring to a boil & simmer. Add the wine & bring to a boil again. Turn down the heat to a simmer & slowly whisk in the cornstarch mixture. You might not have to use all of it. Once you see the mixture begin to thicken & bubble, stop adding the cornstarch. Bring to a boil one more time & then pour over the chops.

4) Top the pork chops with some pineapple chunks & bake for the remaining 20 minutes.

Wonton Soup

Out of all the things I’ve made, I think this might be my favorite so far. I had a horrible stomach ache all night & when I finally got my appetite back I wanted a hot bowl of wonton soup. I immediately thought to make my own version. After some Googling & recipe reading, I came up with this recipe. The wontons are a bit tedious, but the flavor & final product of this soup is so worth it. The only thing I would do differently is cut down a bit on the ginger next time. I brought my mom a quart of this & then froze the leftover wontons. They’re a great thing to keep in the freezer! You just have to boil them in some chicken broth when you’re ready to eat them.

You have to try this! Filling the wontons took over an hour, but it was relaxing & perfect for a breezy spring afternoon. I put some music on & enjoyed the entire process. This recipe makes about 12 servings. Each serving is for 4 wontons, 1.5 cups of broth, and 1 tsp of sesame oil. If you use 5 wontons in your soup then the points go up to 7 per serving.

Wonton Soup

Servings: 12 ● Points Plus: 6

Ingredients:

For the Filling:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 3 green onions, minced
• 1/4 cup minced ginger root
• 1/2 cup minced bamboo shoots
• 7 shitake mushrooms, minced
• 3 TB soy sauce
• 2 TB sesame oil
• 2 TB cornstarch

Other Ingredients:

• Wonton wrappers (I like Nasoya brand - any brand of about 48 wrappers will do)
• Small bowl of water
• 18-20 cups chicken stock
• Scallions for garnish
• Sesame oil (1 tsp per bowl of soup)
• Pot of water

Directions:

1) Boil a large pot of water. Add 1 TB sesame oil & salt to water when it begins to boil.

2) Make the filling:

• You can either mince the onion, ginger, bamboo shoots, & mushrooms on your own, or you can place them one ingredient at a time in a food processor. I used the small bowl of my food processor for this. I honestly don’t know what people did before these things.
• In a large bowl, combine the minced ingredients with the pork, sesame oil, cornstarch, & soy sauce. Mix together until all ingredients are combined.

3) When water is beginning to boil, start making your wontons:

• Using either a cookie scoop or small spoon, scoop a little more than a tsp of filling into the center of a wonton wrapper.
• 
• Wet the edges of the wrapper & fold into a triangle. Pinch all of the edges together & try to get out any air bubbles as you do this.
• Wet the two points & fold them so that they cross at the corners.

(don’t they look like tough little warriors?)

4) When the water is boiling, add a few wontons at a time (I did about 6-7 per batch), and keep making other wontons as you go. By the time I made 6 more, the 6 I put in the water were ready to come out. You will know your wontons are cooked because they will float & bounce around in the water. They will sink when you first put them in.

This is what they look like when they’re cooked:

5) Keep making wontons & boiling them in batches. Make sure not to overcrowd your boiling water and keep the batches to about 6-8 wontons at a time.

6) Remove wontons from water & set aside. When ready to serve your soup, heat up the chicken broth & chop some scallions for garnish. Place 4 wontons in each bowl, top with 1.5 cups of chicken broth & 1 teaspoon of sesame oil. Garnish with scallions & serve with soy sauce on the side. Enjoy!

*Note: These are very gingery. If you aren’t a huge fan of ginger then I would only use 1/8th of a cup.