Recipe: Honey & Spice Pork Chops

You know, I think I may be losing my mind - I started to write this blog post and then got it into my head that maybe I had already written about these delicious pork chops. So, I just spent about 10 minutes looking back through the posts I've written in the last two months and searching through the blog to triple check that I haven't written about these already. Does this ever happen to you? I feel like life gets so crazy sometimes that we really do need to take a minute to step back, collect ourselves, take a deep breath, and then continue on. But it's not always easy to let yourself do that, and so this morning, I am giving you permission to take moment to take a step back, relax, and take a minute to yourself.

And, if you have time, this honey and spice pork chops recipe really is delicious. The recipe, which I adapted slightly, via My Recipe and originally from Cooking Light, is pretty easy to follow.

First, gather your ingredients for the marinade/glaze...

1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3-4 boneless pork chops
salt and pepper

First, sprinkle the pork chops with salt and pepper and brown them in a skillet over medium-high heat for 2 minutes on each side. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Then, mix together the honey, mustard, ginger and cinnamon in a large freezer bag and add the pork chops. Make sure they're covered, there's no extra air in the bag, and then seal to fold in half and freeze. (Note: If you wanted to skip the freezer step, simply mix the marinade / glaze and pour over the pork chops, and finish cooking to the desired doneness in the skillet.)

I made 2 dinners the day I made this, and simply doubled the recipe to do so.

When you're ready to cook the pork chops, remove from the freezer and place in the refrigerator to thaw. Once thawed, cook over medium-high heat until cooked throughout. I caramelized some red onion and cooked the pork chops alongside of them.

I served it over rice with caramelized onions and it was a perfect complement to the marinade flavors. 

These were so easy to make and the marinade is delicious! I feel like this would also go well with chicken or turkey breast and would make a great marinade for roast chicken. Making freezer meals has really worked out for us and is making cooking many meals a lot easier! Have you cooked any freezer meals lately? What are you doing to reduce your cooking time during the summer? I'd love to hear from you!