More of the Same

Cost: $12

Prep: 40 minutes

I am kind of embarrassed that I made this meal again. But, pork chops are often a good price and this is the way we know we like to eat them. Plus, the baby LOVES mushrooms. The red potatoes were a nice treat, too.

This pack of chops had 5 HUGE ones. We ate 2 that night, and Matt ate 2 for lunch the next day. There was one in the fridge that I am guessing will be wasted :(

Pork/Mush/Mushrooms

Cost: $8

Prep: 30 minutes

I don't have much to say about this. I make this all the time it seems. I did use fresh mushrooms again, and I did make the mashed potatoes from scratch. To mix it up, we ate asparagus as the veg.

I wanted to draw your attention though to a little bit of dishonesty on my part. It has to do with creative staging of photos. Look at our dinner set up, not too bad right?

Wrong. That indeed is laundry piled on the back of all the chairs, and, in fact, there is laundry piled right up next to us on the table.

And look how fancy our gravy boat is! Although, for some reason there was about 10x the amount we needed.

Scratchy Pork Chops with Mushrooms

Cost: $8

"She did it..."

Prep: 40 minutes

This dinner took a long time to prepare. Granted, Matt and I made it together, so time was somewhat divided. It took so long because we made an effort to use fresh, rather than packaged or canned, ingredients.

We made REAL mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, pork chops, and mushroom gravy.

I cheated a little with the mushroom gravy. I did still use Campbell's soup. If anyone can tell me how to make this without, I'd like to hear it. But, I did use a big bag of fresh mushrooms.

Improved Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy

Cost: $11

Prep: 45 minutes

Today's dinner took a while to prep because I made(almost) everything from scratch, which is not what I usually do.

We had our usual pork chops with mushroom gravy, and I did still use Campbell's soup, but I used fresh mushrooms instead of canned. This turned out better, especially as Charlie loves the mushrooms and will eat a ton. I'd rather he eats mushrooms that were recently still resembling mushrooms than ones that have been floating in a salty brine for months.

I also made mashed potatoes, which was the majority of the prep time. I mixed in sour cream and herb and garlic cream cheese with the milk so that the flavor was a little unusual and fresh.

We had very tasty steamed green beans. I melted a but of margarine and added a touch of salt and pepper, and these simple acts made the meal exceptionally better.

Matt eating

Charlie eating

Tina eating

Pork Chops and Mushroom Gravy

Cost: $6

Prep: 30 minutes

While I was cooking this meal, I was on the phone to my dad talking about how this is total comfort food. I make it because my grandma makes it. My dad likes it because his mom used to make it. It is a real meal from mom.

It is also inexpensive and fairly easy. We bought a large pack of tiny fast-fry pork chops. There were 10 in the package. I had intended to use it all, but when I started, I realized it was just going to be too much, so I only used half the package, which was only $4.50 in entirety. The servings of meat we had were small, but it was still enough, each little piece being close to a full serving of protein each (a serving being estimated at the size of a deck of cards).

The gravy is easy to make. After I browned the chops, I added a can of mushroom soup and a can of mushrooms. It simmers and I stir until it looks done.

Gravy not done

Gravy done: much darker

This is my main problem with this meal: the salt content of using canned goods. Did you know that 1 serving of condensed mushroom soup has 35% of the recommended daily salt intake? (13% for mushrooms.) That is just way too high. I really should look up how to make this from scratch, since I would then be able to control the amount of salt, but this is how I always saw my gram make it, so it is hard to make a switch. Also, Matt doesn't like real mushrooms, but he will eat canned mushrooms. Charlie, it turns out, loved the gravy, especially the mushrooms, so much so that he would not eat ANYTHING else--although we did get a Greek yoghurt into him before bed.

As out side-dishes, I steamed up some green beans (much better this time, not tough at all) and "baked" (see "microwaved") a couple potatoes. The gravy goes great on top a potato, baked and mashed.

In the end, this is a classic. Charlie gave it his head-stamp of approval.