Blackberry Glazed Pork Chops

These taste a lot fancier than the amount of effort required to make them! That and a short ingredients list makes these a great dish to impress on the fly...the recipe calls for blackberries, but raspberries work too! (You get a deeper sweeter taste with blackberries. With raspberries, the dish is tangier, more tart.)

(from PaleOMG)

INGREDIENTS:
(2-4 servings)

1-2 lbs. pork chops
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper
12 ounce fresh blackberries (OR RASPBERRIES!)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp water

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Turn grill on.

2. Place pork chops on a plate and cover both sides with cinnamon, thyme, salt, and pepper. Press the spices into the chops.

3. While the grill heats up, place a small saucepan over medium heat and add blackberries, balsamic vinegar, water, and a pinch of salt.

4. Stir sauce frequently to avoid burning on the bottom as it mixes and heats up.

5. Turn heat to low and let sauce simmer for 3-5 minutes.

6. Pour half the sauce into a bowl for glazing purposes. (You can leave the blackberries in the pot, since those look best on top of the chops later.)

7. Use a glazing brush to glaze one side of your chops then place that glazed side down onto your grill.

8. Then glaze the other side, cover grill and let cook for 5-7 minutes per side. Glaze as much as you want...3-4 times preferably.

9. Plate chops and top with the leftover blackberry sauce that has been simmering and thickening up.

Buddha Bowls

This looked like a worthwhile vegetarian recipe to try!  Why Buddha?  Supposedly it's a heaping, bulging bowl that fills you up, also no animals were harmed in the making of the meal...

Recipe

Veggies
1 sweet potato, halved (or pre-chopped, not sure why not...)
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 bundle broccolini, stemmed and chopped
1-2 handfuls kale, chopped

Chickpeas
1 can chickpeas, drained, rinsed & patted dry
1 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp garlic powder
Optional: oregano, turmeric

Sauce
1/4 c tahini
1 tbsp maple syrup
juice of 1/2 lemon

Start roasting your sweets (skin side down) and onions at 400 degrees, drizzled with olive oil and salt and pepper.  After 10 minutes, flip your sweets and add the broccolini, drizzling again...  After another 10, add the kale and drizzle again...  Bake 5 more minutes until ready to go!

Meanwhile, toss the chickpeas with the seasonings and saute in some oil, turning up the heat to brown as needed.  Also mix together the sauce, adding hot water to make it thinner and easier to spread.  Combine and eat!

Notes

Lots of great ingredients in there!  If anything, I over-drizzled and that kind of took over.  It's easy enough to do and adjust as your ingredients dictate, just keep an eye on the roast timing!