Zesty Italian Pork Chops and Beefy Rice

Jason and I actually got to eat out tonight with ADULTS! Every Christmas, a group of our friends gets together to exchange gifts and to eat. This year, everyone seemed to be too busy so we weren’t able to get together before Christmas. We decided to meet at a local Mexican restaurant tonight and it was so nice to get everyone together, even if it was only for an hour! I actually missed cooking tonight, but I didn’t miss cleaning up the mess! It was nice to be able to just come home and relax. I’ve been cleaning the house like crazy this week, so I’m pretty tired of cleaning!

Since I haven’t posted last night’s meal yet, I’ll go ahead and post it now! I am still trying to use what we have in the house, so I took some pork chops out of the freezer. This is what I ended up making and it turned out pretty good. Our son, Chase, wasn’t too crazy about the rice, but everyone else liked it. I used to make it years ago by adding mushrooms and onions, but I didn’t have those two things on hand.  By the way, I know beef and pork normally don't go together too well, but this was very good together in my opinion!

Zesty Italian Pork Chops

6-8 Pork Chops
1 bottle Zesty Italian Salad Dressing
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Creole seasoning

1. In a large bowl or large Ziploc bag, pour bottle of salad dressing over pork chops. Add Worcestershire sauce and Creole seasoning and mix well. Marinate for at least one hour.

2. Preheat oven and bake at 350 degrees. (I used a convection oven on the broil setting, which I recommend because you can put the pork chops on racks instead of in a pan. I guess you could use a broiler pan if using your regular oven. Actually, they are best on the outdoor grill, but I don’t like grilling when it’s cold outside…I will leave that to my husband when he is home ;)

Tips: About half way through baking, I sprinkled a little more Creole seasoning on them. My husband said they had a little kick to them, so if you don’t like your foods too spicy, I’d leave that out, but if you want a little kick, I say go ahead and sprinkle away!


Beefy Rice

1 can beef broth
1 can beef consommé
1 cup rice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all ingredients in casserole dish.
3. Bake for about one hour, or until rice is done.

Tips: If adding onion and mushrooms, chop onion and mushrooms first and cook over medium heat before adding to casserole dish with other ingredients. Also, canned mushrooms work just fine!