Pork Chops with Apricot Orange Marmalade with vegetable fried rice

We love flavor in food, who doesn’t? Too many people in the rush of life cook a meal just to “have a meal ready”. There are so many simple ways to turn a “simple” meal into a “delicious simple meal”. As you can see by my recipes I love simple meals, but they must taste good too! There’s not a lot more disappointing to a food junkie than a meal that comes out blah! When we were in VT for Christmas my aunt gave us a jar of what I have to say is hands down the best orange apricot marmalade I have ever tasted! So I cooked with it, well, not the whole jar, but here is what I made:-) And thank you to Side Hill Farm in Brattleboro VT for this devine little find!

You can order this jam at sidehillfarmjam.com for a mere 5.85! I cannot wait to try the cranberry orange next!

Ingredients:

4 boneless lean pork chops

Apricot Orange Marmalade

crushed red pepper (is anyone noticing a theme to my recipes??)

parsley (makes it peeeerty!!)

Place pork chops in a baking dish. Scoop a good size amount of the orange marmalade onto each chop, then spread lightly to cover most of the chop, but don’t thin the jam out too much! Sprinkle with crushed red pepper (to taste) sprinkle with parsley and bake at 350 degrees for about 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour and voila, done and tasty!! I served this with vegetable fried rice, recipe as follows:

Ingredients:

1 cup of Brown Rice (to make 2 cups)

1 small onion diced

1 medium garlic clove minced

1/2 bag frozen broccoli

1/2 bag frozen peas

2 fresh carrots peeled and diced

1 lg egg

Red pepper

black pepper

parsley

2 tbls whipped butter

Cook Rice as specified on bag. Mean while in a frying pan saute the onion and carrots in the butter until slightly tender. Add Broccoli and peas stirring often. Add (to taste) the red pepper and black pepper and a little parsley as well as minced garlic. When this mixture is almost done and is not longer cool or frozen, and the veggies are at desired tenderness, push the veggie mix to one side of the pan, take the egg and crack open to the empty side of pan and fry it while chopping and stirring the egg. When the egg is done mix into the veggies. Add rice, mix well and it’s done!