I think you could call my theme of the day “freezer diving.”  With so much food in the house I was adamant about not going to the grocery store, even though one of my favorite grocery stores just opened up on November 30 in Crystal Lake – we have a Fresh Market!

I went looking in the freezer to see what I could come up with for breakfast and lunch.  I found these in the door of my freezer.  God only knows how long they have been there – but they were fully cooked.  I defrosted them in the microwave, and then made yet another scramble (sick of these yet?) with eggs, spinach, red pepper, chicken sausage (only 60 calories a link too!) and . . . GUACAMOLE!

God I am a sucker for the 50% off bin!  When Tony and I were at Sam’s Club a couple weeks ago, I thought I saw the Wholly Guacamole 100 calorie packs.  The next time I went back, sure enough, I couldn’t find them anywhere.  That’s about the only downside of Sam’s Club – the people who man those little sample tables have no clue where anything is.

Tony went to Sam’s the other day and lo and behold – he found them!  They were in the refrigerated cheese section.  All 18 100 calories packs for only $8.98!  They are good until the third week of December too.

More freezer diving and I found five chicken meatballs in marinara sauce.  No date of course.  I even went back through my archieves and I can’t remember when they were made.  I defrosted them and threw them in my bag.  Paleo says no meatball sub, so I made a meatball salad!

I had about 1/2 cup of marinara sauce, 5 chicken meatballs and I served them over baby spinach and carrots.  Once I started eating it though, I wish the carrots were cooked – it was a bit too crunchy.  And I got distracted half way through eating my lunch and had to reheat it – the spinach was nice and wilted and the 1/2 oz. of Parmesan cheese melted really nice.

I didn’t wake up in time to work out yesterday morning, so I had to get out at lunch – in 42 degree weather!  I decided to walk/jog/spring a 5k and was happy that I finished in 38 minutes!  With a warm up and cool down, it was a 45 minute workout.  It felt great, although my legs are a bit sore this morning.  I ended up doing my upper body strength and core workout last night. 😀

Do you all use Tastespotting to come up with dinner ideas?  I do.  I knew I had defrosted two pork chops for dinner.  I wanted something different.  I quickly found Nicole’s (Heat Oven to 350) apple pecan pork chops and I was sold.  Only one problem.  Tony is not too big of a fan of fruit with meat.  I emailed him Nicole’s picture and asked “would you eat this?”

He said because he likes apple sauce with pork chops he might like it.  Woot!

I did it a bit differently from Nicole – because I used two pans.  I had one thick chop (for me) and one skinny chop for Tony, so I cooked the chops low and slow with a lid on.

Her recipe called for adding the apples right to the pork.  I chose to reduce the butter to 1 tablespoon as well as the brown sugar to 1 tablespoon.  I used on fuji apple for the two of us and 1/4 chopped pecans.

Once the pork was done, I plated the pork and poured the pan juices into the apple mixture.  After I served Tony’s apples, to my half I added 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard to my sauce and poured it over my chops.  I had a can of potatoes so I had those in a third pan just getting slightly crispy – I had 1/2 cup potatoes on the bottom, my chop (probably about 4 ounces of meat – gave the bone to the dog) and then the slightly sweet and savory apple pecan mustard sauce.

These are goddamn company pork chops!  And the best part?  This was finished beginning to end in about 20-23 minutes.  Love it!

While I LOVED this dish, Tony liked it, which is way more than I thought he would.  He proobably could have done without the pecans, but I thought they made the dish.

I haven’t figured out the calories for dinner or the rest of my day yet!  I think I did pretty good. 😀

Thanks for all your well wishes for Tony’s surgery – we appreciate it!  I’ll leave you with Day 2 Awkward Family Christmas picture.  Have a great Friday!