Child's Own Sweet and Sour Pork Chops

My daughter is supposed to be blogging with me tonight to share her version of what happened in her kitchen tonight. Her success last night made her want to repeat it tonight and her concoction was truly truly delicious.

These are boneless pork chops, which she browned a bit. Then she added:

- about 1/2 can Market Pantry tropical fruit in juice (pineapple and various papaya)

- 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

I knew she had a sweet and sour theme in mind, so I arranged all the Asian type spices on the counter and suggested she take a deep inhale of her pork and then smell the spices to see what went together.

She selected:

- one small piece crystallized/candied ginger (to soak in the hot sauce)

- a few pinches ground ginger

- a hearty amount of garlic powder

And then she added about 3/4 cup frozen three color pepper strips.

She served with a bagged salad, leftover Brussel sprouts and a side of commercial sweet and sour sauce.

From the chef herself:

Tonight I made dinner. I thought I would make pork. There was a lot of drama because I never made pork before. Then I decided to make sweet and sour pork. First, I put the pork in the pan and then cooked it for a while and flipped it.  I put in tropical fruit. Then I had to add spices. I smelled it to figure out what spices to put in. I put ginger, soy sauce,and garlic powder.Then I fried it and then served it with sweet and sour sauce. My parents LOVED it. 

I like my food to have a look and spices that fit a theme.

Pineapple Crock Pot Chicken

** This is an experiment based on recommendations from my almost ten-year-old **

In the crockpot on high about 6 hours:

- frozen chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)

- 16 ounces sweet and sour sauce

- 20 ounces crushed pineapple

- about 1/2 cup strong homemade chicken stock

- 1/2 cup water

- about 2-3 tablespoons ras el hanout

(I don't like this sweet and sour sauce. The ras el hanout is an attempt to make the flavor less sweet.)

- 2-3 tablespoons garlic pepper

When I got home from work, I added about 2 cups water and another 1/2 cup chicken stock. 

It was good. Definitely sweet, but not syrupy. Different.

Packaged stir fry

Someone had gifted us a bag of Green Giant create-a-meal sweet and sour stir fry. I'm not one for such mixes as stir fry is easy enough to make without everything assembled in one bag.

But tonight, I was ill-prepared for dinner.

Now the directions say to make pork or chicken to put in this... But I didn't. I drizzled some canola oil into the Le Creuset skillet, added the vegetables into the skillet while the rice was in the steamer.

I added some leftover sesame broccoli from the other night and some sesame seeds and I sliced one boca chikn patty for some extra protein.

It was better than I expected.