Arrrgh!!!

By four in the afternoon, I had to decide how to prepare them, and what the side dishes would be. Dear Husband is diabetic. Luckily, he's in the earliest stages and is able to have some variety in his diet.

I had a head of red cabbage in the fridge. Usually I add a little of it to our salads for color and fiber, but it occured to me that I could do cooked red cabbage as a side dish, so I surfed for recipes. When we do a meal with baked potatoes, DH has a sweet potato, so I scrubbed several potatoes and popped them into the oven.

I minced half an onion and half an apple, and sauteed the onion in a little olive oil. While it cooked, I shredded the cabbage. I mixed the onion, apple and cabbage together. I made a sauce of three tablespoons brown sugar, four tablespoons each red wine vinegar and water, the juice from half a lemon and salt and pepper to taste.

Once that was mixed into the cabbage, I should have cooked it for two hours at 325 degrees. I didn't have that amount of time, so I cooked it at high for 10 minutes in the microwave, and then baked it for the remaining hour.

I mixed seasoned Italian bread crumbs with some parmesan cheese, dipped the porkchops into beaten egg, and then dredged them in the breadcrumbs. I sauteed them in olive oil over medium high heat. I cooked them for about 24 minutes, turning them three times. I covered the frypan for the first 18 minutes and then took the lid off for the remaining six minutes.

While the pork chops cooked, I steamed sliced carrots, and set out a salad. Everybody found something to eat. Dear Husband and I were the only ones brave enough to try the cabbage, and we cleaned out the bowl!

Sometimes it's nice to have new things on your plate. I think our best meals come when we have to punt because either we don't have all the ingredients we need, or we start too late to make a traditional dish. This meal had a very German feel to it, but it didn't require all the preparation that some German dishes do. Easy is nice! *G*