Clean Dinner Plate: Pork Chops, Cauliflower Mash (faux mashed potatoes) and Fall Kale Salad

Yeah yall, I went all out for this meal. I have never been a pork chop person, but I wanted something to test out this cranberry sauce on before I subjected everyone to it at Thanksgiving and let me tell you- the marinade I put on these pork chops changed my taste on this. I'm in the pork chop club. Officially. As long as I marinade it the same every single time.

Oh and I had my first experiment with kale. And goat cheese. And fruit. And nuts. All together. HELLO.

Can we just talk about how much work this amazing meal took? About 4% of my evening energy, but it appears to the eaters that it took hours. bwahaha.

Pork Chop Marinade: 
Servings: 2
Prep Time: 1 minute

Ingredients:

• 3 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons Raw Honey
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

 Yep. That's it. Put it in a ziploc freezer bag, shake it up and mush it around until it's all blended together. Add the pork chops to the bag, seal, and allow to marinate in the fridge for an hour or 2.

Put the marinated pork chops (2) onto a frying pan over medium heat and cover. Allow to cook 7 minutes on each side. So, that was easy. I'm still confused about why that was so easy yet tasted so good.

Garlic Cauliflower Mash (Low Carb Mashed Potato Substitute)
Servings: 2
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 head of cauliflower ($2.50)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup chicken broth ($.50)
• 1 teaspoon ceyenne pepper

Cut the florets (the flower things) off the stems. Put the florets, minced garlic, and chicken broth in a pot and bring to a boil. Once the broth and cauli are boiling put a lid on it and reduce the heat to medium. Let it cook for about 10 minutes.

Test to make sure they're ready to come out by poking the florets with a fork- the fork should easily poke through the florets.

Dump the contents of the pot into a blender and add the ceyenne pepper. Pulse until you have a mashed potato-y substance.

Cranberry Sauce:
Servings: About 2 cups
Prep Time: 1 minute
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries ($4.00)
• 1/2 cup honey ($1.00)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cinnamon stick 

Put all the ingredients in a pot and cook over medium for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. That's it. Once some of the liquid is cooked off you're going to have to stir more to make sure it doesn't get stuck to the pan.

Fall Kale Salad:
Servings: 2
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 0

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of kale ($3.50)
• 1/2 lemon worth of lemon juice ($.30)
• 1 apple, diced ($.99)
• 1/2 cup craisins ($.50)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts ($.50)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese ($1.00- I def added more. As I've said before, goat cheese is crack for white girls)
• 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons honey

Rinse off the kale, pat dry with a paper towel, and put in a bowl with the garlic salt and lemon juice and massage it (yes, just rub it with your hands, it's weird) for about 5 minutes or until the kale has turned a darker green and is softer and wiltier. Add all the ingredients and toss together.

THESE cauliflower florets with chicken broth...

Turn into THESE faux garlic mashed potatoes

and THIS

turns into THIS cranberry sauce!