Over Due Salubrious Sunday and Over the Top Award

You know what? I haven't posted a Salubrious Sunday meal for a while.

Why is that?

Hmm...probably a lot of reason but I don't wanna get all foodie-analytical on you so lets just fix the situation and move on.

May I present to you yet another recipe from my Pillsbury Fast & Healthy Cookbook: Honey Mustard-Glazed Pork Chops

You know what else?

I suck at making glazes.

They never ever remotely resemble what I think of as a glaze. You know like those hams...all sweet and candied and good.

Not mine.

 I get....a sauce.

Someday I will conquer the glaze.

Salubrious Sunday was not that day.

I did slightly alter this recipe. I was in the mood for Spanish Rice (which is posted --->here<---) and Calabacitas (which is posted --->here<---) so I needed the meat to be a little more....something. The letters in red will be what I added / changed, which isn't much.

Here are the ingredients:

1/3 cup honey

2 tablespoons yellow mustard (Dijon Mustard is MUCH better)

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1 Chipotle in Adobe Sauce

1/2 tsp onion salt  powder

1/2 tsp Lemon Pepper

1/4 tsp pepper

4 boneless pork loin chops, 3/4" thick

Orange slices, if desired

In a small bowl, combine your honey and mustard (and cloves if you're gonna play by the book)

Take out one of those chipotle peppers

Slice it open.....

Do you like it hot? or not? Me? I'm chicken...so I removed all those little seeds and then chopped up the pepper

btw...it took days for that stain to go away. I tried bleach, lemon...409. Its all good now...but for a while there....not so pretty

Ok...add the pepper to the honey mustard mixture and set it aside.

Heat your skillet over medium-high. Sprinkle your chops with onion salt and pepper....and lemon pepper (if you're not playing by the rules).

Add the meat to the pan and cook 3 minutes. Turn. Reduce heat to medium-low; pour the honey mustard sauce over the chops.

Cover and cook about 10 minutes or until no longer pink inside (and meat thermometer inserted into the center reads 160').

Sooo....does that look like a glaze to you? I dunno, it looks like good ole sauce to me. And now that I think of it, of course it would. All that steam from covering the skillet is going to keep everything moist...even a wanna be glaze doesn't have a chance.

This wasn't my favorite meat. It needed something. Or lots of somethings. I dunno. There just wasn't enough flavor. I can't imagine how bland it would've been without the chipotle pepper. If I try it again, maybe I'd add a jalapeno, some onions....garlic. Something to make up for the disfunctional glaze sauce.

For the chops, the calories were only 270 (calories from fat 80)l total fat 9 g (sat fat 3 g, trans fat 0g); chol 70 mg, sodium 330 mg. Carb 24 g

And now...for the highlight of my day....check this out!! I got an award :) from my fellow lush, Heather over at GirliChef.

Thank you sooo much Heather!!!

Don't you just love awards? (Well except for those "loser awards" you'd get at camp. You know the ones.... Messiest Cabin, Latest Troop, etc.)

Anyways...I'm suppose to answer some questions, using one word? riiiiiight.

1. Where is your cell phone? on my cookbook
2. Your hair? a mess
3. Your mother? wonderful
4. Your father? precious
5. Your favorite food? chocolate, no wait...bread. shoot...potatoes. noooo chocolate. crap
6. Your dream last night? weird
7. Your favorite drink? margarita on the rocks
8. Your dream/goal? content
9. What room are you in? den
10. Your hobby? seriously?
11. Your fear? cockroaches
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? the 90's
13. Where were you last night? shhh
14. Something that you aren't? grown-up
15. Muffins? top?

16. Wish list items? kitchen-aid!!!!
17. Where did you grow up? SoCal 
18. Last thing you did? ate, no wait...drank wine
19. What are you wearing? jammies and sir sports-alot's t-shirt
20. Your TV? on
21. Your pets? too many
22. Friends? close
23. Your life? busy
24. Your mood? nostalgic
25. Missing someone? sometimes
26. Vehicle? small (nicknamed: Chuy)
27. Something you're not wearing? umm...never mind 
28. Your favorite store? any store with a kitchen gadget section

Ok, that was relatively painless (for me that is). And now I'd like to pass this award on to a few of my bloggin buds....Shane over at Culinary Alchemist, Michelle at Big Black Dogs, Cathy from The Dutch Bakers Daughter, Erica at My Columbian Recipes and Debby over at A Feast For The Eyes

Just grab the badge, and load it up onto your blog and have fun!

So...I got home today and what do I find? My daughter has decided to make the box of Duncan Hines 100% Whole Grain Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins that I picked up at the store over the weekend (I had gotten a coupon through one of those banner ads on BakeSpace.com). Oh yum!

And what do I do with it?

Why, I decide I need to celebrate my award!

And of course improve on a boxed product. So I mixed 50/50 Hazelnut Spread (I was too cheap to buy the Nutella brand) and mascarpone. (killer combo on it's own....seriously). And I looked at this lovely dark chocolatey muffin and decided I wasn't going to "ice" the muffin. It's a muffin, not a wanna be cupcake.

So I sliced it and spread it....and ooooh eeeeem geeeeeee!!!

Now thats Over the Top!!