A Healthy Appetite, in More Ways Than One...

You wanna know why people don’t like eating healthy (speaking in generalities, of course)? Because it sounds restricting. Doesn’t it? We all get so jazzed about starting the new year off right, so we eat nothing but raw carrots and boiled raisin skins for 2 weeks until one day we find ourselves passed out in front of the Chinese buffet surrounded by empty soy sauce packets with moo goo gai pan smeared on our face. I’ve seen it a million times. Everyone talks about binge eating, but going on these unrealistic diets is another form of binging. You’re binging on starving yourself, and the only thing that comes from that is inevitable failure.

sour cream, blue cheese, garlic clove, spinach, 1/2 cup chopped leek (only half cup with this)

Saute the leek and garlic (minced- if you don't have a garlic press, I would suggest getting one. It has one job, and one job only, but it does that job so well) in a little olive oil. Add a pinch of salt, little black pepper, and the spinach. Cook until the spinach is just wilted:

spinach, garlic, leeks

Remove the mixture from the pan into a bowl or something and add your sour cream and blue cheese. Mix to combine and set aside:

Stuffing- you don't need a lot

You can do the pork chops one of two ways. Either way you decide, you need to put an oven-safe frying pan on the stove on medium/medium-low heat. No oil yet. As far as the pork goes, you can cut a pocket in the pork chop and put the stuffing into it, or pound the pork chop flat, lay stuffing on it and roll it up. We chose the latter, but if you don't have something to flatten a piece of meat, you can just cut a pocket in the center. If pounding flat, make sure to wrap the chops in plastic wrap:

pounding the chops

rolled up chops

Mix the breadcrumbs and garlic powder together with a pinch of kosher salt and black pepper. Lightly dust each chop with the mix. If you're REALLY cutting back the calories, you can ignore the breadcrumbs, but because we're not dredging the chops in anything, you won't have a thick coating and it adds some good texture without going overboard. After that, put a couple tablespoons of olive oil in your heated pan and add the chops. Move the whole thing to the oven and let cook for 15 minutes or so, until the inside reaches 160. Usually pork chops are fine cooked to 145, but because we have a stuffing in it we're not taking any chances. About halfway through cooking you'll flip the chops to brown both sides.

reducing the vinegar removes the harsh flavor and makes it sweeter *just a warning, it will make it hard to breathe in your kitchen for a few minutes but it'll be worth it. :)

sprouts- notice the bright color- coolio, huh?

While the sprouts are draining, put your mushrooms and the rest of the leeks into a saute pan with some olive oil. Pinch of salt, pinch of pepper. Cook for a couple minutes and add the sprouts. Saute until you think it's done. Just before serving, add the vinegar mixture and toss to coat:

leeks, shitake mushrooms and brussels sprouts

When the chops are done, remove from the oven and let them rest for at least 7-10 minutes. This will help them stay juicy:

you hear that? sounds like applause to me.

After the chops rest, slice them at a bias and get it all on the plate and eat it. I'm not even going to try and be humble- this meal is outstanding. Not your typical health food, right? But health food isn't about denying yourself all carbs, all oils and all fats. It's about controlling those things and using them with restraint. We're going for a lasting change in eating habits, not just random phases of strict dieting, followed by a weekend of non-stop pigging out through quiet sobs of shame. A meal like this can cut out needless calories, without cutting out enjoyment. Because let's be honest, who wouldn't want to eat this:

trust me, you can make this. super easy, and so good.

Enjoy!