Menu Planning Monday Week 1

**Don't forget to vote for me HERE if you think I deserve to be one of the Top 25 Military Family Blogs at Circle of Moms**


Each week, I sit down and look through blog posts, cookbooks and magazines to come up with our menu for the week.

We don't tend to set each meal to a certain day, but meal/menu planning makes grocery shopping (and my cooking schedule) a lot more manageable. 

I actually find this to be therapeutic and I just love it.

This past week, I was having trouble finding inspiration (it's hard to want to cook when it's just me and Little Butt) so I went to Twitter. Luckily, my Twitter friends really came through for me and saved my weekly menu!

I realized at that moment that it was mostly milspouses who were coming to my rescue. 

I know most of us cook and we love to share recipes. I've seen some of you do Tasty Tuesdays, recipes of the week and others just post recipes randomly.

I got to thinking, wondering if anyone else does this menu planning thing that I do. Again, Twitter says yes.

So...I thought, what if we all had a place where we can link up a great recipe to share with one another. When it's time to sit down and plan our weekly menus, we just hop over to one place and peruse through the suggestions of our friends and peers. 

So I came up with this linky. 

I don't know if any of you will participate, but the link will be up all week long. If you make your menus on the weekend, by the end of the week, hopefully there will be a lot of options to choose from.

I don't care what you call your recipe sharing day, but do tell others about this link up so we can all share and enjoy our favorite recipes with each other. 

Here's my contribution for this week:

Sweet Apple and Onion Stuffed Pork Chops

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless pork tenderloin chops, at least 1 1/2-2 inches thick
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium apple, diced (I used a red apple)
• 2 Tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian style)
• 1/4 cup shredded cheese (I used Vermont Sharp Cheddar)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Add the diced onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the diced apple and saute until tender, about 3 minutes.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, melt the butter then add the bread crumbs and toss to coat.
5. To the bread crumb mixture, mix in the onion and apple.
6. Add the shredded cheese and mix to thoroughly combine.
7. Slice the pork chops lengthwise leaving about 1/2 an inch on one side still in tact. 
8. Stuff pork chops with bread crumb mixture. Secure with toothpicks
9. Spray each side of the pork chops with nonstick cooking spray and season with salt and pepper.
10. Grill the pork chops (or cook on a skillet) until the juices run clear, about 20-25 minutes.
11. Remove from the grill and let rest about 5 minutes. 
12. Remove toothpicks.
13. Serve and enjoy!!

This is seriously one of the best meals I've ever thrown together. 

I hope you all enjoy this new linky and that it's helpful! So link up and spread the word baby!! Enjoy!!!