Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops

I had a great week last week. I stayed on plan 100% and despite the fact I couldn't do any exercise I felt really good about my weigh in this Saturday morning. And the proof was in the pudding (that I didn't have), and when I did weigh myself I was down 2 out of the 4 lbs I gained over Christmas. I had a few treats this weekend and then back on it. 

I stuck to one of my goals this week and we had some interesting dinners this week. It was so tempting to just stick with the easy familiar recipes but I tried a bit harder particularly with my sides this week! I have also planned new dinners for every night this week. My favourite recipe this week was this Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops. I had made something similar to this years ago and when I stumbled across something similar online I combined the 2 and came up with this. I served this with some brown rice with herbs, garlic and spring onion and roasted asparagus. Its really easy and is a little more special than your usual pork chops. 

Serves: 2

SmartPoints per serving: 8

SmartPoints on No Count: 0

Propoints per serving: 8pp

Simple Start/Filling & Healthy compliant (take oil from daily allowance)

Ingredients

2 pork loin chops with the visible fat removed. 

2 garlic cloves crushed

100ml balsamic vinegar

salt & pepper

2 tsp olive oil

Marinate the pork chops in the garlic, olive oil and season well. Set to one side. 

Put the balsamic vinegar in a small pot, bring to the boil and simmer until its reduce by half. 

Put a non stick frying pan or griddle pan on a high heat and baste the pork chops with the balsamic reduction. 

Cook over a high heat for 5 minutes, basting regularly before turning and cooking for a further 3 minutes. The balsamic reduction should go quite syrupy in the bottom of the pan and when you turn the pork chops they should be dark and glazed like in the photo above. Leave the pork to rest for 4 minutes before serving. (while the pork is resting I would recommend washing the pan immediatly, if the syrup cools it will harden and be a nightmare to clean).

You can serve this with the herby rice like I have above but it would go well with mashed/baked potatoes or some cous cous. Its pretty versatile and would go with almost anything!