Monday- donuts, corn dog muffins, & pork chops with green beans

Monday mornings are our grocery mornings. I have decided that, for the summer, we will have donut mornings then head to the grocery. It's a good little treat for the kiddos, and gives us something to look forward to. I'm a very scheduled person, so I do have a summer schedule that we try to follow, but will deviate if something comes up. I also think that it helps the kids to know what's going to happen and keep them ready for school.

Lunch today was a new experiment. My daughter LOVES hotdogs. I'm not sure who she comes from, because I do NOT like hotdogs. I will eat them if I have to, but I'm not excited about them. My son is the same way. He'll eat them if I serve them, but won't ever ask for me to make them. But I know they are a kids food and they are so easy to do for lunch. I found this little recipe in a Fun Food magazine and thought that it'd be a different way to try them. It also camouflaged the hotdog taste a lot!

Corn Dog Muffins

(Recipe from Taste of Home, Fun Food, summer 20008 magazine)
1 box Jiff corn bread mix (or any mix, but I really like Jiff corn bread mix)
1 Tbs brown sugar (next time, I'd use 2 or 3, but just because we like our corn bread sweet)
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 (11 ounce) can of whole kernal corn, drained
3 hot dogs, cut up

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake papers. In a medium bowl, mix the corn bread mix and brown sugar. Add the egg and milk and mix to combine. Stir in the corn and hot dogs. Your batter will be thin. Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full (I filled them to the top and was fine). Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. This made 12 muffins for us.
Serve and EnJoY!

For dinner I decided to try a recipe that I found on the Southern Living website. I mean, it HAD to be good, right?! Well, it didn't let me down. This is probably going to be my new "go to" website for dinners for while. It was quick and easy and sooo yummy!

Pork Chops with Roasted Green beans and pecans

(Recipe from Southern Living Magazine website)
2 lbs fresh green beans (or as much as your family will eat)
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
4 bone-in pork chops
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs (or plain breadcrumbs, they were just as good)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 Tbs. lemon zest
1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
1/4 cup veggi oil
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tsp butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash beans and snap ends (if you wish, they didn't, but I did since I don't like to eat the ends). Combine the beans, 1 Tbs. olive oil and 3/4 tsp salt in a large bowl and toss to coat. Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet with sides (also known as a jelly roll pan). Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until beans are tender and slightly browned.

Sprinkle pork chops with pepper and remaining 1/4 tsp salt. In a shallow pie pan mix together the bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, lemon zest, and thyme. Dredge the pork chops in this mixture.

Cook the pork chops in 1/4 cups veggi oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 4 to 6 minutes, depending on their thickness, on each side or until done. (I only cooked ours for 2 to 3 min per side since they were pretty thin)

Stir pecans and butter into the beans and cook another 5 minutes, or until the pecans are golden. Serve the chops with the beans. EnJoY!

I LOVED the pecans with the beans. It gave the beans a little extra flavor. Soooo good! I'll be making my beans this way for quite a while!