BBQ Pork Chops and Lima Beans over Saffron Rice

I'll tell you, sometimes it's tougher than you'd think to come up with good meals that your whole family will enjoy. Thank goodness when I went shopping last time, I had the forethought to buy some pork chops. I'm not really much of a "pork" gal, but my husband loves a good chop.

Earlier in the day today (around 2p), I took out a pack of boneless pork chops. I also decided that we'd cook up some lima beans, since it's been a while since I've made them. They are so easy and absolutely wonderful tasting if done right!
Some quick facts: 1-3oz. boneless pork chop roasted in the oven is 175 calories. 1 cup of white rice is 205 calories. 1/2 cup of cooked lima beans is 105 calories. Beats fast food! :)

Here's what I did: I took a 1lb bag of large lima beans, cleaned out any partial beans and rocks and added 8 cups of hot water, brought it to a rapid boil for 2 minutes, then took it off of the burner and let it sit, covered, for an hour. Forget the days of soaking beans overnight!! This works just as well! After an hour, (closer to dinner time), I drained and rinsed the beans. I then added 6 cups of fresh, hot water and set them to cook on low/medium for about 40-55 minutes or until the beans were tender to taste. I added 1 teaspoon cumin (for a meaty, smoky taste), 1/2 tablespoon onion powder (I am liberal with this since my husband does not like actual onions in his food), a dash of garlic powder (or you can use some crushed fresh garlic if you really like garlic), a little celery salt, and of course Caldo de Pollo - almost 2 tblspns. The wonderful thing about lima beans is that as they cook, they make their own delicious juice/sauce and if you season it right,...it's fantastic!

Next, we got some rice cooking. Remember to always add 1/2 more water than cups of rice used for perfect rice everytime. So if you're cooking 2 cups of rice, you should add 2 1/2 cups boiling water to it. (Always add boiling water, the rice cooks up faster and you won't get hard rice.) We added a touch of olive oil (to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot and from clumping), a heaping tblspn of Caldo de Pollo and 1 small saffron packet. Set rice to boil. Once rice is boiling, turn heat to med., cover the rice and let cook until the water is gone and little holes form. (See below). Once holes form, turn heat to low and let the rice continue to cook for 15 minutes or so.

While rice was cooking, we seasoned the pork chops with McCormick's Grill Mates Smokehouse Maple (a new FAVORITE of ours!), a little salt, pinch of pepper and let them brown up in the oven on 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Because they are so lean, I used a paper towel, put a little olive oil on it and rubbed the bottom of the glass dish so the chops won't stick.

Once it was all done, we cut up pieces of the pork chops and mixed it with ranch dressing for the kids (as the BBQ sauce is a little too tangy for their tastes), added some rice and lima beans, and a little fruit cocktail in light pear juice (not syrup!). I'll admit, at first my son gave me a little push-back on the lima beans, but once he tried one, he said they were: "really, really good mom!"

My husband loves this dish so I gave him more chops (see 1st picture), as they were actually pretty small and thin chops. I was happy because not only did my husband enjoy it, but the kids did too! This dish takes a little more cooking time, but it's worth it. And...there's leftovers, which means tomorrow's lunch is already made! ;) Eat and be well!