Mike thought he was going to challenge me by selecting Cheetos. But, it was an easy challenge!! After all, Cheetos are just crunchy cheese and there are so many ways to use crunchy cheese. I made Cheetos Encrusted Pork Chops and Breakfast Fruit Salad. Mike said my selection of the fruit salad as a way to utilize the grapes was a cop out. Maybe it was, but it wasn't just a basic fruit salad. The combination of fruits was something I have never done before and I made a nice lemon-orange sauce to drizzle over the salad. Maybe I should have made grape jelly... Oh well, the fruit salad was super yummy. In addition, as a way to go above and beyond, I used the Cheetos in a second dish as well. I made twice baked potatoes with crushed Cheetos on the top.
I made the twice baked potatoes in advance. We were planning a family bike ride after Jake woke from his nap. We weren't going to be getting back from the bike ride in enough time to make the potatoes right before dinner. So, I just made them up in advance and put them in the fridge until we got home.
The pork chops were AMAZING!! Seriously, we will have them again...and again...and again. I adapted a recipe we've used many times for pork chops encrusted with crushed stuffing mix (aka, Stove Top). They are good, but we'll be using my new Cheetos recipe from now on.
Staying true to my frugal nature, I used whatever pork chops I had in the freezer. I had 4 thick boneless chops and one thin bone-in chop. The first step was to crush the Cheetos. Believe it or not, it actually took some time to crush the Cheetos to a finely ground state. I just have a little chopper so it always left a few bigger pieces of Cheetos that I had to spoon out.
Once I had sufficient crushed Cheetos for both the pork chops and twice baked potatoes, I got everything ready for the breading process. I've also discovered recently that coating meat with egg substitute is a whole lot easier (and less messy) than a beaten egg. It's also healthier. So, I used egg substitute instead of egg to bread the pork chops.
At about the same time as I took this picture, Benjamin came loudly inside from a trip to Sports Authority saying he was ready to help. I gave him the job of breading the pork chops. He actually did a pretty good job. He only spilled a little of the egg/milk mixture. However, since Jake is allergic to eggs in the raw state (or undercooked state), we had to stop the breading process to clean the counter, cabinet, and floor very well. Overall, Benjamin did a great job and the pork chops all ended up nicely coated with Cheetos.
It was then time to put everything into the oven. I added some crushed Cheetos to the top of the already prepared twice baked potatoes and put them and the pork chops in the oven. I had a very orange oven.
The salad was the last thing to make. Once again, in Chef Anne style, I first got everything ready.
All I had to do was chop up the cantaloupe and apples, wash the grapes, and slice the banana. Benjamin took care of the banana while I did everything else. The topping consisted of lemon yogurt and orange juice concentrate. Super easy and very tasty.
Finally, everything was ready!!! I could not wait to taste the pork chops. They looked a little funky given they were bright orange, but they sure smelled good. Here's the finished meal.
As you can see, I finally stored away my snowman dishes and retrieved my non-winter dishes from the basement. I think it worked as the snow is finally almost completely melted from my yard :)
For those of you brave enough to try the Cheetos encrusted pork chops, here's the recipe. They are simply delectable. I highly recommend them!!
4 to 5 pork chops (boneless or bone-in)
2 T. margarine, melted
1 beaten egg (or equivalent egg substitute)
2 T. milk
1/4 t. pepper
1 cup finely crushed Cheetos
1. Trim fat from the meat. Brush the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with the melted butter. Combine the egg and milk in one bowl and place the crushed Cheetos in another bowl. Dip pork chops in the egg mixture and then coat with crushed Cheetos. Place in baking dish.
2. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-20 minutes per side (depending on thickness of pork chop and whether it's boneless or bone-in). Turn chops half-way through baking time and cook until no longer pink. Enjoy!!
Another successful Chopped meal at the Shepard household.
Next week's mystery ingredients: Mango and String Cheese. I've selected a rather labor/time intensive entrée which utilizes the mango so I pray that the weather is nice so that the boys can play outside while I cook.
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