Seared Pork Chops with Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

To go with the Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp, we went with pork chops (they were on sale at Publix!).  I found this recipe on myrecipes.com which seemed like a winner to me because it not only had the chipotle peppers, but it was also paired with green beans.  You know what that meant!  Oh yeah, we made our favorite green beans, too!  The pork chops turned out really good, but we weren't that impressed with the sauce.  The pork chops had our favorite, favorite steak seasoning on them, so how could we go wrong??? (Other than overcooking them of course!)  I felt like sauce needed something else.  If we make it again, I think I'd try adding a couple of cloves of garlic.  Here's what we did...

Seared Pork Chops with Spicy Red Pepper Sauce

Ingredients

• 4 pork chops (about 1/2 inch thick)
• 2  teaspoons  25%-less-sodium Montreal steak seasoning (such as McCormick Grill Mates)
• 1  cup  bottled roasted red bell peppers, drained
• 1  chipotle chile, canned in adobo sauce
• 2  tablespoons water
• 1/2  teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

Sprinkle pork evenly with steak seasoning. Heat one tablespoon of olive oil large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. . Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes. Turn pork over; cook 3 minutes.

While pork cooks, place bell peppers and next 3 ingredients in a blender; process until smooth.

When pork has finished cooking, place around 2 tablespoons of sauce on a plate and then top with the pork chops.  Serve with the green beans!

Enjoy!

Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp with a Chipotle Ranch Sauce

Last night, Rick and I had planned on grilling out, but instead, we decided to stay indoors.  It's starting to get darker earlier and a wee bit cooler, too.  I wanted to do something with some shrimp that I needed to use, and I was also leaning towards doing something with the canned chipotle peppers that I've had in pantry for a while.  After browsing foodnetwork.com and myrecipes.com, I decided to wrap my shrimp with bacon and broil them.  For the dipping sauce, I wanted to make something similar to the chipotle ranch sauce that they have Longhorn.  Man, I miss that stuff.  By combining ranch dressing, light sour cream, and a little bit of the chipotle peppers, I made an awesome sauce!  Rick loved it, and I can see us having this one again!  By using a pound of shrimp and a whole package of bacon, we had enough to enjoy tonight, too!  Here's what we did...

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp with a Chipotle Ranch Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

1 pound 21-25 count shrimp, peel and deveined

1 package of low sodium bacon

5 Bamboo skewers

1/4 cup lite sour cream

1 cup ranch dressing

1 1/2 tablespoons diced chipotle peppers from a can with adobo

Directions

Soak the bamboo skewers in water for 30 minutes. While the skewers are soaking, combine the sour cream, ranch dressing, and chipotle peppers in a bowl and mix.  Cover and refrigerate until time to serve.

Preheat broiler (or grill if grilling).  Take the bacon and cut all the pieces in half.  Cook the bacon in a large pan until halfway cooked.  Wrap the bacon around the middle of each shrimp and skewer.  Place 5 shrimp on each skewer. 

Broil (on a foil lined baking sheet) or grill for 5 minutes per side until shrimp is done.  Serve with sauce and enjoy!