Sweet and Sour Pork Chops in the Slow Cooker or How to Make Dinner from What’s in the Fridge

Good news!  Just by rummaging through your pantry, fridge and freezer and creatively combining a few ingredients, you can have dinner tonight.

Here’s how it works.  Choose a meat from the fridge or freezer.  I chose boneless pork chops, but you might pick chicken or beef instead.

Check the fridge for a likely looking veggie or two.  I found a green pepper and onion.  Other candidates include red pepper, green onions, sugar snap peas, green beans, carrots – you get the idea.  Anything that you’ve got that sounds good.

Now, rummage in the fridge for ingredients to make a sauce.  I wanted something sweet and sour.  I used 1/4 cup ketchup and 3/4 cup orange sauce.  This is a good time to drain the nearly empty bottles.  Promising ingredients include bbq sauce, ketchup, taco sauce, any type marinade, even jams or marmalade.  The key is to blend flavors in a way that will taste good.  When in doubt, blend a little and give it a taste.

You can add brown sugar or a bit of vinegar or hot sauce to change the taste.  Get creative.  There’s no right or wrong.  Give it the taste test before pouring it on the meat and you should be reasonably sure the finished product will taste good.

You can also choose from 3 different cooking methods:

1.  Stove top method.  Cook the meat in a bit of oil in a skillet.  Remove the meat and cook the sliced veggies.  Add the sauce ingredients and heat through.  Pour over the cooked meat.

2.  Oven method.  Put the meat in a casserole dish.  Top with veggies and sauce.  Cover and bake at 350 for about an hour or 1 1/2 hours.

3.  Slow cooker method.  Put all the ingredients in the slow cooker.  Cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 5-6 hours.

Here’s what I actually did, if you want to do the same:

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Sweet and Sour Pork Chops in the Slow Cooker or How to Make Dinner from What’s in the Fridge

Ingredients

• 6 boneless pork chops
• green pepper sliced
• onion sliced
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 3/4 cup orange sauce

Instructions

• Put the chops, green pepper and onion in the slow cooker.
• Stir the ketchup and orange sauce together and pour over the other ingredients.
• Cook on high fro 5-6 hours or low for 7-8 hours.