This past Lazy Sunday I realized that we had food in the fridge that either was about to go bad, or was already gone. As you already know, I cannot stand wasting food, so I deemed it, Use It Or Lose It Day! I went through and cleaned out all of the items that I couldn't tell exactly what it used to be, and then took all of the items that I knew would go bad and set them aside for cooking. 

So I knew I had to use the pork chops, and there were some eggs in there that might be approaching their expiration date as well, so I had to think about what I wanted to make with them. I decided to do pork chops two ways. I took the majority of the pork chops and put them into a crock pot with some BBQ sauce, white wine, and a little bit of chicken stock, along with some salt and pepper. Then all I had to do was throw the top on and let them simmer away on low heat for about 8 hours. Once they were done, I pulled them apart, and created some pulled pork sammies for my love! 

While the pork chops were cooking away in the crock pot, I took the two leftover chops and decided to bread them and fry them so that my hubby could have them for dinner...little did I know that they would not make it until dinner time...but that's besides the point.

 
Then I had to decide what the heck to do with the eggs. I decided it was best to prolong their life with hard boiling. So I just boiled up some eggs, and then this morning for breakfast decided to make a deviled egg out of one of them. I always feel that it's best for me to only devil one egg at a time because then I have the others to use as I want. I could slice one up tomorrow and throw it in a salad, or just eat it as is for breakfast or snack.

Hard Boiled Eggs Turned into Deviled Egg Ingredients:

Eggs

Mayo

Honey Mustard  

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Place eggs into a big pot and cover with water. Place over heat and bring up to a boil. Let boil for 20 mins. Remove from heat and rinse with cold water before placing them into a dish in the refrigerator to cool. After your eggs have cooled you can remove the shell of the egg and either slice up to eat, or make deviled eggs. If you are making deviled eggs than remove the shells and slice egg lengthwise. Remove yolk and put into a bowl. Once all of the yolks are in the bowl add the mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. I use about 1 tsp mayo, 1/2 tsp mustard and a pinch of salt and pepper for 1 egg. If you are cooking a half dozen, then use 1 - 2 tbsp of mayo, 2 tsp of mustard 1/8 tsp of salt and pepper. Stir mixture together until mostly smooth and throughly combined. Spoon mixture into the empty egg whites and sprinkle with paprika. 

You can also add other ingredients to liven these up a bit, they are phenomenal with a little bit of diced roasted red pepper mixed in. Feel free to try out any flavors that you like! :) 

I HATE leftover food! I cannot stand to throw out food because it wasn't used in time or because no one ate the leftovers. I am constantly bringing in meals for people that I work with, because not only does it give me a great deal of satisfaction to give people good food, but because I am so happy that it's not going to waste!

If I end up with a couple of odds and ends from other meals in the refrigerator, I cannot help but think about what to do with them all day until I figure it out. I almost feel like it consumes my life until I make something deliciously tasty out of the leftover bits! 

This meal was definitely an accumulation of foods that either were leftover from another meal, or needed to be used before they went bad...or in the case of the pork chops, both! I need to cook the corn on the cob while it was still at its peak of freshness and deliciousness, and I had a couple of pork chops that were already beaten until thin, that were left over from the stuffed pork chops that were made over the weekend. I also noticed that I had a handful of tater tots left over in the freezer that could probably be used to round off this slapshot meal. It definitely didn't end up being the most elegant meal, but it was super delicious!

Ingredients:

Corn on the cob, husked

Left over Tater Tots

Pork chops, beaten until thin

Homemade bread crumbs (see previous post)

Left over sauce from the tiny bit in the bottom of the jar :)

1 egg

Splash of milk

Olive oil or vegetable oil for frying

Cook the Tater Tots according to the instructions on the bag, and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, place the ears of corn into the water and cook for 15 mins. While the corn and tots are cooking you can get started on the breaded pork chops. Crack an egg into a bowl and add a splash of milk (or water) and whisk until combined. The milk or water helps to loosen the egg so that you don't end up with scrambled eggs on your pork chop. Place bread crumbs on a plate. Take a pork chop and cover it with the egg mixture, allow the excess to drip off back into the bowl. Then, cover it with the bread crumbs (just like you would if you were breading chicken). After each pork chop has been breaded, heat a skillet with enough oil to coat the bottom. Over medium heat, gently add the pork chops to the pan, making sure not to crowd the pan. Because the chops are thin, they will only need a couple of minutes on each side. Remove pork and place on newspaper or paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

Remove Tots and Corn once they have finished cooking and arrange all items on a plate. I also took the little bit of left over red sauce from the fridge and heated it up in the microwave, to use as a dipping sauce. You could use any other sauces that you like, or completely omit it, depending on your tastes.