Pinterest Dreams: Hawaiian Pork Chops and Tropical Rice

Monday, June 9, 2014

Hawaiian Pork Chops and Tropical Rice

Hilton Head was awesome! I was even able to accomplish 3 out of 5 of my to dos! The only things we didn't get to do were go to Savannah and the Skullcreek restaurant. However, we did eat at The Old Oyster Factory, The Smokehouse, and a Italian Steakhouse which I can't remember the name of! Definitley recommend Hilton Head if you haven't been there yet!

Lately I have been eating so much chicken and beef. I tend to get in these little routines and forget about all the other options out there. The other day I was at the grocery store deciding on what we were going to have for dinner and I saw boneless pork chops. BINGO! So of course that sent me right to Pinterest to come up with some ideas for dinner.

I found a recipe via Pinterest that originated cristinecooks.blogspot.com for a pineapple honey marinade. The only ingredient I had to buy was some fresh pineapple. Below is my version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

4 boneless pork chops
Fresh pineapple (I bought the sliced version at the store to use the fresh pineapple juice for the marinade)
1/3 cup honey or agave
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper (I used enough to lightly dust the pork chops)

Directions:

Prepare marinade. Whisk pineapple juice, honey, dijon mustard and salt in a small bowl.
In a freezer bag, put pork chops in bag and pepper the pork chops. Pour marinade into bag and make sure that all pork chops are well coated.
Refrigerate 45 minutes to an hour.
Start prepping Tropical Rice (see below)
Heat grill, and grill chops for 4-6 minutes on each side.
Add pineapple splices to grill in the last 5 minutes and make sure they cook on each side.

Of course we needed a side dish for our pork chops and I was trying to find something a little different that incorporated some type of fruit. I found a recipe via Pinterest from Hannaford.com for Tropical Rice. I decided that this was a great compliment to the pork chops. Not to mention with Uncle Ben's 90 second rice this side dish takes minutes to prepare!

Ingredients:

2 bags of Uncle Ben's Brown Rice (cooked)
1 large mango diced
1 medium red pepper diced
1/2 vidalia onion diced
1/2 cup dried coconut shavings
Juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
Salt and pepper

Directions:

In a bowl, mix all ingredients and serve! Could that be any easier?

I also served a Asian slaw salad and Hawaiian rolls along with the dinner!

This is such a simple meal to serve! Great for guests! Next time I make this I am definitely going to have a tropical theme and serve the rice in hollowed out pineapples! And maybe some Mai Tai's! Here are some inspirational ideas for my next dinner party using this menu!