Marinade and the Benefits of a Good Pantry

I don't know about yall but most of the time when I look at a recipe if it has more than 5 ingredients my brain automatically shuts down. The recipe is either more in depth than I want or most likely I wont have the ingredients off hand that I need. Well... enter a nicely stocked pantry. I have been slowly building our pantry ingredients over the past couple months, besides you know: salt, pepper, EVOO, garlic salt. The marinade recipe that I found this weekend didn't have any exotic ingredients or anything but it does have things like parsley flakes {makes me appreciate asking for a stocked spice rack for Christmas} which we never use.

We had some small pork chops that needed to be cooked so I started looking up recipes on my All Recipes App. I found an easy recipe for a marinade and *gasp* I had all 10 ingredients!

Whatcha need:

3/4 cup of vegetable oil {I used EVOO}

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup vinegar {I used Apple Cider Vinegar}

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

1 garlic clove, minced {I used 2}

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a large Ziploc bag or a glass bowl; add pork and turn to coat. Seal bag or cover the container. Refrigerate overnight. {I refrigerated for 4 hours. The porkchops came out delicious but Im sure they would have been even tastier the longer they marinated.} Drain and discard marinade. Cook pork how you would like. {We grilled them on our George Foreman Indoor/Outdoor Grill.}

Easy peasy! Enjoy!!

<3, Liz



Make An {Almost} Raw Dressing

There is some lifestyle changing, weight loss thangs going on over here at Pretty Riot. This week I put on my frilly pink apron and made my very first salad dressing following this recipe for Denise's Vinaigrette. My guy and I are trying to incorporate more raw food into our everyday diet. That includes smoothies in the morning, raw veggies for snacks, and big green salads for lunch or dinner. Enter my {almost} raw dressing.  

Whatcha need:



3/4 c. Apple Cider Vinegar (or lemon juice or both) {I just used ACV}
1/4 - 1/2 c. olive oil or flax oil (either or both) {cold pressed OO to keep it raw}
3-6 cloves garlic (to taste)
2-3 Tbl tahini and or 1-2 Tbl mustard powder {I just used to tahini}
1/4 c. Nama Shoyu {could not find locally so I used Tamari}
1/4 c. Honey {raw honey to keep it raw, I used Agave}

Put all of the above in a blender and blend.

A Few Things**
Next time I might split between the vinegar and lemon juice to cut back a little on the assertiveness.
I feel tahini is an acquired taste so until you know the flavor I would just use 2 tablespoons. I will next time.

This dressing is strong on flavors, but that is exactly what I wanted to go along with all the veggies. Try it out and ENJOY!