Quick Pork Chops with Roasted Balsamic Veggies and Gorgonzola

This recipe is loosely based off of an AMAZING meal I made from a Cooking Light recipe once, but it had way too many ingredients and took way too long. Plus, it had potatoes, which I love but try to stay away from in most of my cooking as a main ingredient due to those carby carb carbs. Since this one is a slight bit fancier, it’s about 40 minutes end to end, but don’t forget that the actual hands on part is nominal.

By removing steps, plus replacing/eliminating ingredients with something precut, what once was something I could only make for special occasions or on the weekend now is something I can toss together easily on a weeknight. Hello giant win!

Ingredients:

4 boneless tenderloin pork chops
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
1lb cubed butternut squash (I use half a package of the pre-chopped from Costco)
3 T balsamic vinegar
3 springs fresh thyme or 2 tsp dried
1 red onion, peeled and cut into wedges
1 8oz package of sliced white or cremini mushrooms
2 T chopped fresh parsley or 3tsp dried
1/2 C gorgonzola crumbles

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425.
• Place butternut squash, onion and mushrooms on a sheet pan, then drizzle with 2-3T of olive oil and the 3T of balsamic vinegar. Add parsley and thyme, then mix all together to evenly coat the veggies.
• Place sheet pan in oven and cook for 25 minutes or until butternut squash is starting to become slightly tender.
• While veggies cook, heat a large skillet over high heat, sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of pork. Add 2T oil to the pan and then add pork to the pan, browning by cooking each side for approx. 3 minutes. Pork will not be cooked through.
• When the butternut squash has become slightly tender, give the veggies a good stir and arrange pork chops over them. Then place back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes or until the pork is cooked all the way through.
• Remove from oven and serve pork over veggies, with a sprinkle of gorgonzola on top.

Notes:

If you want to cut the time and effort down even further, don’t brown the pork chops first, just add them into the oven 15 minutes prior to the veggies being done instead of 10. As I said above, I love using the pre chopped butternut squash here from Costco. You can also use whole mushrooms halved- it’s honestly up to you. Don’t forget that blue cheese is a great replacement for gorgonzola as it has the same flavoring, it’s just not quite as strong!