pork, sweet potato, broccoli

I always strive to have a protein, starch or grain, and veggie (and often times a fruit as well) in a dinner. 

protein:
I browned boneless pork chops in a nonstick pan.  If your nonstick pan is in good shape, you do not need any oil in the bottom of the pan because the meat won't stick too bad.  For most of my cooking I use Calphalon stainless steal cookware because I'm not sure how much I trust that the nonstick surface of a pan is not slowly dispersing into our food, but for browning meats, a non-stick pan is perfect.  The pork chops were about a 1/2" thick and took ~3-5 minutes on either side, or until they were no longer pink in the middle.  I sprinkled on some freshly ground pepper on each side (didn't add salt because I added a sauce later). You always want to let your meat rest on a plate covered in foil for ~8 minutes so that the juices can redistriubute throughout the meat.  However, I sometimes skip this step when in a hurry.

starch:
Sweet potato is the easiest starch you will ever make!  Wash the skin off, pat dry, make some cuts on the top of the potato, plop it on a plate, and microwave until fork tender.  This potato took 5 minutes.  (you can also oven roast them at 375 degrees for about an hour)

My hubby and I like to eat them plain, but a little butter, salt, and pepper is good too.  It took me only a few months to learn how to eat starch/veggies without salt.  They are so flavorful and rich on their own once you get your tastebuds unaccustomed to the massive amounts of salt added to most foods these days (especially at restaurants). 

veggie:
I made broccoli with garlic butter and cashews.  If you are tired of plain or cheese-topped broccoli, try this recipe!  You'll love it!  I got it from here:  http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/broccoli-with-garlic-butter-and-cashews/Detail.aspx.  However, I only made sauce for 2 small heads of broccoli.  I melted a little less than a tablespoon of butter in a pan, added 1 clove garlic (pressed), 2 teaspoons of soy sauce (low sodium kind), 1 teaspoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon white vinegar, and some cashews.  I did not add any salt to the water when boiling the broccoli because there is enough salt in the sauce.  However, when making broccoli plain, I usually add some salt to the water. 

and voila!  You have dinner in 15 minutes. (if doing things simultaneously)

Here I added a little homemade BBQ sauce on top of my pork chop (50:50 mix of ketchup and soy sauce).  I try to not eat condiments these days due to their high salt content, preservatives, and other unknown ingredients.  However. ketchup and soy sauce will probably remain in my fridge.

dessert:
If you please:)  I do! (most of the time, unfortunately)

These are dark chocolate walnut toffee bars.  Recipe is on the back of a Diamond walnut bag.  They are delicious!  If you have a sweet tooth, these are a healthier option than say oreos (yucky processed junk) or brownies because they have less sugar and more butter (getting a little more fat in my diet as opposed to sugar is OK with me because fats fill me up longer and give me less headaches) and have some healthy fats in the walnuts and antioxidants in the dark chocolate (milk chocolate has no nutritional value).  However, if you can live without desserts, by all means do because it does not add any nutrion to our diet.  I read on an M.D.'s (Joy Bauer) blog once that a person with a 2000 calorie/day diet should be getting ~32 grams of sugar per day.  Maybe that does not sound like a lot, but if you weighed that on a scale you would be disgusted!  Sugar from fruits, veggies, and milk do not count because those occur naturally and pair with key nutrients naturally.  I can of coke has ~45 grams of sugar.  There's your added sugar for the day.  Better not have anything else loaded with sugar!  That should be reason enough for all soda drinkers to stop!  I don't believe diet soda is much better...who knows what those fake sugars are doing to our bodies.  Anyway, that's my rant about sugar.  I try to stick to one treat per day (and it's hard!).