Creamy Ranch Pork Chops & Potatoes

Comfort food at its finest! Smooth and pillowy mashed potatoes, creamy, flavorful gravy and a deliciously tender pork chop all in one bite. The best part is you really only need 4 ingredients for the pork chops!

I'm a little crazy. I had scrolled past a picture of something like this on pinterest. It had a picture of the pork over the potatoes and a picture of a ranch packet. So I assumed I knew what I was doing without actually opening the link. I went shopping and grabbed the things I figured it asked for, went home and pulled up the link just to make sure and I was a little off! The recipe was way more complex than I'd thought and I just had a few basic things to use.

So I used them anyway. And you know what? It's fanFREAKINtastic! Holy crap. My daughter who hates potatoes (she's learning...) still gobbled this up and kept telling me how yummy and flavorful it was. So I'm kinda like hm, I don't know that I want to try the more complex recipe when I can just make this and have my kids eat it all with fewer ingredients/time put into it.

What you will need:

• Pork chops (as many as you'd like. I think I used 8 and there was plenty of gravy for them all)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 3 T ranch mix
• 1-2 T kosher salt (I tasted the gravy before serving and added more salt in and pinch more of the ranch mix but you decide!)

Directions:

• Mix together the soups, ranch mix and salt
• Place pork chops inside a crock pot
• Pour the gravy mix on top of the pork chops
• Cook on low for about 5 hours

Braised Potatoes

I didn't realize braised potatoes was a thing that was kind of frustrating to get "just right" until I watched an episode about them on Americas Test Kitchen. Turns out the trick is to boil them with the butter, so when the water evaporates, the butter that's left will sizzle and brown the bottoms. I thought heck, might as well give it a try!

PERFECTION!

Who am I kidding, though. It's from America's Test Kitchen. As if they'd give me a recipe that wasn't tested a bajillion times with ensured quality. 

You must try these! They are extremely easy and actually cook up pretty fast. I especially like them in the summer time as opposed to roasted potatoes so I'm not turning on the oven. The bottoms of the potatoes can be a darker brown than this when they're done, but these were great for me! (There's also no chives in this picture so they don't look very pretty)

What you will need:

• 12" non stick skillet (I've used non stick, giant pot and everything in between and it's all worked out great)
• Baby red potatoes about 1-1/2" in size, halved
• 2 C water (or enough to fill the skillet up until just the tippy tops of the potatoes are peeking out)
• 3 T unsalted butter
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme (made them without as well. Still great!)
• 3/4 tsp. salt

Directions:

• Arrange potato halves with cut side down around in the non stick skillet
• Add water and salt
• Add butter
• Add garlic cloves whole
• Bring to simmer over medium-high heat
• Once it's simmering, reduce heat to medium and cover with a lid
• Let it simmer some more until it's just tender (about 15 minutes)
• Remove lid and remove thyme and garlic to set aside
• Keeping the lid off, allow the potatoes to continue simmering back at medium high heat, swirling pan occasionally until the water has evaporated and you can hear a "sizzle" sound from the butter started to work its magic (this will take about another 10 minutes)
• When garlic has cooled, mince into a paste and mix with 1 tsp lemon juice, 1/4 tsp pepper and 2 T chives (or you can use whatever seasonings you have around that you want to try out!)
• Check the bottoms of the potatoes and when they're a deep golden brown color they're done! Toss them around with the garlic/lemon paste or whatever seasonings you've chosen

Shepherd's Pie Empanada's

Quite a while back I wanted to make some of those little April Fool's Day "cupcakes" with meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I wanted it to taste good, though. I decided to incorporate a pepperoncini gravy into the whole thing and it was crazy good!

Fast forward to now when I have a thing of Puff Pastry sitting in the freezer and I needed something to do with it. I figured why not try out those cupcakes in empanada form? Honestly, there's nothing too outside the box with this recipe aside from the gravy, which I expanded on after doing a roast with pepperoncini's in the crock pot. It just adds that *thing.*

What you will need:

• 1 box Puff Pastry
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 6 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• heavy cream
• 2 T butter
• 2 packets McCormick's brown gravy mix
• 2 T pepperoncini juice
• 1 tsp salt 
• egg wash

Directions:

• Thaw your puff pastry according to package directions 
•  Preheat oven to 400*
• Peel and cube your potatoes and boil them until you can stab one with a fork and it just slides right off when you pull it out of the water
• Brown your meat with some onion
• Mash potatoes with heavy cream and butter
• Prepare gravy mix with pepperoncini juice and salt
• Pour half the gravy mix into the ground beef pan and mix together
• Use a pizza cutter to slice puff pastry into even squares
• Brush the edges of each square with egg wash
• Fill with the mashed potatoes and ground beef
• Add an extra drizzle of gravy over the filling
• Bring one corner over to the other corner and press down
• Use the end of a fork to seal empanada
• Cook for 15 minutes

Roasted Vegetables

So I tried out a few different ways to roast vegetables since I'm pretty picky about the whole thing :). I eventually came up with this and to me it is PERFECT! I'm just now getting around to posting about it because every time I make it I end up eating all of it before I can snap a pic.

But this time, I was making a huge amount so I could have it for the week along with some chicken for lunches (chicken at the bottom of the post).

I have been completely forgetting to each lunch lately (perks of having 3 kids and one of them just 4 months old right?) so I figured it was time to do some make-ahead stuff! This is my favorite way for the veggies!

What you will need:

• Red potatoes, quartered
• Asparagus
• Broccoli, chopped
• Green beans
• Or whatever vegetables you like

Directions:

•  Preheat oven to 400*
• Drizzle baking sheet with olive oil
• Lay the potatoes on the baking sheet and roll around in the oil
• Add whatever seasonings you like to the potatoes
• Bake for 10 minutes
• Add the rest of the vegetables onto the baking sheet
• Season again and add a little more oil for the extra vegetables
• Bake for another 25 minutes

Here's my chicken! I just get a package of the chicken tenderloins (they come with about 20) and lay them out on a baking sheet. Add seasonings (I did different seasonings for each row) and bake at 375* for 25 minutes.

Mashed Potatoes

This is actually my husbands recipe! It is so important to have a great way to make your mashed potatoes. Everyone is different in how they like theirs, and the second we tasted these, we knew this was it. This was our favorite. Everyone that has had them has raved about them! I'm not sure why.....it's so simple. I don't know why this tiny combination makes them so much better. But it does! I get a little annoyed by mashed potato recipes that get a little over the top, so it's nice to have a simple way that makes a great difference!

What you will need:

• 6 large potatoes, peeled, rinsed and cubed (if you want to get particular, half Russet potatoes and half Yukon Gold is perfection)
• Heavy Cream
• 2 T butter

 Directions:

• Boil your cubed potatoes until fork tender (about 20-30 minutes depending on how large your cubes are)
• Drain the potatoes and dump them into a large bowl
• Mashed the potatoes up a bit
• Pour in some heavy cream a little at a time until it reaches the consistency you want
• Add in the butter and mash 
• Add salt & pepper to taste

Crushed Taters

Two things to say about this recipe.

1. My husband kind of just thinks potatoes are "eh." That doesn't make sense to me. I'm an Idaho girl. He's an Idaho boy. He must love potatoes as much as I do. He doesn't. If I didn't love him so much I might pick legit fights about it when I'm feeling grumpy but lucky for him, I love him a lot. So when I'm grumpy I pick fights about other stupid things instead. Win/win, right?

Where was I? He thinks potatoes are "eh." Except for these. He says these are his favorite and actually gets excited when I make them.

2. I found the recipe from Pioneer Woman, however she calls them Crash Hot Potatoes (I can't help but call them crushed taters) and makes them according to how normal potato lovers would make them. I, however, am dealing with Mr. Fancy Pants that has a crazy refined palate and knew right away I'd be in need of a potato a little more jazzed up with something other than just salt and peppa. So our recipe's are the same, but quite different. I hope at least a little of this makes any sense.

What you will need:

• Red potatoes (however many you think you want. I usually eat two and my kids eat one. I think my husband eats two or three, depending)
• 1/2 stick butter
• 4 cloves garlic
• Olive oil
• Seasonings of choice (I have just been using some mixed blends in a thing I got at some gourmet kitchen store. I tend to go for the ones with some thyme, rosemary, garlic-ee blends)
• Salt & pepper (I like the kosher salt that's big and crunchy. Mmm)

Directions:

• Boil your potatoes until they are fork tender (about 20-25 minutes)
• Drizzle a baking sheet with olive oil
• When potatoes are done, place them on the baking sheet 
• Preheat oven to 450*
• Use a potato masher and press down to crush the potatoes (don't go all the way down when you press. Just a little smoosh is fine)
• Slowly lift the masher back up and push any potato still on the masher back down onto the potato
• Melt your butter in a small saucepan
• Grate the 4 cloves garlic into it
• Spoon a little garlic butter over each potato
• Season your potatoes
• Drizzle the tops of the potatoes with a little olive oil
• Bake for 20-25 minutes