Anya Bell
BAHons, Prekure - Health Coach, Nutritional Science
Ingredients
- 4x pork chops (or to suit your family – I used 3 big ones for 4 people)
- Your standard serving of spaghetti or pasta (I used 500g pasta spirals)
- Approx. 3x 500g ready-made, tomato-based pasta sauce or chopped tomatoes
- 2 or 3 large portobello mushrooms, sliced
- 2 large handfuls of chopped leafy greens (spinach/kale/silverbeet)
- Seasoning (to taste)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1-2 cups breadcrumbs (homemade from stale bread, or pre-packaged)
- 1 cup grated parmesan or other hard cheese
- Mixed herbs (fresh or dried)
- Zest and juice of 1-2 lemon
To Serve
- Fresh salad or veggie crudite
Instructions
1. Season pork chops
Season pork chops with salt and pepper, mixed herb, garlic and a little oil.
2. Heat oil over medium heat in a large pan
Place pork chops in the pan and brown on both sides. Once both sides have good colour, remove from heat. Pork chops should be just cooked through – they will cook more during the bake stage later on.
3. Cook the pasta or spaghetti
Once al dente, drain the pasta.
4. Toss pasta with the pasta sauce and place in a large baking dish
Add the pasta sauce, sliced mushrooms and chopped leafy greens.
5. Lay over pork chops
Lay over pork chops and sprinkle over lemon juice.
6. Combine breadcrumbs
Combine breadcrumbs with grated cheese, mixed herbs, seasoning and lemon zest.
7. Sprinkle breadcrumb topping
Sprinkle breadcrumbs with a little oil and place the dish in a medium hot oven to cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the topping has turned golden and crunchy.
8. Ready to Serve
Serve with some fresh garden salad.
Recipe Notes
- Involve your younger children with zesting and juicing the lemon and mixing the mushrooms and greens through the cooked pasta. Older children or adolescents can be in charge of preparing the salad ingredients.
- **Family Style service: make all the components of the meal available to everyone to serve themselves in any order or quantity they prefer. Serving meals family style is a proven method for children to learn to eat a wider diet through positive mealtime experiences and autonomy.
- This is a great one pot dinner. It does need a little more prep but this can be done early in the day and add a little extra time in the oven to reheat through completely. Swap the veggies for anything you may have available – eggplant and courgette work well too.
- The leftover pasta veggie mix will make a great lunch the following day!
A bit more about the master chef behind this recipe…
Anya has been feeding hungry learners for many years and her focus is on developing healthy, informed, responsible and positive relationships between children and their food and eating.
Anya has studied Nutrition, with a focus on children and adolescents, and through her work as a cook and nutrition advisor in the early learning space, she has been able to practice and teach positive eating relationships (University of Idaho and Ellyn Satter Institute) through a lens of Reggio Emilia and Te Whariki.
With a family of five, Anya focuses on humble, nourishing and sustainable family meals that are satisfying, tasty and don’t break the budget. Just as our great-grandparents once did.
Anya is currently developing menus and food education for Libelle Group. When she is not in the kitchen, browsing food ideas or reading cookbooks, Anya loves wandering in nature with her dog, Charlie.
You can find Anya at Anya Bell.
