Oven Baked Pork Chop Garden Salad with Grilled Artichokes

Hi Friends!

It's Summer! Summer, Summer, Summer! It's my favorite time of year and I've been chowing down salads like it's my part-time job. Sometimes it's all I think eat besides, well, brunch.

Interestingly enough, when I was younger, I hated salads. Like, all salads. Looking back, I'm unsure if it was because they were always a boring ol' side salads or if it was just satisfaction from giving my poor Mom a hard time. Regardless getting out of my hatred was difficult and dressing is what changed my mind about salad. I started with a very specific type of ranch and I drowned my lettuce in it and then added toppings. Finding a middle ground was insanely difficult for me until I hit college, where I studied Art History. That's when I came to realized salads were about creativity, nutrition and (yes, truth) colors. Colors are my favorite part of salads.

If I haven't lost you yet, that's wonderful because there is a point to this story. Promise. This week, for me, is all about progression. Progression in yoga, in healing, in letting something or someone go. This week is about opening your heart and exploring other ways to make something your own. Inch by inch, Time with Time. It's good to stop and remember where you once started and to see how far along you've come. You will get there in your heart and mind and eventually see the colors. Even if it's just making a kick ass salad. Haha.

Today's salad is not drowned in dressing. It's a very light and sexy olive oil mix with dried herbs. As much as I love being a blogger and salad enthusiast, I did not grill these artichokes from scratch. Though, I imagine it's quite easy to do if you own a grill. I'll look into this for future posts. While we're being truthful, I got these grilled artichokes from my roommate's Mom! She knows how much I love olives, artichokes and sun dried tomatoes and was kind enough to send me a few she had on hand. So these are jarred grilled artichokes from her. Please note that I am not affiliated with this brand of jarring in anyway but I will say that they are damn good.

I'd love to know what you think of this recipe. Let me know if you make one similar!

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Print Recipe

Oven Baked Pork Chop Garden Salad with Grilled Artichokes

Herb seasoned oven baked pork chops with light and savory olive oil dressing. Topped with lovely tomatoes, carrots and grilled artichokes.

Recipe by: Allison Tripi

Ingredients: 

Oven Baked Pork:
- 3 Hand Sized Pork Chops
- 1 Tbs Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Oregano

Salad:
- 3 Cups Romaine Lettuce
- 1 Carrot (Diced)
- 1 Small Tomato (Diced) or 1/2 Medium Tomato
- 8 - 12 Grilled Artichokes (Used: CaraMia Jarred Artichokes)

Olive Oil Herb Dressing:
- 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Italian Seasoning (essentially basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, rosemary & sage)
- 1/4 tsp Pepper, Cracked

Instructions:

Pre heat oven to 375*.

Foil wrap your baking pan for easy clean up. Lay the 3 pork chops on the tray and light drizzle with olive oil. Lightly shake on the garlic powder, black pepper and oregano.

Allow to cook for 15 minutes and flip. Add a little more cracked pepper and place back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Make sure pork is perfectly white inside.

While cooling, chop romaine, carrot and tomato. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix olive oil, Italian seasoning and pepper. Set aside.

Cut pork chops into even strips.

Assemble salad by adding the romaine, carrot, tomato and grilled artichokes together. Drizzle olive oil mix. Serve and add the pork chop strips on top.

Enjoy!

Details:

Prep time: 10 mins  Cook time: 20 mins  Total time: 30 mins  Yield: 2 Servings