Grilled Pork Chops and Baby Bok Choy

This was my first time grilling either of these, but the meal turned out great. If you have another person to help you cook, have that person be in charge of the rice. If you don't want to use a grill, I'm sure you could cook the pork chops in a skillet and then you can follow these instructions for sauteed bok choy.

Ingredients
Pork chops
4 boneless pork loin chops
1/4 cup olive oil
3 T soy sauce
1 T steak seasoning
1 clove minced garlic

Baby Bok Choy
-6 heads of baby bok choy
-1.5 T sesame oil, divided
-3 T soy sauce
-3 T mirin (you could sub 2 T sugar and 1 T wine or water if you don't have mirin)
-1 clove minced garlic

Cashew Rice
-1 bag instant brown rice, cooked as directed (I used the 10 minute boil in bag kind)
-1 T butter
-4 T chopped cashews

Steps
1. Mix olive oil, soy sauce, steak seasoning, and garlic in a small bowl and pour into a one-gallon resealable plastic bag. Add the pork chops and set the bag in a baking dish. Marinate in the refrigerator for 3-8 hours (no more than 8). Flip the bag half-way through marinating.

2. Light your coals (I put enough down to get the temp up to 400).
3. Slice the bok choy heads in half vertically, from leaf to stem. Chop the leafy tops off (so they don't char on the grill). Chiffonade the leafy tops and set aside. Put the bok choy in water in a large bowl for about 10 minutes, to get any dirt off and also to help them steam on the grill. Pat dry. Drizzle with about 1 T sesame oil.

4. Put a pot of water on to boil for the rice.
5. Once coals are ready, put the pork directly over the coals and cover. Cook for about 5-6 minutes (more for thicker chops...mine were about 1/3 inch thick).
6. Flip your chops and put the bok choy on the grill, cut side down. Cover grill.

7. Let chops and bok choy cook another 5-7 minutes.
8. Take chops and bok choy off. Place chops in tented foil and let chops rest 5 minutes. Place bok choy in a serving dish.
9. Go back inside. Your rice should be done now. Put rice in small sauce pot on low; stir in the chopped bok choy leaves, butter, and cashews. Stir until melted.
10. Make bok choy dressing by mixing 3 T mirin, 3 T soy sauce, 1/2 T sesame oil, garlic. Pour bok choy dressing over bok choy.
11. Serve chops and bok choy over rice.

Vegan sweet potato burgers

Someone posted about making these on Facebook and they sounded so good I thought I'd give them a try. When I made them I used 2 sweet potatoes and 2 cans of white beans and added a bit more peanut butter and maple syrup...however, that made about 8 burgers so I reduced the recipe below, which I think will make 4-5 burgers. However, if you want a lot of left-overs you could make the amount I originally did. I froze my left-overs, but have yet to eat them so I can't say how they held up.

Ingredients
-1.5 sweet potatoes
-1 can of white beans
~1-4 to 1/2 C flour
-1.5 T tahini or peanut butter
-1 T maple syrup
-salt & pepper, to taste
~2 C panko
-buns
-2 T EVOO
-avocado (optional)

Steps

1. Cook sweet potatoes. I first poked holes in mine with a fork and then baked them in the oven at 375 for about 40 minutes (I turned them half-way through).2. Remove the skins from the sweet potato (being careful not to burn yourself from the steam).

3. Mash together 1 sweet potato, 1 can of white beans, 1/4 C flour, 2 T of tahini or peanut butter, 1 T maple syrup, and seasonings. Add more flour and/or sweet potato as needed to get a slightly firm consistency. Note: the mixture will be pretty goopy.

4. Form patties and coat with panko. Put the patties on foil/wax paper and let firm up in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
5. Add EVOO to a medium-hot pan and fry patties for about 4 minutes on each side or until golden brown and heated through. Top with avocado and serve with a toasted bun.