Valentine's Day is coming up!

While I do feel like Valentine's Day is a fairly insignificant holiday I will say I don't mind being treated special on February 14th! I don't feel like Valentine's Day is the only day to show loved ones they matter, it also doesn't hurt to have the day set aside and make a little extra effort, right?

Early on in my marriage (and mind you it's only been 7 years), I expected flowers and chocolates, a card and a dinner out on the town. I think our culture built that expectation up for me. As the years have gone by I put less and less importance on the predictable chocolates, flowers, dinners out and truly enjoy just feeling special!

This brings up a great point-LOVE LANGUAGES.

We all show love and receive love in different unique ways. It can be different for everyone, and so I think it's a fun and valid topic to bring up.

Real quickly, the 5 LOVE LANGUAGES are:

Words of Affirmation
Quality Time
Physical Touch
Acts of Service
Receiving Gifts

You can take your own quiz to find out your primary love language here

At our house, going out for dinner on Valentines Day isn’t very practical. Pretty busy night for babysitters. Not too excited about the wait times and hustle at a fancy restaurant. Also, not too excited about dropping lots of cash for a dinner where I’m paying for the experience and atmosphere versus the quality of the food.

Most restaurants aren’t going to be serving organically fed, non-GMO, pastured Pork Chops finished on acorns!

So this year we are having a special Valentines Dinner at HOME with this tasty Pork Chop Recipe!

It’s so delicious and simple!

You won’t have a gut ache afterward and you don’t have to compromise your clean eating!

If you do choose to hit the town on Feb 14th, you can cook these chops up easily on another day too!

No hard feelings if you LOVE to go out on Valentines Day, go for it!

Just the name makes them special for the month of February!

SEXY PORK CHOPS

Ingredients:

4 Nourished With Nature Acorn Finished Pork Chops
Redmond salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil, divided
3 Cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup white wine
½ cup chicken broth
zest of one lemon (Can substitute Lemon Essential Oil by Young Living)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped

Directions:

1. Pull the pork chops out of the freezer about 12 hours before you plan to cook and let thaw at room temperature. In a pinch, you can submerge them in hot water but NEVER microwave them.

2. Sprinkle pork chops with salt and pepper to taste, on both sides

3. Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium/high heat. Cook chops for 3-5 minutes each side until nicely browned and cooked through.

4. Transfer to serving platter and cover to keep warm

5. Add garlic to the fat left over from cooking the chops and cook stirring constantly until garlic is fragrant about 30 seconds.

6. Add wine and broth. Increase heat to high. Cook scraping the browned bits from the bottom until the liquid is reduced by two-thirds, about 5 minutes.

7. Remove the pan from heat, stir in the lemon zest or oil, lemon juice, and herbs. Test the sauce, add a little more salt and pepper if needed.

8. I put my sauce in a gravy boat and poured over the chops while everything was hot!

I served my sexy pork chops alongside steamed green beans and sweet potato fries but you could do mashed potatoes or wild rice too!

Stop by our farm store before Valentine’s Day to get your Pastured Pork Chops!

Make sure to serve this delightful dinner at home with a twist of your spouse’s preferred LOVE LANGUAGE!

Yours Naturally,

Julia

PS-Comment below and tell me what is your primary love language? Is it the same as your spouse’s?